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.:. Veteran Interview Questions .:.


ww2vault
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Hi,

 

As many of you know, WWII veterans are disappearing very very quickly and the time to interview them is dwindling rapidly. I have a long list of local WWII veterans that I have been calling and asking if they wouldn't mind having an interview about there service in WWII.

 

I have comprised a list of some pretty good questions and would like to know if there are any other questions that people can think of to add onto the list? If anyone else has conducted an interview before and have any questions to add that would be great, also if you have an idea for some good questions feel free to post!

 

Also, this should probably be pinned to the top of the page since this could be a great source of questions for people to refer to in the future, not only to interview WWII veterans but veterans from any war. thumbsup.gif

 

Below is the list of questions I currently have:

 

.:. Interview .:.

 

Answering this list of questions will help future generation understand what the world was like. Feel free to answer any individual question or skip any individual question, it’s up to you, but please know that every answer you provide gives us a wealth of information and will be greatly appreciated. Please be as open and explicit as you can be. The more you talk and go in depth about a question, the better.

 

 

.:. Pre-Service .:.

 

- When and where were you born?

 

- Tell us about your childhood.

 

- Tell us about your parents.

 

- What did you do before you joined the armed forces? Were you a student? Working? Married or single? Did you have any children?

 

 

.:. Pearl Harbor .:.

 

- How did you hear about Pearl Harbor?

 

- Where were you when it happened?

 

- What was your reaction?

 

- What happened in the days that followed?

 

 

.:. War Begins .:.

 

- Where were you when it happened?

 

- What was your reaction?

 

- What was the reaction of the people in your town and the nation?

 

- What happened in the days that followed?

 

 

.:. Enlistment .:.

 

- Under what circumstances did you enter the armed forces? Were you drafted or did you enlist? How old were you?

 

- Why did you join the armed forces?

 

- Did your parents approve of you serving in the military?

 

- How did you feel about leaving home?

 

- How did you communicate with loved ones at home front?

 

 

.:. Training .:.

 

- Describe your training? Where was it and how long was it?

 

- Are there and buddies you had through training?

 

- What weapons did you train with?

 

- Do you feel you were well prepared for what you faced in combat?

 

- What was the most helpful part of your training?

 

- What are some of the things from your training that stand out in your memory?

 

- What was the specific unit(s) that you were assigned to?

 

 

.:. Frontline and Conflicts .:.

 

- What was your first combat experience like?

 

- What did you feel when you were first fired at?

 

- What was your first engagement with the enemy like?

 

- When did you first fire in anger?

 

- Describe your living conditions while on assignment.

 

- What were some battles/conflicts you were in?

 

- Can you describe your feelings during a mission or battle?

 

- How did you cope with the fear of missions or battles?

 

- What was your primary job during missions?

 

- Were you ever wounded?

 

- Did you take any, "War Souvenirs" home with you?

 

- What were the enemy like? Can you describe what you thought about the enemy at that time?

 

- Tell us about some of the buddies you had while in battle.

 

- Did you serve overseas during the war? Where were you?

 

- Tell us about any leaves you had and where you spent your leave.

 

- What did you do for recreation and entertainment while in the service and on the field?

 

- Did you and your unit ever see any USO shows?

 

- What was camp life like when overseas?

 

- What was the food like while in the service? What did you eat?

 

 

.:. Military Service .:.

 

- What was your squadron/division/platoons job during the battle?

 

- What branch of the service were you in? Why did you choose the branch that you did?

 

- What was the mission of your unit?

 

- How was your units C.O.? Did you like him?

 

- What was your rank and your job?

 

- What promotions and awards did you receive, if any? On what grounds where you awarded them?

 

 

.:. Weapons .:.

 

- What was your primary weapon?

 

- Did you feel it was effective?

 

- What other weapons did you use?

 

- What was the single most fearsome weapon the enemy used against you?

 

- What other weapons did you have to deal with?

 

 

.:. Battles/Events .:.

 

.:. D-Day Invasion .:.

 

- Where were you at on June 6th, 1944 when D-Day took place?

 

- What were your thoughts on the invasion when you heard about it?

 

 

.:. Death Camps .:.

 

- Where were you when you first heard about the Nazi death camps?

 

- What did you think about them? Did you think it was a lie at first?

 

- What was the thoughts of everyone else around you about the camps?

 

- What did you think about the prisoner labor camps the Japanese had in the Pacific?

 

- Where were you when you first heard about the Japanese camps?

 

- What did others think about the camps in the Pacific?

 

- Did you know of any people who had some one that was taken to either the Japanese or Nazi camps?

 

- What the the reaction in the U.S. when people first heard about the camps?

 

 

.:. Hiroshima .:.

 

- How did you hear about the bombing of Hiroshima? Where were you?

 

- How did you react to the news?

 

- Do you think the US was justified in the use on the A-Bomb?

 

 

.:. Victory, Surrender & Peace .:.

 

- How did you find out about the surrender of Germany?

 

- What did you do on V-E Day?

 

- How did you find out about the surrender of Japan?

 

- What did you do on V-J Day?

 

- What happened on the day you came home?

 

- What were the holidays like in 1945?

 

- What were you hopes for the future?

 

 

.:. Impact .:.

 

- What was your happiest (funniest or saddest) memory of the war?

 

- Were you afraid? What was your biggest fear?

 

- What do you think your biggest accomplishment was?

 

- What impact did your unit have on the outcome of the war?

 

- What were you most proud of during your military service?

 

 

.:. Post-War Life .:.

 

- What did you do after you got discharged from the service?

 

- What had changed and/or what was different when you got home from the war?

 

- What are some of the places you moved to after the war?

 

- What jobs do you hold since leaving the service?

 

- Did you have any children? If so, how many?

 

- Describe any friendships you made during the war.

 

- Did you leave the service with any friends that served with you? If so, do you still keep in touch

 

today?

 

 

.:. Follow Up .:.

 

- What would you want people to know about this time in history?

 

- What would you have changed about your war experience if you could?

 

- Did you ever doubt that the U.S. would succeed in winning the war?

 

- What mistakes do you think the military made, if any, during the war.

 

- Do you think the war could have been prevented?

 

- Did anything happen during the war that affected you for the rest of your life? How did your experiences in WWII affect the rest of your life?

 

- What do you think the biggest misconception about WWII is?

 

- Do you think the war was worth the price?

 

- Do you think fighting in the war was the right thing to do?

 

- What important question did I forget to ask you? Is there something else you’d like to share with us?

 

 

- Jeff

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Jeff,

 

I had a tough time trying to decide what I was going to say here.

I am going to speak in my capacity as a university trained historian and please take it as constructive criticism.

It is a noble idea that you have and I appreciate that you have put a lot of time and effort into these questions.

However, I feel (and this is only advise - please take it or leave it) that a few of the questions are repeated and that there are too many of them.

On the whole they are good though.

 

IMHO, the key to good interviewing is to let the veteran speak. Engage them in conversation and let it flow.

Have a core set of questions (much less than you have shown here) that you wont forget to include in your conversation and then ask any other any additional questions to the individual veteran based on their answers to previous set questions and their recollection.

 

Ask permission to film or record the conversation and when you start, ask a question and let them speak. Don't have a list to give them. I find that that only stifles the conversation, as does taking notes.

 

Think of a good television interviewer, such as the UKs Parkinson. When he does an interview, he starts with a few set questions and tailors the rest to the interviewee. That way it seem less like the person is being interviewed and more like they are having a conversation - which of course what an interview is.

 

Just my two cents.

 

 

 

Leigh

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No offence taken good friend. ;) I totally understand where you are coming from and do agree with you. Some of the questions are sort of, "repeated" every now and then but only to help me remember what to ask.

 

The questions weren't really meant to be asked all in one sitting. I was collecting a list of questions so I could ask a different set of questions with each veteran. For example, I interview one veteran, and then for the next one I would ask 85% of the same questions but change out a few.

 

Your other valid point is that the veteran should be the one doing all of the talking without asking 1,001 questions. That was my intention from the beginning, I guess I just failed to mention it. :blush: I was planning on the interview to last a couple hours and not forty or sixty minutes. Having many detailed questions though help to, "stimulate" the veterans memories.

 

Another point you made was that you shouldn't hand the veteran a list of the questions for him to read off of. The interviewer should be the one with the questions and I would strongly recommend to tape or record the conversation instead of taking notes, which as you mentioned, would only distract the veteran and ruin the interview.

 

I will be using a notebook webcam, as well as a tape recorder to record my interviews. I just tell the veteran that the Library of Congress is looking for taped recordings of WWII veterans, which is very true.

 

You can learn more about the LOC's quest for WWII veteran, plus all veterans, interviews here:

 

http://www.loc.gov/vets/

 

- Jeff

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You are most defiantly right about the LOC.

By submitting interviews to the library of congress you are helping to preserve primary source information, for future historians, who down the track will not have opportunity to speak to any ww2 veterans themselves.

 

Another point I wanted to raise was to do you home work a little for each veteran.

What I mean is, we cant be experts in everything - I know I am not - so therefore if you are going to interview a Marine vet of Guadalcanal, or Okinawa, or Chosin or Hue, re-read some texts and other information about their battle. It helps when you are building a rapport. It shows the veteran that you have a real interest in his division and his battles. Also if you are a soldier as I am let the veteran know that. A soldier will speak to another soldier, whatever the era a little differently than they would a civilian.

 

The grandfather of a friend of mine, used to tell me all sorts of stories, some funny, some rude, others downright scary, (stories that he hadn't told family members) because I was a soldier. Same when I was at high school. My math teacher was an ARVN LT COL and he used tell me stories that I am sure he told no one else, because I was an Army Cadet at the time.

 

Leigh

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