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Leonard Smith

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When he got to postwar Tokyo, the old hands told him he had it made. It was an office job for General MacArthur. They were set up in a building with all amenities and Leonard Smith thought that, for an eighteen year old, he was doing pretty well. All he had to do was follow the General's simple rules. When he found out what he could do with his cigarettes, he quit smoking. (8:42)

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He had a cushy assignment in an office building, but Leonard Smith took some R&R that he didn't really need and headed into the mountains of Japan, where he visited a resort which required some explaining to his wife years later. When it was time to go, they tried to recruit him for a civilian contractor. No dice. (5:19)

Les Blair

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Les Blair recalls the various sights, sounds, and events during Pearl Harbor while serving on the gun crew aboard the USS Pennsylvania. (2:51)

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After repairing the USS Pennsylvania at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco, Blair and the crew went to Kiska, Alaska where the Japanese had set up camp. Afterward, they set off to the South Pacific in which they encountered kamikaze pilots and participated in every major battle. (2:16)

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While working on the gun crew on the USS Pennsylvania, Blair was fortunate to have many technological upgrades to the guns before going back into battle. (:43)

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Blair recalls how he met his wife after accompanying a shipmate to a few bars in downtown Los Angeles. (1:09)

Les Carter

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Growing up in a military family, Les Carter considered going to West Point to be his duty. His first assignment took him to Austria as part of the Cold War deterrent. (2:10)

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Les Carter was among the first military advisors to Vietnam, assigned to Pleiku in the fifties to help the Vietnamese develop a curriculum for their military academy. (3:50)

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When Les Carter arrived in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, his battalion’s District was very unstable. By the time he left, nearly all enemies had been killed or driven off. That was the assessment of a North Vietnamese commander. (5:29)

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Although Les Carter’s Airborne soldiers were paratroopers, they never used parachutes in Vietnam, relying on helicopters to deploy and fight. As in modern conflicts, booby traps were the main source of casualties. (7:01)