Interview Questions for WWII veteran

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If some of our interviewees are not natives of Floyd County – i.e. would not have gone to war from Floyd county and/or would not have returned to Floyd county after the war, we'll need to adjust the wording of some of the questions – e.g. Questions 25-28.
Floyd county place-based education project history questions for veterans and veterans' wives

Introducing yourself

[ Tell who you are. Chat a bit while setting up the recorder, etc.]

[Demographic questions/basic questions about interviewee]

[Note: both record and write down the answers to questions 1-7.]

• Name:

• Address:

• Phone:

• When were you born?

• Where were you born?

• What is your job/occupation?

• [If retired] what did you do before you retired?

• If not native to Floyd County, how did you come to Floyd?

• Delve: how long have you lived in Floyd county?

Introducing the topic

Your community wants to preserve with these recordings the valuable information and memories that you have.

What we want to learn about is how people experienced World War II – both overseas and in Floyd County.

I have some questions to ask you to learn about that,But if there's anything else that you want to tell me, please

Just go ahead and do that, because I'm here to learn from you.

Going to war

• What are your earliest memories of when the war started?

• [if not answered in the question above] do you remember when you first heard about pearl harbor?

• What age were you when you left for the war?

• How did you make the decision to go?

• What did your family think about you leaving to go to war?

• What was training camp like?

• Do you remember any specific drill sergeants?

People in the war

• Was anyone you knew from back home with you during the war?

• Delve: who was he/she? Where were you together? When were you together? What happened to him/her?

• Did you have a best buddy during the war?

• Delve: where was he from? Did he survive? Did you stay in touch?

• Did you meet any of the local people where you were stationed?

War experiences

• Where did you serve?

• Delve: how many different places did you serve?

• What kinds of experiences did you have there?

• Did you keep a diary?

• Delve: do you still have it?

• Did you keep any lucky charms during the war?

• How did you and your fellow soldiers entertain yourselves?

Connection to home/Floyd County

• Did you get letters from home? How did they make you feel?

• Delve: do you still have those letters?

• What kinds of things did you see / [or experiences did you have] that were new to you that you hadn't seen in Floyd county?

Back home

• After the war, where did you go?

• When did you come back to Floyd County? (if not right after the war)

• What differences / changes did you notice when you came back to Floyd County?

• Delve: did you feel that those changes were good or bad?

• Are there any other memories that you would like to share with us?