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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
  • Branch of Service: Army
  • Unit of Service: 33rd Infantry Division; 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
  • Location of Service: Fort Crook, Omaha; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Camp Forrest, Tennessee; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Camp Carson, Colorado; Camp Shanks, New York; Scotland; England; France; Czechoslovakia; Germany; European Theater
  • Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
  • Collection Number: AFC/2001/001/39436

View full service history

"We left the harbor about sundown… and I got to thinking, 'This is the real thing. Tomorrow morning is the real thing, what we've been practicing for. I wonder if I'll ever see that sun again.'" (Audio interview, 20:09)

Drafted October 16th, 1941, Army Staff Sergeant Dean Weissert became part of a communications platoon: specifically, as wire chief, his role was to lay telephone wire. On D-Day, this meant "jumping from tree to tree" while dodging German snipers; by the end of the day, he says, "I don't think we got more than a mile from the beach." In his interview, he discusses the perils of laying wire at night, being so worn out that he would sleep through the shelling adjacent to his foxhole, and his interactions with German civilians. Coming from a German-American family, he felt conflicted: while killing the enemy would help to end the war, he had a particular understanding of the German soldiers' inherent humanity.

Dean Milton Weissert Collection
Interview / Recording

Transcript

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About this Item

Title

  • Dean Milton Weissert Collection

Names

  • U.S. Senate/Chuck Hagel
  • Malcom, Brooke A.
  • Weissert, Dean Milton
  • Hagel, Chuck

Home State

  • Nebraska

Headings

  • -  Weissert, Dean Milton
  • -  World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Army.

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Male

Race

  • White

Status

  • veteran

Service History

  • World War, 1939-1945

    • Branch of Service: Army
    • Unit of Service: 33rd Infantry Division; 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
    • Location of Service: Fort Crook, Omaha; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Camp Forrest, Tennessee; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Camp Carson, Colorado; Camp Shanks, New York; Scotland; England; France; Czechoslovakia; Germany; European Theater
    • Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
    • Dates of Service: 1941-1945
    • Entrance into Service: Drafted
    • Military Status: veteran
    • Service History Note: The veteran served with telecommunications placing wirelines through combat areas.

Materials

  • Audio: Audio Cassette [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 2005-09-11)
  • Manuscript: Transcript [1 item] -- Transcription of audio recording (collected 2005-09-11)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/39436

Cite as

  • Dean Milton Weissert Collection (AFC/2001/001/39436), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • audio
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

U.S. Senate/Chuck Hagel, Brooke A Malcom, Dean Milton Weissert, and Chuck Hagel. Dean Milton Weissert Collection. 1941. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.39436/.

APA citation style:

U.S. Senate/Chuck Hagel, Malcom, B. A., Weissert, D. M. & Hagel, C. (1941) Dean Milton Weissert Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.39436/.

MLA citation style:

U.S. Senate/Chuck Hagel, et al. Dean Milton Weissert Collection. 1941. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.39436/>.