Robert Corlett Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Victoria Corlett, World War II Interview, March 4, 2016.

A. My interview was conducted in person, at my grandparent’s house in Ohio. This was because I was interviewing my grandfather. I prepared for the interview by researching World War II, and making sure that I knew my grandfather’s specific involvement, i.e. he didn’t physically fight in the war. I also gave my grandfather a general overview of the topics I would be covering, so he wouldn’t be caught off guard by anything. The day of the interview, I prepared a quite space and recorded the interview using both Voice Record Pro on my iPhone 6s, and GarageBand on my MacBook Air. Even though my interview ended up going slightly over 20 minutes, I didn’t edit it because I felt like everything my interviewee said was important.

B. Robert Jackson Corlett was born on August 10, 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio. Robert was raised in his family’s home in East Cleveland with his older brother, Donald.  During the Great Depression, they spent most of their summers working on their mother’s family farm in Andover, Ohio with their cousins. Their mother’s family were share croppers and were hit hard by the Great Depression. So, when Robert and Donald came to spend the summer at the farm, they would come with supplies from the city. During the school year, Robert attended Shaw High School where he met my grandma, Mary Lou Gleason. Later, during the Korean conflict, Robert first tried to enlist in the Air Force, but he was denied because he was color blind, and then enlisted in the Marines. However, his goal of being a marine was crushed during a routine physical. The doctors found a cyst on his spine, and he had to go home. Later, Robert decided to attend night school shortly after his first of four children was born, my dad. Robert was balancing night school, a full time job, a part time weekend job, and being a dad all at once. However, against all odds, he scored highly in analytical logic. This high score caught the attention of the Ohio Rubber company, and they offered him a job in the nascent computer industry. This job led to a 40-year old career in data processing.

C. World War II started on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. Had it not been for the various alliances formed around the world (The Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, versus the Allied Powers: U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia) this invasion probably would not have escalated into a world war. However, because there was such an extensive network of alliances, the invasion of Poland led to a massive conflict known as World War II. However, this conflict was mostly contained to Europe before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Then, America declared war. However, the Second World War was never physically fought on American soil, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Americans at home were still greatly affected. The United States’ involvement in World War II effectively ended the Great Depression due to increased military spending. However, with the increase of military spending, came an increase of the average American’s involvement in the war effort. The everyday American’s involvement ranged from making army equipment in the factories, to buying war bonds, to saving scrap metal, to planting “victory gardens.” Additionally, just about everyone knew someone, or had had a loved one, who had gone off to fight in the war.

D. Transcription:

VC: Okay, can you please state your name?

Robert Corlett: Robert J. Corlett

VC: Thank you very much. So what was it like growing up during the Depression?

Robert Corlett: Actually, I, of course, was born and two months later, the Great Depression started. So all my early years, I would say until I was eight or nine years old, we were very aware of the Depression because many of my mother’s and fath-, well mostly my mother’s, relatives some of them were without jobs and some worked on the farm and the farm had problems. I had one Aunt, and Uncle, that actually had to go to sharecropping, which is a really tough way to make a living. And we did a lot of bringing food baskets and things to my relatives living in the country and they lived down around the Pymatuning area. My grandfather also had a farm down there. But, he did pass away in 1939. Kind of at the end of it. But we did, we needed horses, and we did ride them alone. And, like I said, I used to spend some time down there living on the farm in the summertime. Did a lot of fishing in the pond, hunting, ‘bout everything. And at that time they were building the Pymatuning lake, and we saw some of the things they built, and fished there.  My other relatives, they also had problems. Some of them were working on the WPA. And there really wasn’t much of a safety net for anybody because basically they had soup kitchens, and like people would come around like to Mary Lou’s mother’s house, people that were called tramps, but actually were just people without a job. And they would work for a lunch, or a meal, or something like that. And in fact that I think we had one small painting upstairs that somebody did and gave to Mary Lou’s mother that was from that time period where they did that for food or something I guess. My dad, who came here from the Isle of Mann, in I think about 1920, he had been in the World War I.  He was the only survivor of his unit, and had spent four and a half years in the trenches, and was sent to Egypt at the end of his five years, and he came back to the Isle of Mann. He talked about going to South Africa, but decided to go to the United States since his brother was in the United States. And his older brother was also killed in the war. He was wounded three times, still had shrapnel in his head- couldn’t do anything about it at that time. So, he started and got a job in the Cleveland Railway, which is the streetcars, basically. And that turned out to be a good job, because everybody needed transportation whether the Depression was on or not [interviewee laughs]. And I started working, probably about when I was 10 years old- even before that I did probably cleaning the sidewalks. There was one lady that, I don’t know, paid me a nickel or something if I would bring the groceries up the stairs to her house on the second floor [interviewee laughs]. And, delivering groceries, in the wintertime, there would be a sled, in the summertime, there would be a wagon. And you might get a dime or something for that, I don’t really remember, but of course things were a lot cheaper in that time. Later on, I got a paper route and that was where I kinda kept track of the war because you saw the causality list everyday. And World War II, was a war that everybody was in. I mean it was nothing like any wars you’ve seen- even the Vietnam War. I mean everything.  We had rationing, we had gas rationing, we had blackout curtains, we had air wardens, we had, you know. And most people, as the war went on, like my cousin Roy Landon,  he got taken in because even though he had a broken ear drum or something, because they needed more and more people as the war went on. And that kind of ended the Depression because many people went to work in the war plants that did that.  And I had a, I think when I was 15, I got a job at GE and lied about my age and I worked there on the GE glass plant and could work, you could work, eight hours and you could work a second eight hours if you wanted to. And I worked a second eight hours, and they were building a new kiln. Unfortunately, even though we had these helmets, a guy up above dropped one of these big concrete bricks and just grazed my arm. And that was enough for me [interviewee laughs]! If that would’ve hit my head, I would’ve been gone. So I just stuck with the eight hours after that. But I earned enough money for taking care of my dates and things during the school year. And that’s one thing that never stopped, we had spring break at Mentor on the Lake, and we would, since I was in a fraternity, we would have cottages we would rent and then spent the days having fun.  Is that enough on the depression?

VC: Yeah, no, that was awesome! You actually answered some of my questions on World War II as well, so that was awesome-

Robert Corlett: Yeah, well, so that, as it went on, my brother was still in high school, but he turned 18, so they took him out of high school. There was some limit on what age you had to be to go overseas, but he went overseas, and he was in the 16^th armored division with Pat and they were making progress towards Germany. And my other cousin, Buddy Fortenbaugh, he was in another army unit, and they were overrun in the Battle of the Bulge. He ended up with his feet being frozen because of the bad conditions there and such. And I’ve got a cousin Ralph, who had gone to North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. And was now in France, and was, I’m not sure if he was with the Big Red One, but he was a Sargent. At that time, he had worked his way up. I remember writing me a letter that said he had an encounter with a tank, and they escaped with their lives in that. And then, as I said before, later on, as the war was two weeks, or three weeks I guess, from ending, he was shot by the SS trooper and everybody was really upset over that. My brother, meanwhile, he was with the group that liberated the Dachau concentration camp. That was something! I mean, he took all of these pictures of all these thousands of dead bodies, and cremation things. It was just terrible. In fact, some of the prisoners, actually ran after the Nazi guards, and killed some of them, and nobody got in their way. It was just horrible. Right after that, they liberated a slave labor plant, and just before they got there, the Germans machine gunned everybody and killed ‘em all. And so they weren’t real happy [interviewee laughs]. And, so, that was quite an experience for him. So that, at that time, I think probably around May 8^th, I think, the war ended, and we had VE day. And my buddies and I, we all got in our cars, or one car, and drove downtown. There were thousands of people who were all having this great big party that lasted, I don’t know how long. And then, of course, we still had to look forward to the war in the Pacific. Of course my mother was worried that my brother would be sent over there. At that time, things were, of course, better than it had been. It had been really bad for a long time, and then, they had the marines took Iwo Jima, and then they also took Okinawa, and they lost just thousands and thousands of troops. Their next step was  to invade, Japan, and they called for them to surrender. Of course, the Japanese would have no part of it. And at that time, they figured I guess, that the Japanese were going to fight foot by foot over the whole country. They figured they would loose 600,000 people, so they dropped the atomic bombs. And the first one, I guess, the Japanese generals didn’t want to give in, but I think it was the Emperor that finally persuaded them after the Nagasaki bomb. And then they surrendered. And we had another VJ day, another party, and it was like, you know, I was then 16 I guess, and it seemed like I had been in the war all my life. It was just, everyday, you know, you lived it. So we were really happy. But, I think then, of course I graduated from high school at 17 and we decided that we were going to sign up for the air force and be pilots. And George and I went down and took the test and we passed the test, but then we found out we were colorblind. But actually, its what you call partial colorblind- you’re colorblind to red and green. And usually, it has to be small dots. And of course if you’re in a plane, you really should know between red and green, I guess [interviewee laughs]. So, that stopped that. And then, in ’48, may of ’48, we, I think two of the friends of mine had graduated in ’48, they wanted to, they had been playing varsity basketball, and they wanted to play on the marine team. So five or six of us went down and joined the marine reserve. I didn’t know that they had joined for two years- I had joined for four. Probably wasn’t a good idea [interviewee laughs]. But, so then, we started training at the armory there in Cleveland- which is kind of like the one they have in Akron now, which has been over in Afghanistan three or four times. But, so we learned really all the basics there. And then in July, I think around the 31^st, we went to Camp Lejeune for advanced training. And we did a lot of the amphibious type training, where we got on these boats, but like for the beach, like marines do. And I think the second day there, we were sent out on a hike. And we marched ten miles, probably in upper 80 heat, carrying all the stuff.  And we just had one canteen. The sweat just rolled off you. I mean your whole uniform was wet. We got out to this one area, and I was a scout because I guess I had done very well on the intelligence test. So they made me in the intelligence squad- so that made me a scout. So they sent us off into the swamp and I was the more scared of the snakes than anything. I was looking all over there- I didn’t wanna get bitten [interviewee laughs]! So we finally came back. Well then everybody else was rested, so then we started going back again, and walked ten miles back. And then they had a truck picking up some of the guys that collapsed and stuff. And they got back to the base, and they made this stuff called, some kind of juice, oh I can’t think of it, but it was actually like a limeade.  I must have drunk quarts of that- I was so dehydrated! So we had all that training, shooting- you’d go back bits and mark where the other guys were shooting. And you’d take your turn shooting. I remember one time, I didn’t have my elbow under the gun enough, so the Sargent kicks me in the head. I remember thinking, I’m not going to make that mistake again [interviewee laughs]! They treat you tough. So we went day after day. And actually, one night we’re supposed to have our hurricane, so we all went to bed with our uniforms and our helmets, and I don’t know what ever happened but, actually I did look it up afterwards and they did have a hurricane, but it never did anything- never at the base. But we were not far from the ocean. Then we had KP, and we would get up, they would wake you up, probably around maybe three in the morning, and you’d get up and you’d go in the Jeep and get food. They’d keep this bread, and you had to take the oldest bread first. But the oldest bread was moldy, but we got that anyhow [interviewee laughs].  But it was stupid, but we carried that- and then we made French toast with it so it was covered, and nobody else knew the difference. And then later on the officers wanted, we had chili that day, and they wanted more chili, but we had already thrown the rest into the garbage. We just got it out of the garbage, and figured well, they’ll never know the difference [interviewee laughs]! And then if you screwed up, I mean they, like the guys would have to carry their barracks boxes around the whole parade route. I mean that was really tough! So I made sure that I wasn’t going to make many mistakes [Interviewee laughs]!  They would get you up in the morning and it’d be dark, and you’d do all these all this stuff.  One Saturday night we had liberty, and we went into the town of Jackson. At that time, it was very segregated- really segregated. Course we went on a bus, and the back of the bus was for the blacks and all of the fountains- I mean everything was segregated. If you walked on the sidewalk and a black person came toward you, they would get off into the road. I mean we didn’t do this! But it was how it was there.

VC: Wow! So we only have a couple minutes left, so just really quickly, can you talk a little bit about your experience in the early computer industry? What was it like being involved in that?

Robert Corlett: Well, I started out the first time at the Ohio Rubber company. They gave me a test and I passed the test.  But since I didn’t have four years in college, the other guy got the job. So I took a lower level job in the IBM tab room, you had this IBM equipment, but it wasn’t really a computer. It was like 609 calculators and stuff like that. So, I got some experience, and then a friend of ours that lived where we did, called me and said that Reliance Electric needs a systems and procedures analyst. Which is what I did before that time. So I said, I’ll go there and I passed the IQ test, and that’s probably the only reason I got the job. In fact, they told me years later that I’d had one of the highest grades they’d ever had. So in a few months, they then decided to get a computer, and they gave me a test at IBM and I did very well. So they got me started doing the programming. The first program I had was for a payroll system that had seven different types of payroll calculations. We only had an 8K machine, [interviewee laughs] and half of that was the operating system. So I wrote that program, in three different languages, before we progressed through. We took it to IBM and complied it on the first crack, with no errors. It went very well. So I became the ace of the programming staff [interviewee laughs], and progressed from there. One time I was manufacturing manager head of ten plants, and we did all the computers. And I was division manager- so I progressed. But I liked it best when I was doing the actual coding, because it was a lot less headaches than doing the management part [interviewee laughs].  When I started in that first computer program, I was like this is what I’ve always wanted to do, and it worked out for me. It went very well.

VC: Well I’m glad it did, and that’s actually the end of our time.

Robert Corlett: Okay [interviewee chuckles]

VC: Thank you very much! This was awesome!

e. Overall, I feel like this was a very successful interview, but I do wish that I had had the chance to ask more questions. My interviewee likes to talk, and I barely had a chance to get a word in. He did end up answering most of my questions, but I do wish that I had had the time to ask him about his experience in being rejected from serving in the military because of medical reasons. However, because my interviewee does have such a passion for talking, and story telling, my interview flowed very well. Additionally, my interview never really veered off topic; everything he said was related to what I was asking him about.