Naval War College (U.S.)

Oral history of Richard and Chester Lay, grandsons of Chester Nimitz regarding the Nimitz family.

Sheffield, Richard B., 1923-. Family background in Newport; NROTC, Yale University; Destroyer School, Norfolk, Va.; USS Callaghan; Invasion of Saipan, Tinian, Palaus, the Philippines, and Okinawa; Comments on life aboard ship, morale, recreation, duties, general quarters, reaction to battle, ship's captains, typhoon; Attack on the USS Princeton; Sinking of the Callaghan; Rescue and return to the United States; USS Glennon (840); Harvard Law School; Newport community activities.

Typescript of interview with Captain Alexander regarding his naval career, 1941-1970, including youth, education, ship and shore assignments.

Fazzio discusses his naval service as a coxswain at D-Day and the invasion of Sothern France. He comments on training at Sampson Naval Base, NY, Littler Creek, VA, and Fort Pierce, FL, and at various ports in England in Higgins Boats. Describes the landings in France. Fazzio was born in Woonsocket, RI in 1925 and enlisted in the Navy in 1943 at the age of 17. He trained in LCVP and saw action at D-Day where he was wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, he returned to Woonsocket where he joined the DAV and the VFW.

Trenn, Rita Callanan, 1923-. Reminiscences of a WWII WAVE; Includes her growing up years in RI., work at Brown and Sharp; Reaction to Pearl Harbor attack, enlisted in WAVES in 1943; Attended USNTS (WR). Hunter College; Attended Storekeepers School in Bloomington, Ind.; Assigned to Cornell Uni­ versity in Disbursing Office for Naval Officers and Trainees; Reaction of Navy enlisted men to WAVES; D-Day news; Assigned to Hawaii in Naval Base Disbursing Office; V:J Day celebrations; Met Captains McAfee and Hancock; WAVES a positive experience; Impact of WAVES service on her life; Marriage and stayed in R.I.; Worked at RI. Hospital; Member Ocean State WAVES.

Booth discusses his training as a fighter pilot at Troy, NY, Glenview, IL, Pensacola, FL, Melbourne, FL, Wildwood, NJ, and Oceana, VA, during WWII; he continued in the Naval Reserve for ten years after the war and flew jets. He comments on patriotism during the war and his work after the war. Part of the Veterans Oral History Project.

Dennis joined the Lighthouse Service in 1940 and the entered the US Coast Guard. Served in the North Atlantic where patrolled and engaged in rescue missions; convoyed destroyers to Newfoundland, transported troops to England and D-Day operations and Operation Dragoon. Pacific Theatre battles include Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Transported troops to the US and post war weather patrol in the North Atlantic. Resigned from the Coast Guard in 1946. Postwar career in the Civil Service at Melville, Quonset Point Naval Air Station, NUWC and the Naval Reserve.

Domin, Robert E., CAPT, USN, 1913-1982. A brief oral history dictated just before Captain Domin's death in 1982 describes only one tour of duty as Aide to Admiral Ernest j. King, Washington, D.C., 1944-1945.

Coontz, Robert J., CAPT, USN, 1926. Typescript of the thirty-five year naval career of Coontz who enlisted in 1944; Topics include his grandfather, ADM R. E. Coontz, second CNO; His father's death, youth in Bristol, Va.; Gradu­ ation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1949; Served in USS Missouri as a spotter; Flying spotter missions in the Korean War; Operation Officer in USS Charles S. Sperry, 1952; Met Prince Philip and Pope Pius XII; Co, PCE 870 in New Orleans; PG School, 1955; Electronics Instructor, USNA: EXO, USS Sellstrom, 1958-1960; Trained as a programmer at Naval Electronics Lab to introduce Navy Tactical Data Systems in the Fleet; CIC Officer, USS Chicago, 1963-1965; EXO, USS Halsey off Vietnam, 1966-1968; Head, Plans and Policy, MISD, 1973-1977;JCS, 1977-1979; Retired in 1979; Includes thoughts on his naval career.

Lepper discusses his youth in Westerly, RI, education at the University of Rhode Island, teaching in Warwick, RI and his service in WWII on LCTs in the Mediterranean at the invasions of Sicily and Salerno and his assignments as ferry commander during the invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. His last assignments were at Fire Fighting School, Philadelphia, PA and as an NROTC instructor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He comments on the significance of his naval career.