WWII: In Their Own Words

- Season 2

(2016)

Alice Miller, 95, of Old Fort tells her experience serving in the Navy Nurse Corps during World War II on the USS Solace. Miller made seven trips on the Navy hospital ship from Okinawa to Guam on a ship transported over 400 patients. "These were just kids," Miller says to describe her patients aged mostly 18-20 years old. Miller treated patients in the burn unit. Men were injured after kamikaze planes dove into ships that exploded, tossing them into the sea and burning oil.

Richard Willer, 91, of Lindsey tells his experience serving in the U.S. Marine Corps 6th Division during World War II. Willer fired a 105 howitzer, his gun section the number one of a battery of four guns trained to move together.

Carl Cooley, 91, of Fremont served in the U.S. Army 26th Infantry Division during World War II. He got a deferment to finish high school, and less than a week after receiving his diploma, he was in the army. During the day, Cooley hid in foxholes from constant enemy fire. He served as a rifleman and carried an M1 gun, following General George Patton's 4th Armored Division.