World War I Interview

When I was a junior high school student, some many years back, my mom worked at a nursing home where a World War I veteran lived.

As a history project I interviewed him. I do not remember his first name, but his last name was Jeppeson.

This interview is some 25 minutes long and would take some patience to listen through, but it's worth it because of some of the great quotes.

For example, "There goes the guy with more blood and guts on both ends of the rifle than anyone else in the outfit."

Originally this interview was taped on a small portable reel to reel. Only recently was I able to convert it to a digital format.

Jeppeson talks about his basic training at Camp Wadsworth, the experience of being shipped across the ocean on a troop transport, trench warfare, battlefields such as the Argonne and the Vosges, rats, disease, and life and death in battle.

His concluding thoughts about warfare are pretty basic. "You gotta get the other guy before he gets you."