Interview with Bill Chandler, WW II Veteran 

My neighbor was also a Corpsman during WWII. He was a couple of years older than Mr. Chandler and he went on to become a doctor. He didn’t talk about his wartime experiences until he started into early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. He would tell me things that happened in the Pacific islands campaigns as if they had happened two days ago. Then he forgot everything. I miss him.

It’s crazy to think this guy was 19 & 20 years old and doing surgery with blood and guts everywhere. Thanks for sharing his interview! WW2 vets have the most amazing interviews. The longer the better!

I only got to meet him once or twice. Im happy to finally hear my grandpa's story

What a beautiful human being. Just by sitting from a chair and speaking, he somehow exemplifies why he and his peers were called the greatest generation. Thank you for sharing some of your family history. We who've seen it are the better for it. It genuinely serves as a reminder to me to simply do better.

Dear Alisha. Your grandfather seemed like a lovely gentle man. His story, told in the first person touched me. Thanks for sharing this precious resource. All the best.

I’m at a loss for words. I’m a 26 year Navy veteran, MD, & deployed twice to the Middle East. I wish I had seen this before those deployments and showed it to the corpsmen with whom I had the honor of working. To realize that we were sustaining the legacy of people such as Spud Chandler would have galvanized us. Thank you for the example you provided. I hope we were worthy.

One of the best interviews I have watched. Thanks.

How anybody could dislike this first hand account of history I don`t know. Thank you Alisha for your grandfathers account of history, and for posting it.

Mr Chandler, thank you for your service and sharing your story! The picture of snow and meeting your wife was a sweet addition, congratulations on a such a successful marriage!

Alisha, you are very fortunate to have this recording of your grandfather and we are fortunate that you shared it with us.

Thank you for posting this interview with your grandfather. My stepdad Hollis Newberry was in the Pacific Theater with MacArthur. It was very hard for him to talk about. He's gone now, but we cherish his memory.

Bless him and all others like him.

I didn’t realize that they had surgery right there on the island. That must have saved a lot of lives. Time is critical. And they let 19 yr old assistants do simple operations. Wow incredible.

I just wonder if my father (1924-2009) knew "Spud". Wish he was still around to ask him. He was a USN Corpsman who was volunteered for USMC just as as "Spud" was. He was sent to Lejeune, went thru the Corpsman training then on to the 4th MarDiv The "Fighting Fourth". He did Saipan, Roi-Namur, & Iwo. At Iwo he had at the last minute been pulled from his line unit & assigned to the evac barges from shore to the hospital ship. He got thru Saipan & Kwajelan without so much as a scratch & once told me he had he gone in on the ground with the 25th Marines @ Iwo, he had a bad feeling his number would have been up. That would have been the end of me & my brother.

Thank you for sharing your story and your service!

This was a really good interview. He did such a good job of describing his experiences. Very articulate with such a calm way of speaking. I am 3/4 of the way through; all this happened while he was 19 years old! I just read in the description bar that he died six years ago at age 90. He lived a long time.

Another example of “The Greatest Generation”! Semper Fi

Thanks for posting this, what a great story and a great guy.

My great uncle was a marine in the south pacific. It was great to see this interview and get a perspective of what these people went through. Thank you to your grandfather and your family for their service.

Thank you, sir, for your service and for having a heart for children and education!

Excellent report. These historical first hand accounts are pure gold.

Thank you for everything sir

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Greetings from Chile, South America.

Alisha, the video quality is excellent and any anomalies are negligible to the totality of the content. Thank you for doing what you accomplished here, to be preserved for all time.

Humbling and inspiring story.

One of the best interviews on the war in the Pacific I have seen. So glad he shared those experiences for posterity. My grandfather was in the Ardennes during the battle of the bulge. I never saw that man cry, I though he was made out of steel, but he could not get through 5 minutes of remembering that time before he broke down in tears. Truly the greatest generation.

In the Marine Corps we have a saying, "We take care of our own." We take care of our Corpsmen, and they take care of us.

Still listening to this amazing story

Thankyou for saving so many lives

Thank you for sharing. What a wonderful man and a wonderful family memoir.

What a kind and wonderful man. Thank you sir.

Wow what a story... love the one about walking thru a land mine area and not even knowing it. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Memories and narratives preserved forever. Let us all hope it is not lost on self absorbed flakes. They owe so much and dont even realize such.

This man is a treasure.

I live in the small town of Boonville, IN which is only a 15 minute drive to Evansville. This is a great interview and I'm proud to live so close to his hometown. Thank you sir for your service!

Awesome Man , and he is so polite and nice, what an ordeal, but He lives on through you.

Thanks you sir. 🇺🇲

R4D was the the US Navy designation for a DC-3.

Great interview.

Such a wonderful voice, and great communication skills, probably could have easily excelled in broadcasting. Had I not seen his name in the title and then his image, I could have mistaken his voice as that of Ronald Reagan.

Not heard in school! Life's history! Thanks for posting!

There goeth a Man!

P61 black widow nightfighter

Patriot.

Night fighter was likely a P-61.

I hope he’s still with us. I’d love to grab a burger with him.

some story .a very fine man u must say

he soo reminds my of family

The quality of the image, a portrait, the still Betacam, a 1K with a stovepipe that had paper tape across the front of it, blue party gel, key light with diffusion, is somewhat amazing. It is sharp. Videotape at that time was either Sony 3/4 Umatic or Betacam at the professional level. Betamax as a professional format is very likely what you are seeing. In a cassette it had the capacity for about 43 minutes. VHS was definitely an amateur format. Personally the best camera I have ever owned is my Olympus Tough 820. I think that is it. 820 I mean. It has a good sized sensor & is 12 megapixels. I can set various special effects. It is waterproof to 30 feet. It is the size of my hand. I say to youths they are lucky since now 300 dpi and 10 meg & that is a technically professional standard. During my lifetime the formats kept changing. The digital format is basically mature, and will be so for as long if not longer than has been the case with film. As far as the interviews and the interview with this loving stable intelligent man I am glad to have seen it, believe in the project, and am grateful to the producers, crew & Mr. Bill Chandler. Thanks. Russell

I'm a retired nurse I understand what he means by not coping with bad bedside manner. You can put up with anything but that. God Bless Him.

wow... great interview ... "the coca cola hour"... awesome info!

I wonder if those huge field glasses he seen were Japanese navy binoculars

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The USMC didn't even have corpsmen much less surgeons. All their medical care and caretakers came from the USN.

I don't think this interviewer has much of a sense of humor.