The machine-readable finding aid for this collection was created by the
Copyright 2007, Utah State Historical
Society. All rights reserved.
Reproduction, storage or transmittal of this
work, or any part of it, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes,
is prohibited without prior authorization of the Utah State Historical Society.
This work may be used for scholarly and other non-commercial use provided that
the Utah State Historical Society is acknowledged as the creator and copyright
holder.
All items in the collection are original documents.
The Brigham City Library created the collection through an oral history grant from the Utah Division of State History. Following the terms of the grant, the transcriptions of the oral histories were donated to State History.
The oral histories concern Brigham City residents' experiences during World War II, both at home and in the Pacific and European theaters of the war. The collection is rich in recollected anecdotes. For example, Wayne Gingerich was aboard the USS Curtiss at Pearl Harbor that fateful day in 1941, and John Elwell gives his account of what it was like to be stationed in Japan after the war.
Also included in the collection are oral histories from those individuals connected to Bushnell General Hospital. The military hospital opened with 1,500 beds in 1942 and housed servicemen from Utah and surrounding states in order to keep them close to their families. The medical staff specialized in orthopedics, neuro-psychiatry, and tropical diseases. When the hospital closed in 1947, its staff had treated over 13,000 patients.
The collection also includes accounts from veterans of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Several Vietnam veterans, such as Clifford Green, give gut-wrenching accounts of their experience in combat as infantrymen. Jesse Palmer recounts his devastating experiences as well, and his account of being a tunnel rat is exceptionally horrific.
Brigham City War Veterans' Oral Histories Collection, 2003-2005, Utah State Historical Society.
Transfer from Brigham City Library, 2005.
The Brigham City War Veterans' Oral Histories Collection is the physical property of the Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their heirs and assigns. Please contact the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this collection.