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Play Movie3-Interview Questions Begin
Transcribed by: Jonah W (2009)
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What were the most pivotal moments in your teenage years?
I think it was at Santa Barbra high school. And I think I was on the high school rifle team and because my dad was the ROTC instructor I got a lot of target practice where the ROTC buildings were at Santa Barbra high. And I think that stood me in great form because I was an expert marks man in the military then because I learned how to, well we had twenty twos' then. Then we had Grands and other types heavy weapons in the military, but I was a crack shot then too, even at five hundred yards, I could hit the bull’s eye.
Can you maybe talk about your dad a little bit and the relationship you had with him?
He was a pretty strict guy because he was military man. And he was sergeant in. First of all Washington after I was born we went to Pullman and he was the ROTC instructor at Washington State College, now University. And then when I was three and a half years old he was transferred to Santa Barbra and he was the ROTC instructor at Santa Barbra high school. And I spent a lot of time at that facility and played baseball at Santa Barbra high, as a teenager. That was another high point in my career. I had a friend whose name was Bill, Billy Maginuess and we had a two man football team. And we challenged all other two-man football teams and I remember playing a couple of Hispanic guys and we would center the ball to ourselves and then throw a long pass. And I think the score to of the game was eighty-five to seventy two, or something like that, in that game. And we were the champions of two-man football team in all of Santa Barbra that was a pretty high point in my teenage years.
Did you have any other hobbies?
Yeah I built model airplanes and I was adept at woodwork, woodworking. Really enjoyed it and of course we had a football team at Santa Barbra high, it was a pretty good team and we always went to the games. We got into the championship at the Coliseum in Los Angeles against Alhambra. And we stomped, absolutely stomped. This quarter back, he was more a runner than he was a passer and he was about six feet two and it took about all of our team to tackle him. So, they beat us pretty handidly.That was another when I was a teenager, before I went to school.
So you told us a little bit about your father who else was in your family at that point?
Let me go a little further with my dad, after the war started he got transferred from Santa Barbra and got his commission because he was in the Army reserves. And so he was the professor of military science and tactics at three different high schools in the Los Angeles area. And course that transfer was very traumatic to me because I had to leave my friends. But, I made friends at Van ice high school. He being in charge of the ROTC program, I wanted to become an ROTC cadet officer. Well he had the plan to do close order drill to find out who was the best qualified to become a cadet officer; I included. My dad played the part of a company commander and he was giving the commands. So, I was the platoon leader of the second platoon in this close order drill and he was giving the commands. And he gave the command, "company mass left" and I properly said continue to march and he said, "As you were". And the he gave the command again, "company mass left" and I said continue to march, and he said, "Dunn what is the proper command when I give the command company mass left". And I said, sir, is it not continue to march half left half right, he said, "oh ok." And he never did apologize, never did, but he was very strict, but I loved him a lot. I don’t know if he really loved me, but he never said so. And he never said he was proud of me when I got my commission and when I became a bird kernel. The only thing he said to me, one day he called. That’s when I was a, lets see, where was I then, I was still in the Los Angeles area because I had been promoted to bird kernel. And he called me one day because he had retired as a lieutenant kernel and he said, "sir can I have a weekend pass" and I said light kernel let me think about it. So, I got back at him and I have never forgot that episode at Van ice high school. But he really was a wonderful father.
Did you have any siblings?
Yeah, I had a sister. Betty Nina Rebecca Dunn and she passed away about five years ago. Unfortunately, from well, she had nervous breakdown then she was in a rest home because she had lost a good deal of her brain power. And then finally contracted, cant think of the name of the disease, but she died about five years ago.
Were you close with her as a kid?
Yeah, very much so, until we parted company when we both married. She lived in Woodland hills and of course I lived in North Hollywood initially, and then when my first wife and I divorced, and I married Marge. That was a story too, we were dating and she told me she moving from Southern California to Monterey. And I'm still working in Southern California, so I was commuting from Pasadena to here, in my Corvette. Which I had a 1965 Corvette.
Was it Red?
No, as a matter of fact, I bought it in Los Angels and there were only two 65s' left. A red one and a silver grey one and the sales man said, "If I were you I would by the silver grey because you wont get two blocks out of here with the red one before you get a ticket." I still got tickets in the grey one because it was a pretty snappy car, still is, its out in the garage. Upgraded.
Maybe if we could just venture back very quickly to your childhood and your high school years, do you remember the first time you heard about the rise of Hitler in Europe.
I had known about the war that started in 39' while I was still in Santa Barbra, as a matter of fact the Japanese two man submarine had come close to the coast of Santa Barbra and fired off some shots near the coast. But, that’s about all. We didn’t really know about the war or didn’t really about Hitler and what was going on in Europe really, until I got into high school. And then, course I knew about it then, because we studied it and certainly knew about it at Venice. And I had a friend at Venice high school that was also in ROTC his name was Bob Wellford. And he and I wanted to go to West point. And we took the exam and we both passed it and he had some tie with a congressman and I didn’t so, he got selected to go to West Point. But, then I heard he was killed in combat. I don’t know that was sort of ironic I did not make West Point so I didn’t go as soon as he did to combat. And that was a pretty sad thing to learn that he had been killed.
So after high school you enrolled at UCLA and then you said you were inducted into the military, can you tell us what that means?
I was in the ROTC at UCLA also. And in May of 1943 I started school in September of 42' at UCLA also in the ROTC I was in engineering, mechanical engineering, college there. The whole ROTC class was inducted, inducted means, in fact we went to fort Macarthur in San Pedro and go our uniforms and shots. And inducted means you’re taken into the military and we were then transferred from the induction at fort Macarthur to camp Roberts California. South of Monterey, North of Santa Barbra. And I spent basic training there, went back to UCLA to wait for an opening at Fort Benning, Georgia at officer candidate school in January of 1944. And got sick twice, so I had to get out of both classes and finally graduated in August and joined the forty second Rainbow division in Oklahoma. Then that’s where I met my wife, my first wife, Sally. And then shipped overseas in November of 44'.
Can you recall while during you military training days if you were briefed about what was happening globally?
Not really, and that’s what was so pitiful was no body knew, well Roosevelt knew it, about the Holocaust. We didn’t know anything about and yet it had been going on. Dachau was formed in 1933 to incarcerate homosexuals and people who were against Hitler. And so that really was the start of I guess the Holocaust. And then of course the Jewish people were being hauled off in mass to the death camps that sprung up after that. And so, we didn’t know anything about this. We at our level.
As a matter of fact, I will get into this later in some detail, a Polish; he was rather high up in the ranks of the Polish government. His name was Jan Karski and he was able to get away from the Germans and went to England to talk to the Churchill all about the fact that the Holocaust is in being. And Churchill said we can’t help because were being bombarded all the time and London was being reduced to ruble by the German rockets that were coming over. So, you better find your way to see Roosevelt of the United States. And so he got an audience with Roosevelt and Karski told him about what was going on. And Roosevelt said well were winning the war and Jan Karski said,” you maybe winning the war, but by the time you do there might not be any of us left." Roosevelt knew what was going on in a lot of people in the hierarchy did I guess, but we didn’t, we didn’t know a thing about it. And yet that two million Jewish people were killed in these various death camps.
Was there any speculation, at all?
None, we went into combat not knowing that it was going on.
I no you talked a little bit about the process of being shipped overseas, but can you maybe tell us about the day you landed in Marseille and what you did and where you were taken?
We landed and were trucked up to a place called CP2, which was on the side of a hill and it was the host miserable place we could have imagined. It was raining and mud was everywhere and we were in pup tents and I think it was done on purpose because itching to get into combat and off this terrible place. And so they put us on, trucked us to a rail station and put us in forty and eight boxcars and that was another miserable trip up North to Leon, France. And then from then we went to Strasburg, France and that’s where we entered combat.
Can you tell us a little bit about that first experience with combat?
We were quartered in a chateau on the Rhine, a beautiful place. Had a sixteen car garage and we all had bedrooms. It was a huge place. We went from there to an outpost and fired shots across; my whole platoon was there, fired shots across the Ryan River at what we presumed where the Germans were. And they were firing back and no body go hurt because we couldn’t see them and they couldn’t see us. So, we were just firing. And so that was a "Cross-eyed" combat I guess you would call it. And then we were moved further North near Nazi France. And that’s where I got into heavy combat, East of Nazi in the dead of winter. I think I talked to you about having been on an out post line.
Can you tell us what its like to have to fight in harsh weather conditions?
Well it’s pretty miserable because you’re in a foxhole freezing practically and while we were on this out post line is when the battle of the Bulged started. The "Are Dance campaign". And we were there for five days trying to hold off Germans and the next day, well that night they came upon our positions with a couple of tanks and they were just firing blindly because they didn’t know where we were. The next day the German infantry was attempting to surround us and did. And this is one of the times my platoon sergeant saved my life, or our lives because he saw this German sneaking up on our position to throw, what they call a potato masher and he shot him before he could do that.
What was his name?
Ted Swain. Great guy, just tremendous. He saved my life about 3 times I think.
