Beachum, Norman L (Interview outline and video), 2011

• Main Author: Beachum, Norman L.
• Other Authors: Smither, James (Interviewer)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives 2011
• Subjects: Oral history; Veterans History Project (U.S.); United States > History; Military; Veterans; Video recordings; World War; 1939-1945 > Personal narratives; American; United States. Navy; Cumberland Sound
• Online Access: https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/document/29981; https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/698fe24b725688a16847343815a96263.mp4; https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/886aa2b623ea2f5a2c6a624433894a04.pdf

Norman Beachum was born in Union City, Tennessee on March 7, 1927. After moving around the country his family settled in Muskegon, Michigan and on his 17th birthday he enlisted in the Navy (March 7, 1944). He took basic training at Farragut Naval Training Station, Idaho and after 14 weeks went to Tacoma, Washington where he joined the USS Cumberland Sound (AV-17), a seaplane tender. They went to sea on October 28, 1944 and sailed to Pearl Harbor where he received antiaircraft training. The ship sailed to Eniwetok, then Kwajalein, then Saipan, then Guam before reaching Ulithi on January 12, 1945. He was stationed at Ulithi until the ship returned to Eniwetok on June 24, 1945. After the war he was aboard the Cumberland Sound during occupation duty in Japan then joined the USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39), a small seaplane tender. He sailed around Japan and China for the remainder of 1945 and into 1946. In early spring 1946 he boarded a troopship in Hong Kong and returned to the United States. He was discharged from the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois on May 23, 1946.