Oral history interview with Robert G. Sonnenberg, [videorecording], 2003.

ArchivalResource

Sonnenberg, Robert G., 1922-2007. Oral history interview with Robert G. Sonnenberg, [videorecording], 2003.

Oral history interview with Robert G. Sonnenberg, [videorecording], 2003.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/760887558

Robert G. Sonnenberg, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, discusses his service as a corpsman in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War, including being aboard the USS Wisconsin in the Pacific Theater from April of 1944 to December of 1945. Sonnenberg talks about getting his mother's permission to enlist, boot camp at Great Lakes (Illinois), assignment to Corps School, and working as an operating room technician at Philadelphia Naval Hospital. After his first four years in the Navy, he mentions reenlisting and having Marine corpsman training at Camp Pendleton (California). Sonnenberg talks about being a corpsman and a "hard nose instructor" in Korea. During World War II, he describes duty aboard the USS Wisconsin, sick call, and treating patients like people. He talks about his son who had a career in the Marines. As a plank holder for the USS Wisconsin, he details first seeing the ship and being called in to meet the Governor of Wisconsin and the ship's captain because he was one of the few original crew members actually from Wisconsin. Sonnenberg portrays the ship's size, armaments, and general duty distributing supplies. He comments on taking "Navy showers," transporting ex-prisoners of war, and battle injuries. Sonnenberg talks about his battle station in the officer's dining room during general quarters, segregation on the ship, and being in charge of African American stretcher bearers. He reflects on the ship's role at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and emphasizes their goal to shoot down enemy planes and protect vulnerable landing forces. He mentions the necessity of wearing earplugs when the guns were firing and the heavy casualties of landing forces at Okinawa. Sonnenberg recalls seeing the peace treaty signed aboard the USS Missouri at Yokohama. Two days after the war ended, he tells of having liberty in Tokyo and seeing the destruction of the Japanese countryside. He touches on the Wisconsin's shakedown cruise to South America and states it logged over 130,000 miles by December 1945. Sonnenberg mentions celebrating the crossing of the equator with beer on an island. He discusses his mental state during general quarters and seeing his brother at Pearl Harbor after the war ended.

Video recording : 2 video cassettes (ca. 56 min.) ; sd., col.; 1/2 in.Transcript : 17 p.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center