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Notice Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview. RESTRICTIONS Opened October, 1994
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January 15, 1988 by Niel M. Johnson JOHNSON: I'm here in the Library interviewing Philip D. Lagerquist. What does the D stand for? LAGERQUIST: Debold. JOHNSON: Just some brief background, Phil. I know that you probably consider this peripheral, but we'll do it very briefly. When and where were you born? LAGERQUIST: August 31, 1917 in Evanston, Illinois. JOHNSON: And your parents' names? LAGERQUIST: My father's name was Walter and my mother's name was Catherine. JOHNSON: Walter; I understand he was an economics professor? LAGERQUIST: At Northwestern. JOHNSON: I know you at least have one brother. Is that all your brothers and sisters? LAGERQUIST: One brother. JOHNSON: And his name is? LAGERQUIST: Walter also. JOHNSON: And your education, briefly, to summarize it; what schools did you attend? LAGERQUIST: I attended a public grade school in Evanston, and then we moved to Westchester County when I was eight years old, I guess. JOHNSON: Around New York City? LAGERQUIST: Suburban New York City. Went to public schools there and then in high school I went to a private school, Horace Mann School, which was connected with Columbia University. JOHNSON: Was your father transferred up there? LAGERQUIST: He took a job with a bank. JOHNSON: So he got out of teaching. LAGERQUIST: Yes. JOHNSON: Is Horace Mann a boarding school? Did you board there? LAGERQUIST: No. It was a day school, like Pembroke. JOHNSON: Did you commute? LAGERQUIST: Well, it was not a long commute. Yes, I commuted. JOHNSON: Then what did you do? LAGERQUIST: Then I went to Yale, to college. Graduated in economics. Then, almost immediately after I got out of college I went into the Army. JOHNSON: Do you remember why you chose Yale? LAGERQUIST: My father went there; that's part of it. JOHNSON: Your father's alma mater. LAGERQUIST: I suppose there were other reasons. JOHNSON: How about professors at Yale? Were there any that were especially memorable and influential? LAGERQUIST: I don't think so. None that I can say now. JOHNSON: In economics. LAGERQUIST: Well, my major was economics, but I took a lot of history and other courses. My subject fields were pretty broad. It was a degree in humanities really. JOHNSON: Did they require a senior thesis, a big seminar paper, or anything like that? LAGERQUIST: As I recall, there was some sort of a requirement, a senior thesis. JOHNSON: Did you do any research at that time in original or primary materials? LAGERQUIST: I don't think so. JOHNSON: I know they've got some good manuscript collections there at Yale. LAGERQUIST: You're probably thinking of the Beinecke Library. That was built since I was there. Yes, they do have a large manuscript collection. JOHNSON: So then you got your BA in 19... LAGERQUIST: '41 JOHNSON: The spring of '41, and then you say you went into the Army. LAGERQUIST: Yes. JOHNSON: Were you drafted? LAGERQUIST: I volunteered for the draft. See, that was before the war. You could volunteer for the draft; at that time you just went in for a year and got your year over, and then you would go on about what you wanted to do. Of course, the war was started by the time... JOHNSON: In other words, instead of being a year it ended up how long? LAGERQUIST: Four years; almost four years. JOHNSON: In other words, if you had not enlisted in early '41, you probably would have been drafted in '42, and that might have been three years instead of four. LAGERQUIST: Well, I also might have been shot. I might have gone someplace where I would be shot at. JOHNSON: What did you do while you were in the Army? LAGERQUIST: I was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps. I had basic training at Camp Lee, which was a Quartermaster Corps training camp; it's now Fort Lee I think. Just as soon as I was through basic training, I was sent down to Jamaica, in the West Indies. Ordinarily, later on, if you hadn't had any leave before you were sent overseas you got a furlough, a month's furlough, or two weeks furlough, something like that. But that was something that came later on, so I didn't get home for several years. JOHNSON: You didn't even get a furlough after basic? LAGERQUIST: No. JOHNSON: You were still in the Quartermaster Corps. In the West Indies? LAGERQUIST: Yes. In Jamaica. JOHNSON: So you served in the West Indies. LAGERQUIST: Mostly in Jamaica, and then a little while in Puerto Rico. JOHNSON: Do you remember when you were sent down there? LAGERQUIST: It was in '42. JOHNSON: You were there until? LAGERQUIST: I was there until '44. Then, my last year I was shifted around from here to there, and I was back at Lee for a little while, for about a month. But my last year in the Army I was at Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot, which is right across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. JOHNSON: Just in general terms, what kind of work did you do in the Quartermaster Corps? LAGERQUIST: It was clerical work mostly. When I first went down there it was working in the section of the Quartermaster department that processed food and distributed food, that sort of thing. Then, for a while I was in a sort of a bookkeeping job. My last job was in personnel. I was taking care of the personnel records for... JOHNSON: Your last year or so. LAGERQUIST: Well, both down there in Jamaica and also when I got back here to the United States. JOHNSON: So that apparently got you familiar with certain kinds of records, personnel records for example, which are now part of the Military Personnel Records at St. Louis. LAGERQUIST: Well, supposedly. JOHNSON: What do you think happened to those records that you were dealing with? Were some of them disposed of, and some retained? LAGERQUIST: I would hope that some of them would be disposed of. JOHNSON: Did any of that material go into 201 files? LAGERQUIST: The term "201 files' applied to officers files, I think. In the Army decimal filing scheme -- I'm not too familiar with it -- the file number 201 was the file number for personnel. JOHNSON: When were you discharged? LAGERQUIST: In the fall of '45, sometime in October. I don't remember exactly when. JOHNSON: I always ask this question: do you remember April 12, 1945, when our esteemed Vice President Harry Truman became President? Do you recall any reactions at that time to the death of Franklin Roosevelt? LAGERQUIST: I can remember when I first heard about it. We were fortunate there at Jeffersonville; the enlisted detachment was quite small and they didn't have barracks facilities for enlisted men, so we lived on a rations and quarters arrangement. We got so much a month for food and quarters, and we went out and rented a room. In other words, it was almost like a civilian job. I remember I went home one evening after work an |
