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Ben Burkhart & Cody Good Research Paper Warren Edward Harper

Our Veteran is Warren Edward Harper. He was born in Newmanstown, Pennsylvania in 1928. He went into the service in 1945 with the United States Marine Corps, he was in the first marine division, and his highest rank was sargent. He was in infantry, and sometimes fought in battle. The war he was in was the China Civil War, which was post World War II. During his service, he acquired many awards and medals, including the Navy Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct medal, China Service, which he got for serving in China. He also got the Navy occupation metal for serving in the Navy, also the Asiatic Pacific campaign, and the WWII Victory medal. He fought in Teinstsin, Pejing (Beijing), Tanku, Taku, Linsi, Tangchan, Patio Beach, and Tsingtao which are all in China. Our veteran had a decent amount of awards, but most of them were pretty common. Overall Mr. Harper was an accomplished soldier with all the awards he got and he survived through the Chinese Civil War. All of his medals were earned fighting in the China Civil War. He wasn’t enlisted in China’s Army though. The United Stated Marines came to help China become Nationalistic again, after being ruled under the Japanese in a communist form of government. The Nationalists were against the Communists and they were fighting to get their way of government. The Marines went to help the Nationalistic party led by Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi: Mandarin Chinese translation of his name) who was trying to overrule the Communist government lead by Ho Chi Minh and [|Mao Zedong] . The Japanese eventually surrendered to the KMT troops, which were the nationalist party, and the US because the United States along with China troops were too strong for Japan to fight back. It was an unconditional surrender. The first marine division, which Mr.Harper was in, had won the battle (Laurence). All the time that Mr. Harper was in the war over in China, he was following orders from Chinese General, Chiang Kai-Shek, who was the leader of the people who supported Nationalist government for China. Among those people were Americans like Mr. Harper. When Chiang Kai-Shek went to war with Mao Zedong and the communists, known as the Chinese Civil War, America supported Kai-Shek and the nationalists, since America didn’t like communist countries. America sent supplies like new modern weapons and men, along with Mr.Harper, to Kai-Shek. Kai-Shek did not believe in democracy nor did he Communism. Kai-Shek believed that society should be ruled by a leader with the support of the military. However Mao [|Zedong]  was a communist and had the people of China on his side (The Civil War in China 1945-1949). The Chinese civil war was fought between nationalist (Chiang Kai-Shek) and communists (Mao [|Zedong] ). Kai-Shek had won some battles in Manchuria and various other places, but he did not win many battles. Kai-Shek had lost the Chinese civil war. Kai-Shek lost a lot of land in North China. As the war worsened, Kai-Shek kept losing, in return, America kept reinforcing the Kai-shek and his troops. The nationalist government suffered inflation so, Kai-Shek tried emergency economic services, but they had failed (Chiang Kai-Shek diaries). Mao [|Zedong]  won also because his army was a lot stronger than Kai-Shek’s army. [|Zedong] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> also won because he had the people on his side, since he was known as “the defender of the people,” After WWII. Kai-Shek also had a corrupt government and since he had America’s support, he did not get much support from the people since they had not liked America. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Zedong] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> had won and forced Kai-Shek to flee to Taiwan (China after WWII). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our veteran, Mr. Harper was one of many American men to be in the Chinese Civil War. He fought in some battles, which he had won and lost. He was one of many men to be deployed to China to fight against a communist government which was ruled by Mao Zedong. He, his men (KMT Troops and American Troops), and Chiang Kai-Shek were trying to support the well being of everyone by supporting a non-communist government. Even though they had lost and came out unsuccessful, Mr. Harper fought for not one, but two countries, and did his job as told. For doing his job he got many awards, one of these awards, and one of the rarest is the presidential awards. The award that he got that was special and somewhat rare is his Navy Presidential Unit Citation Award. For one, this was only given out to the presidents of the Units. Also the Marine had to show a superior level of heroism, but what was even harder was the fact that one had to show heroism under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions to set it apart from and above other units undergoing the same mission against an armed enemy (Army Conduct Medal). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 40px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Warren Harper Questions
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hello, Cody Good and Ben Burkhart are here to interview Mr. Warren Harper in Myerstown, PA. Mr. Harper was born on the 9th of January in the year 1928. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps in 1945. The highest rank Mr. Harper achieved was S/SGT. He was in the 1st Marine Division until 1949. This interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. **


 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was your childhood like?
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did your parents do for jobs?
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can you tell us about your school experience?
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you have any siblings? Were any of them in the military?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was your occupation before you were in the military ?
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why did you enlist in the military?
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where was your basic training? Please describe it.
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where was your specialized training? Please describe that.
 * 9) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you get for meals?
 * 10) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After training where did you serve? Describe.
 * 11) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who were you fighting against?
 * 12) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you issued a gun? If so what kind?
 * 13) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> How did you get there? Describe.
 * 14) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were you allowed to bring to war?
 * 15) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Where did you live while in combat?
 * 16) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you sleep on?
 * 17) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you do to support General Kai-Shek?
 * 18) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you were in the military did you communicate with friends and family back home? If so how and who did you communicate with?
 * 19) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you in any battles? If so please describe them, if not what did you do?
 * 20) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (If he was in battles) Did you see many casualties? How did you feel about the casualties and all the destruction that was done?
 * 21) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How many men did you fight with? Can you describe some of them?
 * 22) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who led your group of men? Can you describe him?
 * 23) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were you fighting for? Did you agree with what you were fighting for? Did your friends?
 * 24) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you form any friendships when you were at war? If you did do you still keep in contact?
 * 25) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you were not on duty what would you do?
 * 26) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you upset that the communists won the civil war?
 * 27) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Did you have any hobbies to do in your free time? Did you go anywhere for R and R leave?
 * 28) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was the most interesting part or scene that you remembered from the war?
 * 29) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where were you when you found out the war is over?
 * 30) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did you return home after the war?
 * 31) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you accepted by the community and your family when you returned?
 * 32) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was it hard to get back to your normal lifestyle after you returned?
 * 33) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did wartime experiences affect your life?
 * 34) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do regret going into the service at all?
 * 35) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you learn any life lessons from when you were in the service?
 * 36) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are you for or against war?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Transcript__


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Introduction__ **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Hello, Cody Good and Ben Burkhart are here to interview Mr. Warren Harper in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Mr. Harper was born on the 9th of January in the year of 1928. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps in 1945. The highest rank Mr. Harper achieved was S/SGT. He was in the first Marine Div until 1949. This interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Questions and Answers__ **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What was your childhood like?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: My childhood... like everybody elses I guess. No, I was in a good family, I had two sisters, and my father was unfortunately an involid, he couldn't work from the age 29 until he passed away, but we made it through them years like everyone at that time. And I can’t complain, it’s not like today of course, but I’m very happy that I lived in that time I would say.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What did your parents do for jobs?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, my mother worked at a factory a couple doors aways from where we lived. They called it the shirt factory. They made women’s blouses, but like I say my father was a knitter, I think at <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Berkshir <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">e Knitting Mills, but at the age of 29 he got rheumatory arthritis and he was on a wheelchair the rest of his life, so that’s what he did.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Can you tell us about your school experiences?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: My school experiences, well... like everybody's. You go into school, you walked there, and in the sixth grade I started playing the trombone, which the school offered me. I never owned any and in 7th grade I was a dummy and I flunked. The next year I was real good and didn't have to take any tests at all. But as time went on... the war started and in 10th grade I was working at Adams Town Hat Factory during the summer between 9th and 10th grade and at the end of 10th grade, I worked there every Saturday. But then I got the idea of going into service and my parents, of course I was 17 and they had to sign, which they didn't want the do. Then they dropped the first atomic bomb and then they agreed to sign, so I enlisted, but I didn't get sworn in until the 7th of September, which was a month after I enlisted. I did graduate with a GED while I was over in China. There was not many Newmanstown people who graduated in China. Anyway...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Did you have any sibling and were any of them in the military?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: I have two siblings, but they were both sisters. They weren’t in the service at all. I did have one uncle who was in the service. He was in Petaluma and all of those early places. He went there about 1942 already. It was my fathers brother.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What was your occupation before you were in the military?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well I’d say school because at the end of 10th grade, I'd kissed it goodbye.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Why did you enlist in the military?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well I guess like a lot of young dummies. They wanted to get in there for some reason, but I don't know, the way things were going it just got in my mind and that’s the way it happened. Well that’s why. Just felt like you almost had to.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Where was your basic training, could you describe it?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Basic training, thats in Parris Island, SC, which theres only two training camps in the Marine Corps. East of the Mississippi River was Parris Island and the other one is out in California. So I ended up down in Parris Island NC... SC. You can't describe it. It would take too long. It was rough, rough, rough. You payed attention, you didn't talk back, you listened to what they said otherwise they would hang you by a rope or something, no seriously. You don't step out of line and you don't do anything that you think is funny ‘cause its not going to pay, it will just jump all over you

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Where was your specialized training and can you describe that?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well specialized training, that’s basically after you finished boot camp and you decide whether you go to tanks or whatever and since I played the trombone in school, I ended up in the band, so I went and tried out, they came over and I passed that, so that was in November and then I went home for leave over Christmas in ‘45 and about a week after I got back, I went to California, got on the President Adams troop ship and we sailed across the Pacific Ocean to China. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What did you get for meals when you were in training?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, we ate pretty good. You had to eat what you took. They watched you, but we ate various things like you normally would. There was no problem with the food. It was good, better than when you get overseas.That was all junk.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: After training, where did you serve?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, like I say, I went to... a couple months later I was over in China already. So I stayed there for a little over 25 months. Then I came back to Camp Lejeune, NC for another year and a half, so basically that was it. Boot camp, China, and Camp Lejeune.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Who were you fighting against? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Who were we fighting against, well you know the Japanese invaded China around 1939 and prior to that the Chinese communists and Nationalists were fighting each other and then when the Japanese attacked they went together and fought the Japs. When the war was over in ‘45, they started fighting each other again, so then we went over and helped them with Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist, we backed them. Basically that was it. Then Chiang Kai-Shek moved to Fort Morsa in Sept. 49 and then the Americans pulled out. It was basically the Chinese Nationalists, I mean, I'm sorry, the communists that we had squabbles with. Now they didn't have any heavy artillery, thank goodness, but it just takes a little bullet, but anyway, you know they hurt.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Were you issued a gun and if you were, what kind?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Oh yeah, we went in boot camp, we were on the rifle range for one month. We started out pulling the trigger of a .22 rifle that had no bullets in. You aimed at targets and just got used to steady, aiming and pulling the trigger, then you advanced into different rifles, which we were issued later, then we shot carbines, BARs, rifle grenades, hand grenades, and things like that, but we were issued M1 rifles, which was, held a clip of eight and later on when I made corporal, I got a carabin and a .45 pistol.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: How did you get over to China and could you describe it?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Yes, like I said, earlier we got on the USS President Adams at California and went across. We stopped at the Philippines and dropped a few guys off. Then we went to China. However, on the way over we slowed down, very slow, and I thought what the heck is going on? i looked for planes, submarines. Here we were making a big circle. There was a mine floating around, so they had to shoot, sink the mines and the next day there was another mine. We sank three mines on the way over and when we got there, to China, we went up the High River, but you could not go up with the ship. The river wasn’t deep enough, so we went over the side with a rope, some ladders into what they called a LCU and went up the river and... we got off at Teinstin.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: How long did it take to get over there?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Nineteen days it took us to get across. Some was not very smooth and you could tell because a lot of guys standing at the railing for some reason...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What personal items were you allowed to bring to China?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, I don't know, I’ll tell you that everything we had was issued. It was all military stuff. I don't know that I had anything that was personal, you know, like your water. I didn't have a camera. I bought it from a chinese businessman.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What did you live in when you were in China?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: First I went over with the first marine airway at a place called the French arsenal and there was a building there were we lived in, but when we got there, they had over 100,000 Japanese prisoners, but that included their families. A lot of them had families there because they were in China so long, and we had them on work detail and they worked their rear ends off. They didn’t give us any trouble, but I wasn’t in the air wing too long and they transferred us to the first division. First we went into Tientsin into a Japanese girl’s school. That’s where we lived. And then later we transferred to a British grammar school. And then of course, we went here and there and everywhere. All over the place where ever they needed us. Sometimes you lived in shacks or we lived in tents...That’s when we moved to Sintow. We’ll talk about that.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What did you sleep on while you were camping in China?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, when we were in buildings, we slept on cots. Once in awhile depending if you were there for a long time. Like in the British grammar school they had double tiered bunks-steel. But other than that, majority of the time, it was cots except when, of course, you were out in tents or whatever, you slept in sleeping bags if you had them, depending on the weather.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What did you do to support General Chiang Kai-Shek? What did your group of men do?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, like I said, we were there, more or less, as a reserve to them and of course we would give them supplies and be there if they needed it. Once in awhile we would have to go get them out of a jam and stuff like that. It was nothing like a second World War type thing thank God. But there were times that weren’t too nice.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: When you were in the military, did you communicate with friends and family back home and how did you communicate with them if you did?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Yes. We communicated by letter to family and friends. That was the only way. You didn’t have telephones like you do today. But that’s what you did. You couldn’t call home. It was just letters.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Were you in any battles? If you weren’t, what did you do?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Like I say, we called them skirmishes. They weren’t, I guess, little battles but after that, I mean you’d go back to where you belonged and cleaned your riffles and stuff like that, or write a letter or whatever. And then we would practice, as a band, we would practice, and you’d have to play at mealtime for the guys, or we’d have concerts at times and so we were always doing something. Cleaning up too.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: You said you were in little battles. Can you describe those?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, like I say, they were more or less firefights. We’d be either on trains or convoyed by truck going to other towns because we’d Linseed, Tangchang, Paydeho Beach, Tanku, Taiku, a lot of places.Not always, but sometimes along the way, They would be hiding up there and they would start firing at the convoys and stuff. So sometimes they’d block the road and you’d have to stop. Then you jumped off the trucks and crawled under.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Did you see any casualties, and how did you feel about the casualties and all the destruction that was done?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, seeing casualties is not good. You don't like to see that, as far as destruction, like I say there was no heavy shelling or anything, but there was... you’d get into buildings and they’d light it up and they’d have mortars and none of it’s good, none of it, but could have been a lot worse.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: How many men were you fighting with and can you describe some of them?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: I’d say it varies somewhat, 75 to 100 at that time, and we were all real close, real close. We were always like one. We relied on each other. You could depend on each other, and a lot of ‘em even today, I still talk to some on the phone, some of us gotten together since we’re home a few times, but there’s only about five of us left of that group, but we’re like brothers. We are all one.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Who was your leader in the battles, and could you describe him?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: There’s a major sergeant. He was a career man, trying to think, I can’t think of his name right now, I can picture him, but he was very tough, you better listen to him, well that’s what it’s all about, you gotta do what they tell you, that’s how you learn. He was real liked, and you could depend on him, but if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, he left you know it, and that was the thing to do, that’s how you learn.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What were you fighting for and did you agree what you were fighting for? Did your friends?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well like I say we were back to general Chiang Kai-Shek as a nationalist. He was the nationalist leader. Did we approve of what we were doing? Well at the time, you did, for some reason, I don’t know I’m sure some didn’t, but well that was the way it was supposed to be, and nobody liked to be there necessarily, but that’s what our job was.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Did you form any friendships when you were at war and do you still keep in contact with them?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Oh yes, like I said before, you’re all one, and I still keep in contact, in fact just last week I talked with a guy down in Louisiana again, and I send the guy in Texas a letter this week. Definitely keep in contact with some. It’s a must.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: When you were not on duty what would you do, like games and stuff?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well like I said before, you’re always cleaning your rifles cause they would inspect them and course you’d relax and talk and maybe play cards or something like that once and a while you’d get out on liberty some evenings, but time went slow.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What was liberty?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: What was liberty.. well that’s when you were allowed to go out and say your work day is over for instance then you go out and go into town walk around do this do that whatever and lets you enjoy yourself a little differently.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Were you upset that the communist won?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well yes in a way, cause you spend all that time over there, and then well Chiang Kai-Shek, he pulled out, and the communists took over so there was, well we got there at ‘45 and the Japanese signed a peace treaty and Teintsin and September the 2nd, which I have pictures of, and anyway you didn’t expect that to happen but it happened so you gotta get out too.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ffff00; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What were the people in China like when you were fighting over there?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well the civilians, they were happy to see us because the Japanese just annihilated them. In Shanghai they went into hospitals and killed all the women and children and everybody that was in the hospital, the Japanese. And I talked to the doctor in the Reading hospital about a year or more ago when I was in, and he came in to check me out and I figured he looked like Chinese, and when he was finished with me I sat down, and I said, “Could I ask you a question?” and he said, “yes.” I said, “Are you Chinese?” He said yes, he said, “why do you ask?” and I’d said, “Well i have been over there,” he said, “when were you over?” I said, “tender ‘46 to March ‘48,” and he pulled up a chair and he sat down for half an hour,and then he told me that, his Shanghai, well his parents, he wasn’t born yet, and his grandparents were killed. His parents got out. They came to the United States eventually, and his father said to him, “You’re now in the best country in the world, don’t goof yourself up.” And he stayed and we talked, talked, and when he left he says, “Oh, I’m glad you said something.” he says, “Thanks a lot.” He shook my hand and he says, “Thanks a lot” and I say, “ <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sheysheyni. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” He says, “ <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sheysheyni? Sheysheyni. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” That’s thank you in Chinese I said to him. But he said they were ruthless and you’d see the people in the towns Tientsin, Peking that they were just tripled, people don’t realize, they’re different today on Japanese I’m sure, but at that time, they’d rather stick you with a bayonet than look at ya.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: At one point you said something about you held prisoners, what were they like?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Oh, yeah the Japanese prisoners, yeah when we got there, like I say, we had them on work details, but they worked very very hard, never gave us any trouble that I knew of, that I saw, not for me. But the way they got them all out of them, well when we got into Teintsin, there was a big parade ground with a wall around, all of these places have walls around, but this parade ground they would take the Japanese, so many every day to that parade ground, they’d put them on six by eight trucks, army trucks, take them down to the, to the shore, put them on troop ships, and take them back to Japan, everyday they did that till they got rid of all of them, but, in fact, I don’t understand it, they’d be on work detail in the evening, you’d see them driving down the street in a truck, in their truck, and they would be a bunch of guys in the back and they’d pass ya and they’d all salute ya, even if you were a private. You’re just walking along the road.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What were the conditions like when you were fighting over there?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: The conditions, well, the Chinese and you’ll never know, they had nothing. That was the poorest outfit that I have ever saw, country, they just had nothing. People lived in a country we’d get out going here and there and they lived in straw huts, they didn’t have windows. They had cloth in the windows, and the little children are running around, well walking around with baskets on their back picking up any little kind of thing I would burn, they just had nothing! There was no automobiles. I saw a couple automobiles, which was all military, but they had, they got around with bicycles, rickshaws and so fourth. And they were always, when you’d go by they always stuck their hand out and said, “ <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">comashaw comashaw <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” you know, which is, they wanted donations or something, so you’d give them a nickel, dime, whatever and but you tried giving them a penny, and they wouldn’t take the penny, like I don’t know, it didn’t mean nothing or they couldn’t conceive what it meant. Even five of them, but they, those poor people had nothing, and I don’t just mean the children, nobody did, they were always, well in fact when we were back at the barracks and we would go into a meal with our metal trays, and they’d come out if you had anything left, there’s a garbage can there you‘d scrape the balance in the can, no, nothing went in the can, it’s Chinese all around, with something to put food in, they’d “Ooh ooh oh” they took it all the time, they took it.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Did you go anywhere for R&R leave?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Nope. There was nothing like that, nope.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: What was your favorite memory, or an interesting part that you remembered from war?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: My favorite part, I don’t know if I have a favorite part. My buddies that’s my favorite part, and, oh I meant mention at one point, this isn’t a favorite, this is not good, the field artillery, weapons company. They used to go out in the field and have practice quite a bit with 37 mm guns, now that’s a little cannon, not big, 3 inch, and when everything would explode, the Chinese would run out there and pick up the metal, from the shells you know, from the, that exploded, like I say nothing went to waste, but these five or six little children they picked up a dud 37 mm and it went off and killed them all. I have pictures there. They brought the kids back to the barracks laid them out back, all blown apart, anyway they, and the parents didn’t want nothing to do with them. They don’t, cause they can’t afford to bury them, so I know that they said that the government had to pay them each something, I don’t know, probably did, but that was not a nice scene, poor kids.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Where were you when you found out the war was over?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: That happened right after I enlisted so I was still at home you could say, at that point, so it wasn’t long, well, five days later I was sworn in. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: How did you return home after the war?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well fortunately I didn’t have to take a ship, I flew home from China, all the way to California. Well, we stopped at <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Okinawa. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We stopped there and ate at an army mess hall. We went to Guam and we went to <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Kajillion islands, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Johnson landed all these, refueled, and then we went to <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ahoya, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and I was there two days, at which time I thought oh boy I get liberty and see a little bit, but no, can’t go out, you’re on mp duty tonight, so I didn’t get to see anything, so two days later I flew back to La, California, and I was out at treasure island. That’s an island off the bay between Oakland and Frisco. In fact you can see Alkatraz from it, so we were there thirty days, we had to be, I don’t know why, but we did get liberty out there and then I flew home to New York, took a bus from New York home to Reading, started to walk home, and some guy from Newmanstown the “hookster” that use to come around at that time Woody Wise. He’s from Sinking Springs. He picked me up.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: On your return home were you accepted by the community?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Oh yeah, yeah, it was no difference, yeah.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Was it hard to get back to normal lifestyle after you returned?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: I don’t think so. I don’t recall that it was, I mean you’re glad to be home and you kind of just fit right in again, yep, it was a good feeling.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: How did wartime experiences affect your life?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well I don’t know that it really affected me. Let’s see, the only thing I can say is I didn’t learn anything really that I’d dwell on it, and like I say it wasn’t severe, like World War II or something, but I did learn and I still do it, I don’t just look straight, I’m always looking all over, Maryalis says when I’m driving, I say “Oh look at that deer over there.” Shes says, “Where, where?” I said, “You gotta move your head.” She don’t, she just, anyway, no you learned to watch, you learned to look, I learned that in boot camp, I still do it, which I don’t mind, you don’t miss much that way.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: Do you regret going into the service at all?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: No, not really, at times you think, what did I do? Especially when you got to boot camp, as soon as you got off the train, I figured, Wow, I made a mistake, boy did they bull you out right away, like I didn’t do nothing, but anyway, no I think it, I think it was good for me I really do. You learn a lot. <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You were always in one <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Did you learn any life lessons from when you were in service?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well, life lessons, well, behave, no try to listen, try to be sensible and try to think things out a little bit, and like I say see what’s going on, if I go into restaurants or anything, I don’t know why, I just keep, I look around, see if I see something that’s funny or, strange, or I don’t know it’s just...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burkhart: After you’ve been out of the service awhile, are you still for war or are you against war?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Oh well I would say definitely against it, I don’t see even today things are going on over there, but what gets me is the fact that people over there who live there are blowin up their own, killing their own people with these bombs, and it’s, go anywhere and they kill women, children, everybody and then they complain when a civilian gets killed, by us that’s the dumbest thing cause you go through something, looking for something, and wow there it is, what is it goody or baddy, they make a move or whatever, you don’t have time to think, you have second, you got to make up your mind, yes or no, but and yet they do it over there and they complain, don’t make sense to me, but no I don’t think anybody is for war, it’ll never stop.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Well that’s the end of our interview, thank you

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well thank you, I hope it was satisfactory.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We added an additional two questions: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: How much were you paid in the war?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well when (you) went in as a private you got $ 50 a month, and I don’t know how long we were over in China and they increased the private’s income from fifty to seventy-five dollars a month, a corporal got eighty, a buck sergeant got a hundred, a staff sergeant got a hundred and ten or fifteen, fifteen I think, and last year, I stopped in when I was collecting toys for tots, down at the Reading mall and they have recruiting officers there for each outfit, and I went into the marines and cause I wanted to get something to put on the car, and there was three guys in there plus a civilian, and they were talking to this fella and they were talking about money, so when they stopped I said, “How much does a PFC get paid?” he said, “fifteen hundred a month.” I said, “What? How much does a staff sergeant get?” which is what I was and they got a hundred fifteen plus five percent, cause I did over three years at that time, and he said, “fifty-five hundred dollars a month,” I said, “How much? Fifty-five hundred dollars a month?” I said, “Can I sign up?” He wouldn’t take me. Yeah fifty-five hundred a month, I couldn’t believe that, but when I, whenever you get discharged they always try to have you sign over naturally, so when my time was there to leave I was going in front of a colonel and he tries to sign you over, and I said no I had met my dear wife at that time, but anyway, he said well how about the active reserve? You go once a month to camp and you get paid, I mean one weekend a month, I said no I don’t think so, he said well how about the inactive reserve he said you don’t have to do anything but if you ever get called back you’ll come back as a staff sergeant, so I thought well that might be a good thing, so I signed up for four years, that was in September, in June the Korean war started, and I got a letter from Philly, I had thirty days to reply, I had a choice, of going into the field artillery or automatic weapons which is machine guns and stuff and prior to thirty days I just left to go and got another letter that said disregard the previous letter as of now we are not taking anybody over buck sergeant, so I happened to have one more stripe and that kept me out, I was never called and all the guys I went to school with were all drafted and everything else and I was walking around free. So I was lucky there. Well I’ll just say this I belong to the China Marine Association. You have to serve in China to belong and any needy guys that were cormen hooked up with marines, they could also join, now every three months, I think, we get a newsletter, and at one point they had a map that says where you were, where you might have been, and what that was. We were in China, but the first division was supposed to invade Japan from south of Tokyo and the third and fifth division were coming in from the west, now you know there was a big stink and they thought that was gonna happen. The atomic bomb saved us, if that wouldn’t have happened I wouldn’t be here definitely not cause that would have been a slaughter all the women and children and everybody in Japan were going to fight, with stones, sticks, knives, everybody was going to fight for the emperor. And they had everything planned, when we came in on boats, they had guys with bombs on their back to swim under the boats and blow them up, and their planes were gonna dive on the ships ,and they had three times as much equipment than we thought even airplanes, I have information on it but I wouldn’t be sitting here, no way, a lot of people wouldn’t, that would have been the worst thing that ever happened, yeah.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Awhile ago you were in the band can you describe what you did in the band?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Well once we got organized we would go to, every morning when we would raise the colors, the American flag, we would be there and we would play as they raised the flags, every morning.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What time was that?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: eight o’clock, in the morning, and then a lot of times they had what they called a guard mounds, meaning that the guard of the day, and the officer of the day would bring his guards out on the grave field, and we would have to walk past playing, and the officer and the officer would stand there and watch while his men followed the band, and we’d do that half a dozen times. This guy wanted to do it that guy wanted to do it, and we’d go to parades even over in China, D.C., or Richmond, all over the place when we were back in the states, we’d play at football games and we were always tooting the horn.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: What instrument did you play?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: The trombone,yeah, that was a long time ago.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Do you have any medals that you still have

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Medals? I have a quater... I’ll show you the pictures too. (long pause) This is the Japanese girl school, no i'm sorry, it’s the British grammar school. Thats were we moved to after the Japanese girls school. This is outside the building... thats me. Here we got out of condition yellow so we set up. Condition yellow means that, uh oh we got word for a possible attack so they set everything up.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Alright. Thats the peace treaty, right?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Yeah, I thinks thats about right. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good: Thats where they signed the peace treaty of... <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">General Rockingdale

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper: Second of September with the Japanese. These are just small, They for, this jacket is for the Marine Corp. League I belong to. Now the Jacket that I got discharged with had the ribbons on, which I gave that to a guy that collects. There is only 6 here but I there were 7 ribbons. The presidential unit citation award which we got. They don’t make a ribbon, no a medal for that. The yellow on is the China ribbon, this here is for getting the japs out of there, and this is for serving over in Asia and the blue one is for, uh, being with the United States. The Red one is a victory medal and this other one is for good conduct. Theres nothing of valor or anything, just... <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(back to pictures) Thats the market and the other loading ships. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cody Good and Ben Burkhart

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 32px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Warren Harper <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 32px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Biographical Narative <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr. Warren Harper was born on January 9, 1928. He was raised by his mom and dad. His dad couldn't work because he was an invalid and his mom worked at the shirt factory. He had two sisters. In school, he failed school his seventh grade year. He also only made it to the end of tenth grade and didn't get to graduate. After he gave up on school, he decided he wanted to go into the military. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps in 1945, which was when World War two was near its end. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He received his basic training at Parris Island South Carolina, and there he learned how to operate pistols and rifles. Then he moved on to specialized training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he pursued his career with his trombone and joined the Military Band. He also earned his rank, which was S/SGT. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After he finished his training and boot camp, he was ready to go into war. He got on to the President Adams troop ship and traveled over the Pacific Ocean for 19 days, till he got to China to fight in the Chinese civil war. While in China, Mr. Harper also got his GED. Mr. Harper and the rest of the American soldiers were along side with the Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-Shek. It was not a very dangerous war because the Chinese didn’t have heavy artillery. While he was over there, he stayed in tents and slept on cots. He was also issued a Carbine and a .45 Pistol. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When he was in China all the Chinese people were happy to see the American soldiers. Even the prisoners he held gave him no problems. They were mostly happy because the Japanese soldiers annihilated them all. The Chinese people were very poor. They had nothing. They would always ask Mr. Harper for money. They would take anything but pennies. The Chinese people would always take any leftovers of anything, food or shells of bullets. One time they were taking shooting practice with a 37 mm gun, which is a little cannon, and when it would go off the Chinese people would go and pick up the metal from the shells, and one time five or six children picked up a dud and it exploded and killed them all, and Mr. Harper witnessed it. This is his most memorable moment from war, even though he hated what had happened. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Also when he was in China, he was always in contact with friends and family.He was always sending letters home and recieving them to try to stay connected to his friends and family. He also made a lot of friends when he was at war. He had a lot of free time because the battles were just little skirmishes and in between those battles he got to go to the shooting range, clean his rifle, or write a letter. Since he was in the band, they also played their instruments in their free time and practiced for the mealtime concerts. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Even though America was a stronger force than the communists who was fighting against them, the communists still won. Chiang Kai-Shek signed a peace treaty to end the war or to surrender, which made Mr.Harper mad because the time seemed to be wasted since their leader backed out of the war. After Kai-Shek signed the peace treaty, he started to head home. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When heading home he didn’t have to go by ship, which he thought was great. He flew from China to California with some stops in between. They stopped at Okinawa and the Kajillions islands to eat and to refuel. They then stopped at Ahoya and he thought he would finally get some liberty, but he didn’t as he had to be on M.P. duty. After Ahoya they went to Treasure Island which is in between Frisco and Oakland. They all had to be there for 30 days. After the 30 days, he flew to New York, then took a bus to Reading and he then started to walk home. Then a man named Woody Wise picked him up and took him home. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When he was home, he was accepted by the community. When he was in the service, he learned to look everywhere at the same time. That was the main thing he picked up from war. He also learned to behave, and think things out before doing them. He never regretted going into the service one bit, but now he is against war and doesn’t like it. He received many medals for being in war such as the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">N <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">avy Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct medal, China Service, Navy occupation medal, Asiatic Pacific campaign, and the WWII Victory medal. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr. Harper has been a big part in helping this country. We would also like to thank you for your service in the military and also for participating in our Veterans History Project.