Oral History Interview with Norman Pondich, July 28, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Norman Pondich. Pondich joined the Navy in April 1944 and received basic training at Samson. Upon completion, he was assigned to a supply depot at Tacloban where he operated a forklift and oversaw Japanese and Filipino laborers. The depot received food from the ships coming into the harbor, some of it frozen as far back as 1936. The food would then be stored in Quonset huts until it was transferred to ships that supplied the occupation forces. Pondich was injured while trying to secure an eight-mile stretch of supplies laid out along the beach, when a tsunami threatened to wash them all away. Upon his recovery, he was assigned as a storekeeper aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6), where he marveled at the ship’s organized supply system. His injury, however, proved to not be fully healed, so Pondich returned home and was discharged