Oral History Interview with Victor Khun, August 6, 2009

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Victor Kuhn. Kuhn was born 1 August 1921 into a family of 13 children. He tells of living on a farm and growing up during the Great Depression. In July 1942 he enlisted in the Navy and attended boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon completion of boot camp, he was selected to attend radio school at the University of Chicago where he learned Morse code and radio procedures. Before he graduated, his father became sick and was unable to work the farm. Through the efforts of the Red Cross he was temporarily released from the Navy to assist his father. In July 1944 he was called back to active duty. Kuhn went through boot camp again and went to radio school again, this time at Bainbridge, Maryland. Upon completion of the basic radio course he was assigned to Japanese Radio Intercept School at Cheltenham, Maryland. He learned to copy Japanese messages using a typewriter and recalls that the school was considered Top Secret and was heavily guarded by a contingent of US Marines. Upon completing the radio intercept course he was sent to Hawaii. His duty was to monitor Japanese radio traffic. He tells of being relieved as an intercept operator and assigned to the job of encoding intercepted messages for transmittal to Washington, D.C. Kuhn was discharged 27 December 1945. As he was in the Navy Reserves, he was recalled during the Korean War and served from January 1951 until December 1952