Oral history interview with Paul A. Pinard, [sound recording], 1996.

ArchivalResource

Pinard, Paul A., 1919-2007,. Oral history interview with Paul A. Pinard, [sound recording], 1996.

Oral history interview with Paul A. Pinard, [sound recording], 1996.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/772441612

Paul A. Pinard, a Chicago native, discusses his career in the Army, including his experiences during World War II and the Korean War. While in high school, Pinard mentions training for a month each year with the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Sheridan (Illinois). He talks about enlisting in 1940, having minimal training in Maine, assignment to coast artillery, and being in Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Pinard touches on duty in Panama in 1940, including replacing men who caught malaria and the tight control of transit ships. He talks about recreation at "Dockside," a camp in Trinidad, witnessing the impressive efforts that went into creating the airfield at Fort Read (Trinidad), and helping keep the thousands of hired natives in line at payday. Sent in a task force to Suriname, Pinard talks about landing at Paramaribo, working antiaircraft defense at the construction of an airfield, the foreign dignitaries he saw, and recovering bodies from a plane that had crashed under mysterious circumstances. Sent to Fort Stewart (Georgia), he mentions working on perfecting an air transportable antiaircraft outfit until being called up as a replacement after the Battle of the Bulge. Pinard describes transport by ship to Europe and his first exposure to combat at Monschau (Germany) in the Battle of the Bulge. He comments on being made acting platoon leader, taking cover from V1 rockets, and relations with German civilians. Pinard reflects on relations between the military and civilians around his bases in the United States. In Europe, he talks about getting in trouble with an officer for wearing scavenged clothing, including a German Hitler Youth scarf. Pinard recalls the interrupted food supply during the Battle of the Bulge, intermittently sleeping on the ground or in German buildings, and assignment to General Rose's 3rd Armored unit. Stateside, he talks about gambling, facilities, and a typical day's schedule working in the artillery control room. Pinard touches on motivations to participate in combat and the rumors that spread after the Malmedy massacre. He talks about his experiences near the Panmunjom Corridor (Korea) during the Korean War. Pinard comments on his disappointment with the officers in Korea and patrolling in the extreme cold. He details five close calls he had in Germany: being pinned by enemy artillery in a little building while holding an unstable grenade, some situations when shrapnel damaged his equipment, having to cross a minefield, a near-miss by a sniper, and being pinned by a friendly machine gun firing over his back. Pinard recalls a time when his foxhole hit a spring and he was up to his neck in water, and in that same battle threatening the crew of an artillery gun who were firing directly above his foxhole. He talks about the soldiers' use of nitro to soften the ground for foxholes and seeing a soldier wounded when the nitro in his pocket was accidentally set off during combat. Pinard touches on passing through a German "Strength Through Joy" town and taking a risk by investigating a patch of freshly turned earth during a patrol. He states he had no homecoming after World War II, though he had a nice homecoming after the Korean War. In 1948, he mentions teaching at the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Campion Jesuit High School (Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin). In Korea, Pinard tells of when his unit was mistakenly placed in front of a British unit's final protective line. He reflects on the odd combat situation when they were not allowed to fire in the Panmunjom Corridor during peace talks, even though the Chinese used sniper fire from their side. Pinard states he backed out of the opportunity to be an aide to Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem so that he could get married. After a few more years on ROCT duty at Priarie du Chien, Pinard tells of assignment to Germany for peacetime occupation duty. He talks about bringing his mother over to Germany and visiting her uncle, who had been a lieutenant colonel in the German Army. During the war, he describes uneasy relations between Russian soldiers in charge of a work camp and his own men, who wanted to fraternize with women at the work camp. After the war, Pinard mentions assigning five men to Dachau as guards and hearing about what was stashed in the basement of the administrative building. He touches on ROTC duty to Loras College (Dubuque, Iowa), getting rid of an alcoholic company commander, and his daughter's career in the Army. Pinard tells an anecdote about Army and Air Force personnel cooperating in Suriname to get cold beer, and he mentions attending reunions of M Company, 60th Infantry Regiment.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 85 min.); analog, 1 7/8 ips.Master sound recording : 2 sound cassettes (ca. 85 min.); analog, 1 7/8 ips.Transcript : 29 p.Military papers : 0.1 linear ft. (1 folder)

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center