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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • War or Conflict: Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Korean War, 1950-1953
  • Branch of Service: Navy; Army
  • Unit of Service: 619th Ordnance Ammunition Company, 1st Army; Construction Battalion (NCB Seabee)
  • Location of Service: Antarctica; Korea; Japan; New Zealand; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Port Hueneme, California; Davisville, Rhode Island; Vietnam
  • Highest Rank: E-6
  • Collection Number: AFC/2001/001/44094

View full service history

"Nobody's superior to anybody; we're all dependent upon one another… Everybody got a different talent… Everything you do, somebody else got a hand in it of some other nationality." (Audio Interview, 24:16)

Eugene Hill is blunt in admitting why he enlisted as a teenager. His North Carolina town was run by the Ku Klux Klan, and he felt there was no future for a young black man there, so he "joined the Army to learn how to kill," a skill he assumed he would need to survive in his home town. His tour of duty in Korea was mainly search and destroy missions with a small squad of men. Hill's careers in the Army and later the Navy included many stops, including two tours of duty in Vietnam. Along the way, that "blazing hot" hatred he held as a young man cooled as he was exposed to different cultures.

Eugene Hill Collection
Interview / Recording

About this Item

Title

  • Eugene Hill Collection

Names

  • Hill, Eugene
  • AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps)
  • Crisp, Billie R.
  • AmeriCorps NCCC

Home State

  • Washington (D.C.)

Headings

  • -  Hill, Eugene
  • -  Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Army.
  • -  Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Navy.

Form

  • CD

Extent

  • 1 item

Repository

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

Gender

  • Male

Race

  • Black or African American

Status

  • veteran

Service History

  • Korean War, 1950-1953

    • Branch of Service: Army
    • Unit of Service: 619th Ordnance Ammunition Company, 1st Army
    • Location of Service: Antarctica; Korea; Japan; New Zealand; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Port Hueneme, California; Davisville, Rhode Island
    • Highest Rank: E-6
    • Dates of Service: 1948-1969
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: veteran
  • Vietnam War, 1961-1975

    • Branch of Service: Navy
    • Unit of Service: Construction Battalion (NCB Seabee)
    • Location of Service: Vietnam
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: veteran

Materials

  • Audio: CD [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 2006-03-07; 1994-12-31)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/44094

Cite as

  • Eugene Hill Collection (AFC/2001/001/44094), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • audio

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:

Hill, Eugene, Americorps Nccc, Billie R Crisp, and Americorps Nccc. Eugene Hill Collection. 1948. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.44094/.

APA citation style:

Hill, E., Americorps Nccc, Crisp, B. R. & Americorps Nccc. (1948) Eugene Hill Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.44094/.

MLA citation style:

Hill, Eugene, et al. Eugene Hill Collection. 1948. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.44094/>.