| Title |
Melvin Lewis, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, July 16, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 402 and 403 |
| Alternative Title |
Melvin Lewis, Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
Lewis, Melvin, 1917-2010 |
| Contributor |
Lloyd, Becky B.; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2001-07-16 |
| Date Digital |
2015-09-16 |
| Access Rights |
I acknowledge and agree that all information I obtain as a result of accessing any oral history provided by the University of Utah's Marriott Library shall be used only for historical or scholarly or academic research purposes, and not for commercial purposes. I understand that any other use of the materials is not authorized by the University of Utah and may exceed the scope of permission granted to the University of Utah by the interviewer or interviewee. I may request permission for other uses, in writing to Special Collections at the Marriott Library, which the University of Utah may choose grant, in its sole discretion. I agree to defend, indemnify and hold the University of Utah and its Marriott Library harmless for and against any actions or claims that relate to my improper use of materials provided by the University of Utah. |
| Spatial Coverage |
Pakistan; South Pacific; Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands; Guam; Shasta County, California, United States |
| Subject |
Lewis, Melvin, 1917-2010--Interviews; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Pacific Area--Personal narratives, American; Veterans--Utah--Biography |
| Keywords |
Flight instructors; Army Air Corps |
| Description |
Transcript (77 pages) of an interview by Becky B. Lloyd with Mel Lewis on July 16, 2001. This is from tape numbers 402 and 403 in the "Saving the Legacy Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
Mel Lewis (b. 1917) grew up in Redding, California, and operated a private airstrip before enlisting in the Army Air Corps one day after Pearl Harbor. He flew with the 14th Air Force in Pakistan, the 5th A.F. in the South Pacific, and the 7th A.F in Saipan and Guam. He was also a flight instructor in Greenville, South Carolina. 77 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
77 pages |
| Language |
eng |
| Rights |
 |
| Scanning Technician |
Mazi Rakhsha |
| Conversion Specifications |
Original scanned with Kirtas 2400 and saved as 400 ppi uncompressed TIFF. PDF generated by Adobe Acrobat Pro X for CONTENTdm display |
| ARK |
ark:/87278/s6bk3bkc |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945); Military operations, Aerial--American |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1024582 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6bk3bkc |
| Title |
Page 41 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1024542 |
| OCR Text |
Show MELLEWI J 16 2001 BBL: Uh-huh. MEL: And so we had no insignia whatsoever on our uni£ nns· ju t ur uniforms, that's all, nothing on them. And so the only title that we were called by was "Mister". BBL: Really? MEL: Nothing else. So this boot training, so to speak, in Santa Ana, was another kind of a weeding out process. There were over three hw1dred in that group that I went with in there. And out of that three hundred, about seventy-seven percent failed. BBL: Wow. MEL: Yeah, because they were still going on pre-war standards. But what they didn't realize is something that I realized later in the engineering field that we hired student engineers out of college, and we found, at first, we were looking for the 4.0 students. But we found out that the old C-average guys turned out to be the best. Well, it took the army a long time to figure that out. Finally they did. So, anyway, we had a final gathering at the completion of that where they-in Santa Ana-where they deigned who made it and who didn't. And the ones that didn't make it had to go to the ranks, as enlisted men. And the others would go on to what they called a college training detachment. And I was, when they read that list off, I was extremely surprised to find out I was amongst the top ten. BBL: Really? Wow. MEL: I always figured, well, you know, that was pretty easy because I went in there with an empty head (laughs). I didn't have anything in there to confuse it. So, next stop, then, was to what they called a college training detachment and where I went 38 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6bk3bkc/1024542 |
