1 50 1 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/092b880557fe9ec2060a3e1b140b4bb2.pdf 93c92ff7a2e4972d895e697a35ebdeff PDF Text Text Transcript of Oral History Interview with Clyde Badger October 07, 2012 Asheville, NC Ryan Blackmon: This is Ryan Blackmon. Clyde Badger: And I’m Clyde Badger. Blackmon: And if you don’t mind… can you state your… highest rank you achieved while you were in the Army? Badger: (Does not respond unable to hear) Blackmon: Can you state your highest rank you achieved while you were in the Army? Badger: I’m still not understanding…what you’re saying. Excuse me. I’m sorry. Blackmon: That’s fine... Do you remember your highest rank that you achieved in the Army? Badger: Oh…Highest rank…that I had while I was in the Army…I was Staff Sergeant. Blackmon: Ok. Badger: And I was in… the Combat Engineer… Company and we…essentially worked…we did…we built bridges and…and roads and repaired them you know… and… I… we did this in Hawaii before we…of course…we had combat in Hawaii. But we went from there to…Guadalcanal. And…just…hit sort of a very rough island with undergrowth…under all the…palm trees…and…so we would sort of clean the undergrowth off and… make sure that there…the roads were safe for a big truck. Dual wheels you know. So that…it’d be safe for us to…to start building roads…and…could bring…a lot of heavy equipment in off the ships. Of course right away the… it took a while before the…the land was ours you know. We’d landed…Japanese were…still shooting at us. (Laughs). Blackmon: (Laughs) And if…if you don’t mind, can you tell me a little bit about how you came to join the Army? Badger: Well…really…I had…had… started Oklahoma State University and I ran out of money. (Laughs). So… I joined the Army. The Army recruiter…was hanging around…campus and… he said you ought to go with us…Ft. Bliss Texas. I said heavens no. (Laughs). It was…Ft. Bliss was hot as…almost as hot as you could get in the United States. And…he said well…we got a place in Hawaii. I said I’m gone…sign me up and…and I… was signed up for a Combat Engineer outfit. And that’s what we �did. We built roads and…and bridges and it was an interesting work…and it was…an interesting place. Blackmon: Now can you tell me some about what your training was like? Your initial basic training or job training that you did? Badger: …well… now really I didn’t have any special training. Like I said we built roads and bridges and that’s manual labor. (Laughs). Really…really…you very much labor. But…they…folks would take us out on work details and I got to know what it was to handle a…a shovel and shovel dirt and material and then we did some construction work and… we repaired roads and bridges and that was interesting work so…that was my main job. And this was in…I was in Hawaii…before the Japanese dropped the bomb. Afterwards we knew that we had…some real work to do. We went into combat. And then we were going to have to build bridges that would get truck and men…truck loads of men from one place to the other. And…and their equipment and materials, their guns. That was my job. Blackmon: Ok Badger: And I was a sergeant in a…in a combat engineer outfit. We called ourselves a Combat Engineer ‘cause we did road work, or whatever work the Army wanted us to do but, we also carried a gun and would use ‘em. Blackmon: Ok Badger: And was taught to use ‘em. Blackmon: Now can you tell me about...that morning at Pearl Harbor while you were there? Badger: Well...it’s sort of disappointing. (Laughs). Sort of disappointing. Blackmon: That’s Ok. Badger: I had been in the army…for two years and was ready to come back home. December the first I was scheduled to come back to the United States and of course…the seventh they tore us up. So…our…now your question…I lost your question. Blackmon: That’s ok. I was just asking you…what was it like that morning? The morning of the attack. Badger: That…That morning was…we had to get all of our equipment that we used to…to…build bridges and do repair work…we had to get it ready and then move it out. Move away from the...we…we had long…usually sort of like…lets see here down where they have all the trucks under shelter, over we had all of our…our trucks and jeeps and pick ups….Log bearing, we had to get this, all of this stuff ready to…to do the Army’s orders whatever they asked us to do. This was in Hawaii and…we…started preparing immediately to go as a division. I was in the 25th �Division. And so we went as a division down to the South Pacific and went to Boganville and Guadalcanal and some of the…the other, rough places down there. Blackmon: Sir, can you also tell me about some of your experiences on Guadalcanal? Badger: …Well it was…it wasn’t…it wasn’t…I’m trying to see, I think I had a…Almost all of our time on there was…we started out landing and getting our equipment in there, and then finding out where we needed a road where the…the Army needed a road. Where we needed to get from…from a beach to a, a location on the island and build some…some roads. We had some road equip…bulldozers and what have you to build the…repair the roads and build roads. Blackmon: Now was there any special job that was given to your unit specifically? Badger: …Nothing…nothing…that would have any roses around it. (Laughs). Yeah…we…we were…mainly…they…they…had…we didn’t...didn’t finish all the jobs we got. (Laughs). We…we had…as I say…when…when we got on the island, then we had to be sure that all of our equipment, all the Army’s equipment, could move to where…we could do…do whatever they wanted us to do. Blackmon: Yes sir. Can you tell me anything about the…what the conditions were like on Guadalcanal? Badger: Well, when we first landed…it was, our conditions were pretty rough cause, no matter where we moved we got shot at. (Laughs). So…you…you learned…you learned how to keep your head down…while we were doing work and, but we, …always if the Army gave us a job, there was no excuses. You had to…go ahead and do the job that they gave us. Blackmon: Yes sir. Badger: But they were not unreasonable. They gave us jobs that were tough, but they were not…not, not unreasonable. Blackmon: Yes sir. Now, what do you think was the most valuable skill set or…you know…task that you learned while you were serving in the Army? Badger: I don’t…know what…the valuable…but…course I had, I had never, I had done farm work but…working under orders to…to…build something was new…was a new experience for me. And…And we didn’t have…we didn’t have a good su…lumber yard to go to. We didn’t…you know…we had to makeshift equipment…to…get a job done. And we cut…you know…cut down trees and remember the trees on those islands were mainly pine…palm trees. So they’re not the strongest, wood you know. But…no matter what we…they…any job that they gave us…we go that job done. They…we had…a good group…we had…something I’ll tell you. All of our officers in that Combat Engineer outfit…all of our officers were from the…the top of their class at West Poin…West Point. The engineering �officers…the…and so…they were real smart…real…reliable people to get work…get a job done. Get the Army’s job done. Blackmon: Yes sir. Well, thank you very much for your time sir, thank you for your service. Badger: Oh you’re welcome. You’re welcome. � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/09571e7c63ad6a6d5b5a3216999c40ce.mp3 8a0e384d7f5254a1051ec0f6820a0978 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project Description An account of the resource Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers. Copyright Notice: Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Badger, Clyde Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Blackmon, Ryan Interview Date 10/7/12 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 0:13:35 File name 2013_063_Badger_Clyde_interview 2013_063_Badger_Clyde_transcript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Clyde Badger, 7 October 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Blackmon, Ryan Badger, Clyde Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 4 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Subject The topic of the resource Badger, Clyde Veterans World War, 1939-1945 Personal narratives, American United States Interviews Description An account of the resource Clyde Badger was an Army Staff Sergeant and worked as a combat engineer during the Guadalcanal Campaign. He built bridges and roads, and said that he didn't really have much specific job training. He did most of his learning on the job and most of it was simple manual labor. Army Staff Sergeant Clyde Badger combat engineer Guadalcanal Hawaii