Title
Interview with Al Hair and Warren Alford: End of the War
Creator
Wiegers, Robert
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution License
Format
M4A
Language
English
Original Format
Compact cassette
Duration
2 minutes, 26 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
156kbps
Transcription
When they dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima, we thought the war was over.
Yeah.
And so, all the ships had a party, a celebration.
So you were at sea, then?
Yeah, oh yeah--
But you never got there, Warren, and-- you ever get sea time?
I was at Ulithi. We drank all of this here alcohol, all over. And then-- a sequence of events by somebody-- we heard that the Indianapolis was sunk. And then we realized, Hell, this war is still going on, you know? And then they dropped the second bomb. And then we figured it was over, but prior to that, we had gotten a whole shipment of cold-weather and foul-weather gear for us. I mean, insulated gloves, hoods with cellophane, we got boots with a half-inch of wool insulation, all this stuff. And, what in the heck is going on? And we didn't have any idea. We found out later that we were supposed to leave with a group of sub-statiers, and go up to Dutch Harbor, and pick up some other ships from the States, and we were going to go to the northern coast of Hokkaido, to keep the Russians out of Japan. That was going to be our responsibility. Boy, that would have been a Hell of a note, wouldn't it? And if the sequence of events hadn't been so fast, they would have gotten in there, because they went in to Sakhalin Island, and they still got half of it. They took the Kuril Islands from Japan, and they still got them. You don't hear much about it, but they do. Some of the best fishing area in the world, and Russians have kept it; they won't give it back. And can you imagine what would have happened if they had gotten in Japan? [sound effects] And if the war hadn't ended as it was[sic], it'd be us up there trying to keep them out! [laughter]
Yeah.
And so, all the ships had a party, a celebration.
So you were at sea, then?
Yeah, oh yeah--
But you never got there, Warren, and-- you ever get sea time?
I was at Ulithi. We drank all of this here alcohol, all over. And then-- a sequence of events by somebody-- we heard that the Indianapolis was sunk. And then we realized, Hell, this war is still going on, you know? And then they dropped the second bomb. And then we figured it was over, but prior to that, we had gotten a whole shipment of cold-weather and foul-weather gear for us. I mean, insulated gloves, hoods with cellophane, we got boots with a half-inch of wool insulation, all this stuff. And, what in the heck is going on? And we didn't have any idea. We found out later that we were supposed to leave with a group of sub-statiers, and go up to Dutch Harbor, and pick up some other ships from the States, and we were going to go to the northern coast of Hokkaido, to keep the Russians out of Japan. That was going to be our responsibility. Boy, that would have been a Hell of a note, wouldn't it? And if the sequence of events hadn't been so fast, they would have gotten in there, because they went in to Sakhalin Island, and they still got half of it. They took the Kuril Islands from Japan, and they still got them. You don't hear much about it, but they do. Some of the best fishing area in the world, and Russians have kept it; they won't give it back. And can you imagine what would have happened if they had gotten in Japan? [sound effects] And if the war hadn't ended as it was[sic], it'd be us up there trying to keep them out! [laughter]
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