SEARCH RESULTS

Charles Emerson

---

Omaha beach was piled high with supplies of all kind when Charles Emerson waded ashore on the fifth day of the invasion. He was part of the headquarters unit of the 70th Fighter Group, which began operating right away on temporary steel runways just inland. They moved to the outskirts of Paris, then to Belgium, where he saw Buzz Bombs droning overhead. (5:20)

---

During the Battle of the Bulge, there were German spies dressed in American MP uniforms directing Allied units the wrong way on the roads. Charles Emerson reveals how they could be spotted. After the German surrender, he was waiting in Marseille for a ship to the Philippines to join the Japan invasion force. His morale was low and he was looking for some good news and he got it. (2:42)

Charles Fallis

---

Charles Fallis was in the ninth grade when the war started, but he became part of the effort when he entered the Navy in 1944. Assigned to the beach party on a troop transport, he was surprised when he had to learn to do what soldiers do every day. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (4:20)

---

He was seasick the first two weeks, but it went away and he was never bothered by it again. Charles Fallis was on the USS Grimes, a troop transport that ferried troops to Iwo Jima, and then picked up the wounded for evacuation. When a severely wounded Marine died, he witnessed a burial at sea, something he will never forget. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (5:17)

---

While anchored off Iwo Jima, a typhoon pushed the USS Grimes near the shore, near enough to Mount Suribachi that Charles Fallis had to take cover. After dropping wounded troops off in Hawaii, the ship went back to San Francisco, where he had to take cover from an angry hotel manager. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (3:28)

---

The Japanese knew that Okinawa was the last step on the Allied move toward the mainland, so they went all out with suicide attacks. Charles Fallis remembers the kamikaze alerts when he was anchored there. His ship was part of the task force that readied to invade Japan, and then after the surrender, part of the occupation. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (6:11)

---

Some of the men on the USS Grimes went ashore at Nagasaki, after they delivered occupation troops there. Charles Fallis was on duty, so he missed out on that. One thing he did not miss out on was getting reacquainted with the girls back home once he got there. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (3:30)

Charles Felner

---

Charles Felner recalls a time one of his fellow soldiers was struck by friendly artillery fire. (2:07)

---

While on a mission building bridges along the Rhine River, Charles Felner remembers watching Winston Churchill's famous crossing of the river into Germany in 1945. (9:27)

Charles Fitts

---

Charles Fitts always wanted a military life. He was afraid he would miss the war but in 1943 he graduated high school and was drafted. When his basic training was almost finished, he was informed he would be going to college in the Army Specialized Training Program. After five months at Texas A&M, the Army decided all those college boys were needed in the infantry. (6:07)