Interview with William J. "Bill" Marshall, Janet "Jan" Marshall, February 4, 2022

Interview Summary

William J. Marshall was born in Toronto, Canada on January 5, 1944. The son of a tool and die maker, his family initially moved to Moreland Hills, Ohio in 1947, and later moved into a new home in 1956 in Chesterland, Ohio. Bill attended the Orange school system and graduated from West Geauga High School in 1962. He enrolled at Heidelberg College in Heidelberg, Ohio and graduated with a degree in American History in 1966. While a student at Heidelberg he participated in the Civil Rights march in August of 1963 and heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech. Bill was an exchange student at Talledega College in Talledega, Alabama in 1964. After attending law school at Case Western Reserve University for one year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in February of 1968 and trained as a radio relay and carrier operator in the Signal Corps. After refusing to attend Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, he married his fiancée, Janet Britcher, who was from White Plains, NY and also a student a Heidelberg College in September of 1968, and he was sent to Germany where he was assigned to the 144th Signal Corps Battalion, 4th Armored Division located at Cooke Barracks in Goppingen. In his job as the division’s legal clerk, he handled Article 15s, supervised Summary and Special Court martials, and kept trial records. In December of 1969 he received orders that sent him to Long Binh, South Vietnam where he was assigned to the Awards Division at Army Headquarters. His responsibilities included assembling reports for Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, and Silver Star recipients. Bill took advantage of the “early-out” program offered by the army and enrolled in Graduate School at Kent State University in January of 1971 and earned a Master’s degree in Diplomatic History and a Master’s degree in Library Science in 1973. He was hired by the University of Kentucky Libraries after graduating from Kent State University in 1973, and in 1976 he became the Head of the Special Collections Division. He retired from U.K. in 2006. In this interview Bill and Jan discuss their experiences before and after Bill was sent to Vietnam, and Bill discusses his experiences in Vietnam in 1970.

Interview Keyword

Heidelberg, Germany Vietnam War trip to and arrival in Vietnam Long Binh U.S. Army war medal reports

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.