| Title |
Gerald A. Corwin, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Winston Erickson, October 9, 2000: Saving the Legacy tape no. 119 |
| Alternative Title |
Gerald A. Corwin, Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
Corwin, Gerald A., 1913- |
| Contributor |
Erickson, Winston P., 1943-; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2000-10-09 |
| Date Digital |
2015-12-16 |
| 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 |
Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, United States; Hawaii; Philippines |
| Subject |
Corwin, Gerald A., 1913- --Interviews; Veterans--Utah--Biography; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Military operations, American |
| Keywords |
Chemical weapons; Redstone Arsenal |
| Description |
Transcript (33 pages) of an interview by Winston Erickson with Gerald A. Corwin on October 9, 2000. From tape number 119 in the "Saving the Legacy" Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
Corwin (b. 1913) was born in Hardin, Montana. He graduated from Montana State University in 1937 with a degree in chemistry. While in college he joined the National Guard for help with the cost of college. After college, he went to work for the Yale Oil Corporation in South Dakota. Although still in the inactive National Guard at the time of Pearl Harbor, he wasn't called up, but enlisted in the army. He went to Ft. Lewis, Washington, applied for and was accepted into Officer Candidate School (OCS). He was commissioned in 1942 and was assigned to the chemical warfare service, Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. He was there for 20 months, applied for the infantry, and returned to Ft. Lewis to train troops. He was headed to the infantry, in fact, had arrived in Hawaii when the peace treaty was signed and the war was over. He was sent to the Philippines and left the service on meeting the time-in-service requirements. Interviewed by Winston Erickson. 33 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
33 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/s6zw3p0k |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945) |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1027729 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6zw3p0k |
| Title |
Page 16 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1027710 |
| OCR Text |
Show GERALD A. CORWI 0 B R 9 2000 WE: Which state? GAC: Alabama. And they had an ordnance filing plant there whose business int wn was to put boosters into chemical munitions. The Army has a union just like everybody else and in the army explosives are handled by the ordnance corps. And the ordnance establishment there was Redstone Arsenal, which eventually took over all of Huntsville Arsenal and became the Army's rocket center, well after World War II, of course. So I was there and there I became, being a chemist naturally I inherited the _[unclear]_. The boss took me out one day and took me to the tool crib and said, "Here, you're running it." I remember as we walked in the door they had a civilian who didn't seem to last very long but my boss was a captain at the time. Just as he walked past the guy, he just kicked the chair out from under him, just as neat as anything (laughs). The guy stood up and he told him that he had a new boss: me. And I don't know, I guess I did all right because I started out with one tool crib and wound up with three. That is we had several plants on this arsenal and we had a tool crib in three of them. WE: And what were you to do there? GAC: I was running tool cribs, just keeping track of the tools. We'd issue them out to the troops, well, mostly civilians. It was a civilian operation run by the military. So there were military officers all over the place. The Reserves called up the colonel in charge. We were in the plants service department; that is we serviced the various plants. We provided plumbers and pipefitters and electricians and all the various specialty trades. We furnished them in each plant. We'd have representatives. My first job there before I got into the tool cribs, and I think I kept it long after I had the tool cribs, I would go around and visit all the plants and see anything they needed, or what they needed from our 15 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6zw3p0k/1027710 |
