Guidelines for Taping War Memoirs

These guidelines are a work in progress. Any suggestions would be
greatly appreciated.

If you are taping your memoirs, you should have received a portable
tape recorder, spare batteries, and enough mini-cassette tapes for 9
hours of taping. Should you need more tapes, please contact Dr. Winn
at winn@nsuok.edu or 918-456-5511, extension 3605, and she will provide
them for you. You should not feel that you have to fill up 9 hours of
tape. But if you want to, feel free to talk for 9 hours.

Instructions for operating the tape recorders are included in the box
of materials. We would appreciate it if you would try to keep the tape
recorder in good condition since it will be used by others.

Please fill out the form and include it in the envelope containing your
taped memoirs so the Archive can keep track of materials. We are new
at this and want to prevent any errors.

Getting Started

1. After you master how to work the tape recorder, please record your
full name and any military designations like the branch of service,
regiment, battalion, company, etc., or whatever designations are proper
for your branch of service.

2. Please record what war you were in and the dates of your
participation. Were you drafted or did you volunteer?

3. Record your rank at the time of the memoirs and your speciality.

4. Tell us your complete story. We are interested in details of your
war service, and above, all, total honesty. We hope to record the
experiences of ordinary soldiers, not necessarily heroes or heroines.
Of course, any information that is still sensitive may be omitted,
assuming that historical material is sensitive.

5. Questions-- Below are a few questions to get you started. You do
not have to answer them. They are just to jog your memory.

a. Were you in any firefights or actions that required actual shooting?

b. Was your training adequate for an actual war?

c. Was there good morale among your unit? If not, why not? If so,
why?

d. Were you wounded? If so, how did it feel to be wounded? (People
describe being wounded in different ways--some felt sharp pain, some
dull pain, and some no pain at all.) What was the quality of the
medical help both on and off the field?

e. Did anything funny happen while you were at war? What?

f. What is your estimation of your officers? If you were an officer,
what is your estimation of higher ranking officers?

g. What is your estimation of fellow soldiers in your unit?

h. Did you or your group experience any types of psychological stress?
What were the circumstances? Did you encounter any self-inflicted
wounds among fellow soldiers? What were the circumstances surrounding
these incidents?

i. How did you handle the death of fellow soldiers? Did you see any
particularly horrible deaths or wounds? How did you feel about that?
Did you become hardened to seeing horrible sights? Do you still
remember these incidents clearly?

j. Did you see or participate in any atrocities by the U.S. forces?
By the enemy forces?

k. What was the policy on prisoners of war in your unit? Did your
unit ever take prisoners? What was your attitude toward the prisoners?

l. How did you handle fear? Did you feel fear in combat throughout
your war experience? Did you get over feeling afraid?

m. Did you ever have any paranormal or psychic experiences? You’d be
amazed at how common these are.

n. What else can you contribute to our knowledge of your war? Please
feel free to comment any way you want.

Please say whatever you want. We will not edit for profanity or
anything else. This is YOUR memoir, so you should make it your own.

Please print this and have on hand during interview