| Title |
Joseph Boyd McKean, West Valley City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, December 4, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 716 |
| Alternative Title |
Joseph Boyd McKean, Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
McKean, Joseph Boyd, 1916-2008 |
| Contributor |
Lloyd, Becky B.; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2004-12-04 |
| 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 |
England, United Kingdom; France; Belgium; Luxembourg; Germany |
| Subject |
McKean, Joseph Boyd, 1916-2008--Interviews; Veterans--Utah--Biography; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Military operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Artillery operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Europe, Northern--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy--Personal narratives, American; Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945--Personal narratives, American; Prisoners of war--United States; Prisoners of war--Germany |
| Keywords |
ROTC; Field Artillery Battalion; Battle of the Bulge; Mining engineers |
| Description |
Transcript (48 pages) of an interview by Becky B. Lloyd with Joseph Boyd McKean on December 4, 2004. From tape number 716 in the "Saving the Legacy" Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
McKean (b. 1916) recalls his childhood in Spring City, Utah. He discusses his family, the Depression, schooling and experiences in ROTC at the University of Utah. Called to active duty and sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for field artillery training, he was assigned to the 18th Field Artillery and shipped to England. He landed on Utah Beach a few days after D-Day with the 687th Field Artillery Batallion. He fought in France, Belgium and Luxembourg and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. McKean was interrogated in a castle at Diez before being sent to Stalag XIIA until liberated in early 1945. He returned to Salt Lake City and stayed in the Reserves until 1958. Mr. McKean worked for US Steel for 30 years as a mining engineer and following retirement there, worked for the USGS for a period of time. Interviewed by Becky Lloyd. 48 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
48 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/s6b87b6v |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945); Military operations, Artillery--American; Ardennes, Battle of the (1944-1945); Prisoners of war |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1034381 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6b87b6v |
| Title |
Page 22 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1034354 |
| OCR Text |
Show JO EPH BOYD McKEAN D MB R 4 2004 and you're still alive, you go about your work. You don't worry about it. That wa th kind of attitude I got. I even had guys, when I was captured, I even had guys that were half crazy in my command car. I got so I wouldn't be afraid. A tank outfit, who was there before the battle started, I got to the commanding officer there one day and boy, he smelled like a brewery. I said, "You've been drinking a little bit, huh?" He said, "I have to, to keep my senses." All the time when I was in the Army, when they captured those big warehouses full of wines and beers, they issued it to us. They were issuing drinks like that to us all the time when they'd get it like that, cigarettes, and everything like that. You could buy a carton of cigarettes for fifty-five cents in Fort Sill. Now, what are they? Twenty-five dollars? I learned how to smoke a little bit then but I stopped when I got back and got a church job. Anyway, we were retreating. We held the Germans up in that area for three days. Then we ran out of ammunition. Field Artillery has three firing batteries and each one of them has four howitzers; 105 mm howitzers. We had a ton of ammunition, but we ran out of good ammunition. We had a lot of shells that were propaganda shells. When they exploded, they put out leaflets. But I even had them shoot those things. Then we had some white phosphorous. I had them shoot everything that we had. Then the infantry didn't have transportation. Our field artillery was all motorized, so we had lots of trucks. We loaded those things up with the infantry. They didn't have any ammunition. I saw some lights in one house and went there and there was a whole rescue crew down there just all huddled up. We loaded them up and took them too. I got back to our headquarters battery and our other batteries were going. Some of them got into Bastongne. You've heard of that, huh? 22 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6b87b6v/1034354 |
