History

http://www.virtualusmcmuseum.com/Index.asp

The National Museum of the Marine Corps has a Virtual Experience! This rich, interactive virtual environment will serve as the gateway for Marines and visitors from all around the world to see the museum regardless of their location. Explore the U.S. Marine Corps' proud heritage from your desktop...marvel at the Marine aircraft suspended throughout the Leatherneck Gallery; experience bootcamp as a new recruit; watch historic footage of Marines landing on Iwo Jima; and much, much more. 

• full screen, high-definition 360° panoramic tours of all the galleries
• oral history recordings
• walking tour narratives developed for the museum
• video interviews and personal recollections by museum docents
• zoomable HD photos of special exhibits
• custom video presentations created specifically for the museum
• interactive 3-D models of aircraft and other artifacts

Veteran History Project

By: SMT Video

Local Marine and World War II veteran Roy Noel participates in an interview for the Veterans History Project, which collects the oral histories of vets from the conflict. Noel was an ambulance driver and "island hopper...

Veterans tell their war stories for national project

By Janene Scully/Associate Editor janscully@santamariatimes.com | Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 1:30 am

For more than 90 minutes on a recent morning, World War II veteran Roy Noel recounted his harrowing role as “an island hopper” while serving with the Marines Corps in the Pacific.

Matter of factly, the Santa Maria man recalled looking for a buddy amid a pile of casualties, only to find a supposedly dead man with a pulse and getting him medical help. Or having his ambulance sink to the ocean floor while troops were trying to land on a Pacific island.

All this amid the chaos of war.

“You’re scared for yourself,” Noel said. “You’re scared for everybody around you. All you hear is the zing zing, you know, the bullets. You don’t know if they’re that close to you or what.”

While Noel talked, a video camera captured the 86-year-old man’s reflections of serving with the 1st Marine Division more than six decades ago, including his role in the bloody Battle of Peleliu (a small island now known as Palau).

Noel is among 110 people who have told their tales to Joanne Cargill, an Orcutt woman who has captured similar stories through the national Veterans History Project.

“This is your personal story,” Cargill told Noel, who was decked out in a Marine Corps League jacket and cap. “It’s not the 1st Marine Division story — that’s been written about with all kinds of books. It’s your personal experiences while you were in the service. That’s what we want.”

With just a camera and her belief that every veteran has a story to tell, she began her involvement in 2003.

With World War II veterans dying at a high rate, Congress enacted the Veterans History Project in 2000, seeking to capture their personal experiences.

So far the project has collected 68,000 interviews across the nation. What started as a World War II focus now includes all veterans and anyone who has a job supporting the war.

Cargill notes there’s nothing magical about her mission. It’s something anyone — family member or a student — could do with audio or video recording no longer than 90 minutes.

Her small project expanded, linking up with the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum in San Luis Obispo. She has trained others to interview, and they now have a permanent room for interviews at the museum on Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo.

If the interview is in Santa Maria, Cargill sets up shop in the Santa Maria Radisson Hotel — a wall in an empty bar provided the backdrop for Noel’s recording.

“I didn’t know this was out there,” said Ardis Noel, Roy’s wife of 40 years.

There’s no cost to the veteran to participate.

“It’s a beautiful program. We get history down before folks pass on,” said Harry Hoover, president of the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum.

Veterans also receive one copy of the video interview and can purchase additional copies.

“It’s a really nice keepsake for  the family,” Hoover added.

The completed recordings are submitted to the Library of Congress, where some are made available on the Web.

“I think it’s so important to get these kinds of stories, firsthand stories, that just give a more human aspect to war, what that one person went through,” Cargill said. “I think it will be interesting for generations to come.”

She drew on her own experience — her husband Dewayne returned from the Vietnam War noticeably different.

“I could see once he told his story, he felt better, ” she said.

If he felt better, she figured after learning of the oral history project, other veterans might too.

“I think it’s rather cathartic for them,” Cargill said.

Sometimes she has to talk them into opening up about what veterans believe is a routine tale but she knows is a precious piece of history seen through the eyes of one man or woman

“They downplay their involvement,” she said. “The whole thing is getting the veterans to talk.”

She hopes to find a permanent place to do the interviews in Santa Maria so she can do more.

Now more comfortable about the process, she has refined her questions since the early interviews. She also has increased knowledge, no longer needing to look up details of World War II battles.

Although Cargill enters interviews with lists of questions, she’s ready to veer if the stories take a different course or gently prod to get personal tales.

“It’s only to keep the conversation going,” she said. “Sometimes, the veteran pretty much has it in his head what he wants to say.”

Along with historical details, she seeks personal feelings and reflections.

“The more important thing is what were you thinking when that happened? What where you feeling when that happened?”

Among the dozens of hours she has recorded, many stories remain memorable for Cargill. One helicopter pilot recounted rescuing groups of Marines under fire.

“It almost brings me to tears because that was such an emotional story,” she said.

During his interview, Roy Noel revealed he was in college when he enlisted in the military in 1942 with three buddies, and there was no doubt what branch he would pick.

“The Marines were the best,” Noel said. “At least I consider that correct. They were the one of the best services there were. And the toughest.”

After being sent to Australia and then two other islands, Noel landed in Peleliu, where Marines battled for months to capture the island from the Japanese.

It was there he recalled looking for a missing friend, and spotting someone considered a casualty actually had a weak pulse. He summoned help and man was evacuated the next morning.

“I don’t know who it was, his name or anything,” Noel said.

He recalled the extremely memorable mud on the first two islands he and his fellow Marines landed on in the Pacific.

Following Peleliu, they went to their fourth island, Okinawa — “a more scary place,” he recalled. The Americans struggled to tell the difference between the enemy and native residents.

“You were scared. You were scared most of the time so you just kept going. It didn’t matter what happened.”

He recalled developing film in his tent from the clandestine camera he used to capture images of his experience, and getting developing fluid from the medical staff.

“I took pictures of anything I could,” Noel said.

“That’s wonderful you could carry a camera,” Cargill told him.

“I wasn’t suppose to,” he said, adding he learned to stash his film in a vest he always wore.

His pictures are now in an album with a metal cover made from a downed Japanese aircraft.

Noel never doubted he would return from war, although he had buddies who believed their fates wouldn’t be as certain.

“That never even passed my mind. I knew I was going to come back,” Noel said. “The ones that said they weren’t coming back didn’t. I don’t know if they took one chance to many or what, but they didn’t come back. I really felt sorry for them.”

Posted in Military on Sunday, May 30, 2010 1:30 am |

2009 Toys for Tots

We did it! On Sunday every registered child received a new toy! The Coastal Valleys Detachment 1340 is very proud of this achievement.

On Sunday, December 20 the Santa Maria National Guard Armory was a magnificent bustling center of activity. From start to finish over 4,000 children in 1,770 needy families were provided new toys for Christmas.

Volunteers from as far away as Oxnard handing out bags of toys to all the registered families. Santa (Gus Lopez) was a big hit with all the children. Sitting next to Santa was Roy Noel giving out smiles and candy canes. There were four young military men in dress uniforms (two Marines and Two National Guard) who were passing out stocking stuffers to our tots.

I would like to thank some key Detachment members for their outstanding work on the 2009 Toys for Tots campaign in Santa Maria.

First there is Dan Cadena, Toys for Tots liaison for Detachment 1340 whodeserves our appreciation for the long hours of hard work he gave to this project. Dan coordinated the collection and distribution of each toy at every stage of the process, leading a team of dozens of volunteers. As things started to wind down on Sunday afternoon, it was Dan that had the broom in hand cleaning the Armory floor. Thank you all for your good work that helped make this dream come true for some very special Tots.

The good ladies from the Community Action Commission, Head Start program Maggie Espinoza and Maria Douvia were also very important volunteers. They brought with them a whole staff of dedicated volunteers that worked very hard sorting toys and helping with the distribution of toys to registered families. Almost all the volunteers with Santa hats on in the pictures are volunteers from the Head Start office.

We also have recognize the hard work and cooperation of the men at the National Guard Armory. Staff Sgt. Amador Garcia was our main contact at the Armory and in the fasion of true military NCO's he was a very valuable resource during the campaign. Recently promoted Sergeant First Class Don DenNoyer was also in the mix of volunteers and helped with donations of a number of bicycles.

There were lots of good people doing good work to help make Christmas better for the community. Such long hours of work wears one out, but when it is the good work of Toys for Tots that wears you out, it feels real good.