Collection:LPB

Genre: Interview

Place Covered: Canal Zone, Panama, France

Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority

Date Issued: 2007-09-06

Duration: 00:43:12

Subjects: Fox, John F., Jr. | World War II | Military | Veterans | World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives | Merchant marine -- United States | United States. Army | United States. Army. Transportation Corps | World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- France -- Normandy | World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, German | Leopoldville (Ship) | D-DAY | Hurricane Katrina, 2005 | Natural Disasters

Contributors:

• Lefebvre, Marian Interviewer
• Fox, John F., Jr. Interviewee

An oral history interview conducted on September 6, 2007, with John F. Fox, Jr., a member of the Merchant Marines and Army Transportation Corps during World War II. He discusses: joining the Merchant Marines; transporting Army equipment through the Panama Canal Zone; joining the Army Transportation Corps; transporting aviation fuel in the Gulf of Mexico; fueling P-T boats and British torpedo boats off of the beaches of Normandy, France, for 57 days following the D-Day invasion; fueling a British minesweeping flotilla between the ports of Le Havre and Brest in France; the little-known torpedoing of the Leopoldville, a Belgian troop ship carrying American soldiers to the Battle of the Bulge, which resulted in the deaths of over 900 soldiers; being forced to relinquish his war-time souvenirs on his return to the United States; making 6 Atlantic crossings to bring troops home from Europe; his life after the war; his experience of Hurricane Katrina; and the courage of the men who participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day.