Lydia Ryan

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Why did You go into the military?

“I wanted to be a Hero.”

JOHN VINCENT RYAN JR.

Lives in Hingham MA

Born in Wheymouth MA

76 years old

Joined the military at 18 in May 17, 1956

Part of the US Army, US Navy, and the US Marines Corps

18 years in the Marine Corps, 3 Years in the Army, and 2 years in the Navy

Married to Joyce Lamb with two children Jean Ryan and John Ryan

BERLIN• Capital of Germany

• Western allies formed west berlin, soviet side formed East berlin

• Soviet Union proposed Blockade between western and Eastern Berlin

• Soviet Union builta blockade to serperate East and West and kept the people from crossing over.

• The wall was built in 1961

• Eastern Berlin was being molded into a communist state like the Soviet Union

• People were trying to flee to West Berlin where life was better

• The People of West Berlin suffered greatly, the Western Allies were not able to get supplies over the wall, so they did something known as the Berlin Airlift where we flew supplies over the wall.

THE BERLIN WALL

• He miss the United Sates but he was happy to get away from his family

• Being in Germany during this time period was fearful and most of the men he was with didn’t want to be there

• However he does not regret being there, he was acuatally grateful he got the chance to travel

• He picked up the language pretty fast and still speaks a good bit of German today

• Although being retired for decades he sill talks about his war time as his glory days

• He won many awards and Medals for his service and got to meet President Clinton

INTERVIEW As a ypung adult John Ryan entered th emilitary and was deplloyed to Europe after basic training

My interview was mostly about his experience being in Gemany in the city of Berlin during the early 1960 when the wll was built

He was part of a convey in Western Berlin that would bring goods and supplies to aid the locals

He traveled back and forth from western to eastern berlin where he described having to bribe the Soviet Guards to get through

They would give them cigerettes and coffee to get through

He didn’t like it over there, no one did

However he didn’t miss the people back at home

WHAT I LEARNED

• Berlin Wall

• Seration of Berlin into Easrtern and Western

• Germany being controlled by other nations after WWII

• American Troops in Germany

• Aiding Civillians

The End