Alfred Robert Matern, February 16, 2004, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Frances Merrill

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ALFRED ROBERT MATERN February 16, 2004 look at the markings. Usually on the bombs there would be stamped as to a letter f someplac where the bomb was manufactured. And headquarters would always be in a hurry to get this information which would be passed on to SHAFE Headquarters. And they would give it to the air corps to bomb the place where they'd manufactured these things. So, we were always interested in the fresh bombs that were newly dropped. FHM: How did you pass that information on? ARM: I didn't pass it on. My company commander received all the information, and had it typed, and passed it on. He may have done it by telephone. However, lots of times he would personally go to SHAFE Headquarters in London. And when we were in France he would go to SHAFE Headquarters which was at Versailles near Paris. Most of the personnel and noncom's were married men, and they had all the rank. So, there was just a few of us as privates. I was the youngest one in the company, and that was a reason why I maintained my rank as private. Even though most of us shared about the same responsibilities, some of the fellows in the unit were assigned to be photographers. And we had a toxicology department where we had mice and rats to experiment with, as far as agents such as mustard gas and lewisite, and all those types of things. We had our own glassblower that made glass equipment that we needed for the lab. And, so, we were kind of a very independent unit as far as operations go. But it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference if you were a private, a PFC, a corporal, or a sergeant. We were assigned various duties, and we changed all the time; such as guard duty. We would run about four hour shifts twice a night. We would have about four, sometimes five, other persons to help with guard 7