During this day, the Veterans History Project presented eight programs—they are listed below in chronological order by time. Each video is playable on this page by selecting the play button. Videos can be expanded to full-screen by selecting that icon. Closed-captioning is turned on by selecting the CC icon.
Presenters: Miguel Encinias, Richard Francies, Marty Higgins, and Jimmie Kanaya
Introducers: Peggy Bulger, Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton
Moderators: Bob Babcock, Congressman Ron Kind
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
At age 16, Encinias joined the National Guard in 1939. When he finished high school, the Guard was called to active duty, and he served as a Combat Engineer in the 45th Division. After Pearl Harbor he trained to become a pilot and was sent to North Africa as the campaign there was ending. Later, he flew a British Spitfire in combat, and in 1944 he was shot down over northern Italy. As a prisoner of war he was moved to Frankfurt, Germany. When the Korean War began, Encinias volunteered for service in North Korea and flew 111 missions there. After the war, he taught French at the U.S. Air Force Academy and, in 1962, went to Vietnam where he flew 60 missions. After retiring from teaching in 1985, he turned to writing history, particularly the history of New Mexico.
Joining the Army in 1937, Francies was transferred to the Philippines in 1939 and was in the Signal Corps as a radio operator and later in radio maintenance. In 1941 he was slated to go home after his tour of duty, but stayed when the war began. He installed radio stations in Bataan, and was there when the Japanese invaded. Francies was among those on the Bataan Death March. While a POW, he became part of a crew that repaired radio and telephones in Manila where crew members sabotaged as much equipment as they repaired. Later he and other prisoners of war were shipped to Japan, where they were sent to Hanawa in Honshu to work in the copper mines of northern Japan from 1944 to 1945. After the war, Francies worked for 35 years for Ohio Bell. He tells his wartime story often at schools, churches, and civic organizations.
After graduating from St. Peters College in 1939, Marty Higgins joined the 101st Cavalry Regiment, Squadron C, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was sent to Ft. Devins, Mass. He received his Cavalry commission at Ft Riley, Kansas, in 1941, and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment in California in 1942. In 1944, he was sent to Africa, transferred to the 36th (Texas) Infantry Division, participated in the invasion of Southern France, and took command of A Company. He was captured at the end of that year, sent to Luckenwalde, Germany, and was liberated by the Russians in 1945. He returned to the United States following his release from service in August 1945, and worked in the playing card industry for 33 years. In his retirement, he has been a literacy advocate and teacher, and has been active in numerous community organizations.
Born in Oregon, Kanaya enlisted at the age of 20 in the Army Medical Department in 1941, was assigned later to the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team Medical Detachment as a Staff Sergeant, and entered the Italian campaign attached to the 34th Infantry Division, receiving a battlefield commission during this campaign. While attached to the 36th ID in southern France, Kanaya was captured while attempting to evacuate casualties from the Vosges Mountains. He was taken to Oflag 64 POW Camp in Poland, marched 380 miles west into Germany, escaped with the aid of Patton’s Third Army, and was re-captured and returned to Oflag 64. After WWII, Kanaya served as a Regular Army officer in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hawaii and Alaska as a company commander, intelligence officer, field hospital commander, battalion S-3, executive officer and commander, and as executive officer of the Medical Training Center at Ft. Sam Houston, TX. He retired in 1974 with 33 years of military service.
A native of New York, Bulger served as the director of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, the second person to hold that position since the U.S. Congress created the Center in 1976. She is a folklorist, consultant, and producer, and has been documenting folklife and developing and managing folklife programs for more than 25 years. Before joining the staff of the Library of Congress, she was Florida State Folk Arts Coordinator, Florida Folklife Programs Administrator, and Program Coordinator, Director, and Senior Officer for the Southern Arts Federation. The Veterans History Project is part of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress.
Becton’s career has been one of public service, including nearly 40 years in the U. S. Army. He entered active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps in July 1944 and graduated from Infantry OCS in 1945. Becton served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, in countries ranging from Germany and France to the Southwest Pacific, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. One of his key duty assignments included Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, and he retired after nearly 40 years of military service. For nearly two years, he served as Director of the U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance AID before being nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 1989 he became President of Prairie View A&M University. He has served in a variety of national, regional, state, and local positions. He is a member of the Veterans History Project Five Star Council of advisors.
Babcock is president of Americans Remembered, Inc, an official partner of the Veterans History Project. An infantry veteran of the Vietnam War, he is author of the book, War Stories - Utah Beach to Pleiku. He is past president and historian of the National 4th Infantry Division Association and president of the 22nd Infantry Regiment Society. A retired IBM executive, Babcock is focused on preserving the history of veterans and home front workers from World War II through today's War on Terror.
Kind has represented Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in the House of Representatives since 1997. He became a county prosecutor in his hometown of La Crosse, WI, and he served as special prosecutor in numerous counties throughout western Wisconsin. He is the creator of the Veterans History Project and one of the sponsors of the legislation in the House that launched the Project in 2000. He is a member of the Project’s Five Star Council of advisors.
Presenters: Sen. John Warner and Adm. J. L. Holloway
Introducer: Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
Moderator: Dave Winkler
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
Senator Warner was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978. His public service began in January 1945, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17. He served on active duty until the summer of 1946 and was honorably discharged as Petty Officer 3rd Class, electronic technician's mate. At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he interrupted his law school studies and began a second tour of active military duty in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1951 as a First Lieutenant in communications, he volunteered for duty in Korea and served as a ground officer with the First Marine Air Wing. In 1969, Warner was appointed Under Secretary of the Navy; he served in the U.S. Department of Defense for over five years, and served as the Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974. Warner served as the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and served also on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He was a member of the Veterans History Project Five Star Council of advisors until his passing in 2021.
Adm. J.L. Holloway III graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1942 as a member of the first three-year class accelerated by U.S. involvement in World War II. During the War, he served aboard destroyers on North Atlantic convoy duty, in North African waters and in the Pacific where he participated in the Saipan, Tinian, Palau, Peleliu campaigns and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Following World War II, Holloway entered flight training and became a naval aviator, and served in Korean and Vietnam. He commanded the USS Enterprise from 1965-67, established the Navy¿¿¿s Nuclear Powered Carrier Program at the Pentagon, commanded the Seventh Fleet in 1972, and served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1974 to 1978. Retired from the Navy since 1970, Holloway currently serves as the Chairman of the Naval Historical Foundation.
A leader in the arts, education and public policy, Lovell was named the first director of the Veterans History Project in 2001, and served concurrently as head of the Center for Arts and Culture. In January 2004, she left the Project to become President of Marlboro College in Vermont. Lovell directed the Vermont Council of the Arts from 1975-1983, before moving to Washington, DC, to become the chief of staff for Senator Patrick Leahy. Seven years in the Clinton administration followed, and Lovell served as the executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, deputy chief of staff to the First Lady and ultimately deputy assistant to the President and advisor to the First Lady on the Millennium Project.
In his current position as Programs and Development Director at the Naval Historical Foundation, Winkler supervises an oral history program, the Foundation’s Naval Heritage Speakers Program and other Navy history-related projects to support the Naval Historical Center and the Navy Museum. He writes a monthly history column for the Navy League’s journal Sea Power. A Commander in the Naval Reserve, Winkler serves as Executive Officer of the Naval Historical Center 0615R unit, a cadre that conducts End-of-Tour interviews with senior Navy officials. He received his commission in 1980 through the NROTC unit at Pennsylvania State University. He is a volunteer interviewer for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Presenter: Fayard Nicholas
Moderator: Peggy Bulger
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
Fayard Nicholas grew up in Philadelphia, the son of musicians, and grew up watching the greatest Vaudeville acts as his family toured the country. He was completely fascinated by them and, together with his younger brother, Harold, imitated their acrobatics and clowning for the children in his neighborhood. The Nicholas Brothers fame grew steadily in Philadelphia, and they were discovered there by the manager of the New York Vaudeville Showcase, The Lafayette, and went from there onto the famous Cotton Club in New York in 1932. During this period, they made their first motion picture and their career skyrocketed. They debuted on Broadway in 1936, and in the 1940s the nightclub and concert circuit took over their career and there were long tours of South America, Africa, and Europe. Nicholas served in the military during World War II in Mississippi and in Arizona, where he was assigned to a special services unit and performed for GIs. The Nicholas Brothers appeared with Bob Hope and his USO troupe in 1951 and were part of Hope's Christmas tour to Vietnam, Thailand and Guam in 1965. Nicholas continues to performs and make personal appearances.
A native of New York, Bulger is director of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, the second person to hold that position since the U.S. Congress created the Center in 1976. She is a folklorist, consultant, and producer, and has been documenting folklife and developing and managing folklife programs for more than 25 years. Before joining the staff of the Library of Congress, she was Florida State Folk Arts Coordinator, Florida Folklife Programs Administrator, and Program Coordinator, Director, and Senior Officer for the Southern Arts Federation. The Veterans History Project is part of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress
Presenters: Lt. Col. Lee Archer, Thomas Lowery, and Col. Charles McGee
Introducer: Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
Moderator: Todd Moye
The video from this event is no longer available.
Presenter: Cdr. Ruth Erno, Miriam Ownby, Martha Putney, and CW04 Elizabeth Splaine
Introducer: Ellen Lovell
Moderator: Maj Gen. Jeanne Holm
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
Cdr. Ruth L. (Rothberg) Erno joined the Navy WAVES on November 16, 1942, from her hometown of Boston. After basic training at Hunter College, Erno trained as an aviation metal smith in Norman, Oklahoma; she later served in Radio Communications in Boston. In January of 1944, Erno was selected for Midshipman School of Women's Reserve at Smith College where she received her commission in April of 1944. She subsequently served as Base Communications Officer at the Naval Base, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and as Communications Superintendent in Portsmouth Naval Yard. In 1951, Erno transferred to the Pentagon Office of Naval Operations where she remained on active duty until 1954. Erno remained with the Navy Reserves until her retirement in 1977.
Miriam (Lee) Ownby joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps from Athens, Ohio, in October of 1942. After basic training, she remained at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, for Administrative School where she served as a personnel clerk until she was selected for Officer Candidate School. Upon graduation from OCS, Ownby served in military personnel at Headquarters Air Technical Service Command at Wright-Patterson Fields in Dayton, Ohio, from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she transferred to Oakland Air Force Base where she served as a squadron commander until her separation from the Army in July of 1946.
On February 1, 1943, Martha (Settle) Putney joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She entered the 35th Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, where she was commissioned on July 7, 1943. After completing OCS, Putney was assigned as a Basic Training Company Officer at Fort Des Moines. She had two temporary duty assignments in Texas and was assigned company commander of the 55th WAC hospital company stationed at Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago. Putney is the author of "When the Nation Was In Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps During World War II."
In March of 1943, Elizabeth (Betty) Splaine joined the U.S. Coast Guard SPARS. After a 26-day boot camp, she received orders to report to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she served in administration and recruitment. Splaine was the first SPAR to re-enlist after a period of post-war demobilization and was assigned to the First Reserve unit. In 1953, she returned to full-time active duty in Washington in administration of the Reserve Program. In 1958, she became the first woman Warrant Officer in the Coast Guard and was transferred to the Admiral's office where she remained until she was forced to retire as a CW04 due to grade and term limits in December 1970.
A leader in the arts, education and public policy, Lovell was named the first director of the Veterans History Project in 2001, and served concurrently as head of the Center for Arts and Culture. In January 2004, she left the Project to become President of Marlboro College in Vermont. Lovell directed the Vermont Council of the Arts from 1975-1983, before moving to Washington, DC, to become the chief of staff for Senator Patrick Leahy. Seven years in the Clinton administration followed, and Lovell served as the executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, deputy chief of staff to the First Lady and ultimately deputy assistant to the President and advisor to the First Lady on the Millennium Project.<./p>
Holm, one of the first women to enlist in the military during World War II, joined the Army in 1942 and rose to the rank of Captain, commanding basic training units at the Women’s Army Corps Training Center. At the end of the war, she left active duty, but returned to active duty in 1948 in the newly created U.S. Air Force. She served several tours of duty at the Pentagon and with the Allied Forces Southern Europe in Italy. In 1971, she became the first woman promoted to Brigadier General in the Air Force, and two years later, she received a second star. She retired in 1975, the highest ranking woman in the U.S. Armed Forces. She has written Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution, and she has edited In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II. She is a member of the Veterans History Project Five Star Council of advisors.
Presenter: Marty Higgins, Jimmie Kanaya, Frank Sogi, and Warren Tsuneishi
Moderator: Gary Rhay
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
After graduating from St. Peters College in 1939, Marty Higgins joined the 101st Cavalry Regiment, Squadron C, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was sent to Ft. Devins, Mass. He received his Cavalry commission at Ft Riley, Kansas, in 1941, and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment in California in 1942. In 1944, he was sent to Africa, transferred to the 36th (Texas) Infantry Division, participated in the invasion of Southern France, and took command of A Company. He was captured at the end of that year, sent to Luckenwalde, Germany, and was liberated by the Russians in 1945. He returned to the United States following his release from service in August 1945, and worked in the playing card industry for 33 years. In his retirement, he has been a literacy advocate and teacher, and has been active in numerous community organizations.
Born in Oregon, Jimmie Kanaya enlisted at age 20 in the Army Medical Department in 1941, was assigned later to the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team Medical Detachment as a SSG, and entered the Italian campaign attached to the 34th Infantry Division, receiving a battlefield commission. during this campaign. While attached to the 36th ID in Southern France, Kanaya was captured while attempting to evacuate casualties from the Vosges Mountains. He was taken to Oflag 64 POW Camp in Poland, marched 380 miles West Germany, escaped with the aid of Patton???s Third Army, and was re-captured and returned to Oflag 64. After WWII, Kanaya served as a Regular Army officer in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hawaii and Alaska as a Company Commander, Intelligence Officer, Field Hospital Commander, Battalion S3, Executive Officer and Commander, and as Executive Officer of the Medical Training Center at Ft. Sam Houston,, Tex. He retired in 1974 with 33 years of military service.
Born in Hawaii, Francis Y. Sogi began his military career in 1944 when he joined the Military Intelligence Service. He went on to serve with the Counter Intelligence Corps in 1946, rising to the rank of Captain before retiring in 1953. Today, he is a Life Partner in the New York law firm of Kelley Drye & Warren. From 1983 to 1986, he served as president of the Japanese American Association of New York Inc. and has held leadership roles in the Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees, the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, the National Japanese American Veterans Council, and the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. Sogi is a member of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, many Japanese American veterans??? organizations and the Veterans History Project Five Star Council of advisors.
Born on the Fourth of July in California, Warren Tsuneishi was the son of Japanese immigrants. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered the war, his family was evacuated to Heart Mountain, an internment facility in Wyoming. Determined to serve his country, Tsuneishi volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service Language School and served in the Pacific with the 306th Headquarters Intelligence Detachment, 24th Corps, translating captured documents. Following his discharge from the service in 1946, he pursued a career in library science and retired as Chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress in 1993. Today he is active in a number of professional and academic organizations and has written numerous papers and articles for professional conference and journals. He is a member of the Japanese American Veterans Association, an official partner of the Veterans History Project.
A recognized military historian, Rhay enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in Vietnam in 1971-72. Following his tour, he returned to college and ROTC training, entered the Army’s Officer Training School and served as an officer for 12 years. He taught history at West Point, at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College, and in1996 became in-house historian at Marathon Music and Video, a documentary film company in Eugene, OR, with a veterans’ oral history program that pre-dates the Library of Congress project. Rhay insures the accuracy of Marathon’s scripts and footage used in military documentaries, and conducts interviews with veterans. The archive holds approximately 700 to 750 videotaped interviews, and is an official partner of the Veterans History Project.
Presenter: Venus Ramey
Introducer: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
Moderator: Tom Swope
Please note: The following biographical information was written at the time of the event in 2004 and has not been updated.
Venus Ramey was a member of a Kentucky family active in public service when she chose to work for the war effort in Washington, D.C. While there, she entered and won the competition for Miss Washington and went on to become Miss America 1944. While fulfilling her pageant duties, she sold war bonds across the country and during her tenure actively worked with Congress to obtain suffrage for Washington, D.C. Her picture adorned a B-17 fighter plane that made 68 sorties over Germany without losing a man. After the war Ramey returned to her Kentucky tobacco farm, married and raised a family. Active in civic affairs, she successfully worked for the preservation of a neighborhood district in Cincinnati called Over-the-Rhine, now listed on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places.
A freelance writer and radio disk jockey at WBKC in Painesville, OH, Swope has been a Veterans History Project volunteer for three years. Beginning in 1996, he ran periodic, on-air World War II specials to commemorate significant dates, and for the past three years has run a weekly radio show, Legacies: Stories from the Second World War, in which he interviews veterans and plays music of the era. In 2002 the show garnered for him the Cleveland Press Club Award and the March of Dimes A.I.R. (Achievement in Radio) Award as the best weekly show in northern Ohio.
