| Title |
Frederick John Donkin Jr., Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, September 17, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape no. 579 & 580 |
| Alternative Title |
Frederick John Donkin Jr., Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
Donkin, Frederick John, 1922-2011 |
| Contributor |
Lloyd, Becky B.; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2002-09-17 |
| 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 |
Philippines; China |
| Subject |
Donkin, Frederick John, 1922-2011--Interviews; Veterans--United States--Biography; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Naval operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Pacific Area--Personal narratives, American |
| Keywords |
Radio technicians; Mechanical engineers |
| Description |
Transcript (70 pages) of an interview by Becky B. Lloyd with John Donkin Jr., on September 17, 2002. From tape numbers 579 and 580 in the "Saving the Legacy" Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
Mr. Donkin (b. 1922) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He discusses his schooling, childhood, family and the Depression. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1943 in mechanical engineering. He hired with Vega Aircraft in Burbank, California, making B-17 bombers. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and took basic training at Great Lakes. He was sent to Del Monte, California and Treasure Island for more schooling. The war ended during this time. He was then assigned to Daystar LSM-218 where he was in charge of all electronic equipment while delivering supplies around the Philippine area and into China. He discusses his experiences during this time. He was separated from the Navy in July 1946 in Shoemaker, California, with an Electronic Technician 2nd Class rating. Mr. Donkin worked as an engineer and spent 25 years with Hercules before retiring in 1986. Interviewed by Becky Lloyd. 70 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
70 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/s6cc32s0 |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945); Military operations, Naval--American |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1033321 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6cc32s0 |
| Title |
Page 28 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1033278 |
| OCR Text |
Show FRED R1 K JOH DONKI , JR. p B 17 2002 FRE: It s actually a man-made island connected to Y rba Bu na I land in th an Francisco Bay. The San Francisco-Oakland Bridge goes from an Franci c t that island, and then from that island to Oakland. That's the way it s built. But it was dif£ r nt then. They had trains that went on the lower level of the bridge, the A and the B trains from San Francisco. One would go to Berkeley, one would go out the other way and the road was on the top level. They don't have the trains anymore because BART goes under the bay. I haven't been down to San Francisco for years. When I was working I used to do that. That's ahead of the story-I'll get to that. BEC: Okay. So you ended up being based at Treasure Island. FRE: Yes. It was kind of neat there because we all carried a secret clearance because we were working on stuff that was classified, such as the IFF gear, which is Identified Friend or Foe. That's the only gear in the Navy that wasn't color-coded on the wiring. It was all white inside, all white wire. I was in charge of the IFF gear on the ship when I went to the South Pacific. It was my job, if we were to be captured or sunk or anything else, I had to destroy that piece of gear. It had a phosphorous bomb in it. I could pull a self destruct lever and it would ignite that thing and burn all the wires off. With everything being white there was no way they could reconstruct all those wires. BEC: That's interesting. FRE: And we also knew about the submarine that had been captured by Americans, the U-505, which is now in Chicago in a museum. It has been for years. It was a German sub that they captured off of South America somewhere, Montevideo, down in that area, but the crew scuttled it to make sure it went down, but they were sloppy. They had a plug in the bottom they'd take out. They were supposed to dispose of that but they just threw it 28 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6cc32s0/1033278 |
