Introduction

The purpose of this quick guide is to provide U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) members with some historical background and some practical advice on how to go about starting an oral history project or program. Step by step, the guide covers all phases of an oral history process—from deciding which person to interview, to putting together a question list, to setting up the interview, to interview techniques and practices. You will also learn how an interview becomes an oral history. The guide also includes recommendations for recording equipment and samples of questionnaires and a keyword list.

The Value and Uses of Oral History

	Jeremy Price, J-6 Communications Officer, Headquarters, Transatlantic Afghanistan District, interviewed by Bianka Adams at Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan, September 2014

The primary value of oral history is that it captures the experiences and perspectives of people of every rank and position who participated in or lived through noteworthy events. Other important “by-products” of conducting oral history interviews are a chance to turn your interviewees into advocates for your history projects and to ask them for relevant documents and images. Beyond that, the process of participating in an oral history interview may encourage your interviewees to think historically about their and their organization’s contributions, which should be captured so that future generations of USACE employees understand what they did and why they did it. The Office of History, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CEHO) uses its oral history program as an effective tool to capture voices and perspectives, including those that usually don’t make it into history books. Doing oral history to preserve vital historical information reinforces the Corps’ organizational identity. In addition to building esprit de corps, oral histories and other historical products such as books, images, hallway displays, and websites serve as sources for lessons learned and valuable public relations tools.

Oral history made it possible for historians to write the history of ordinary people whose lives were normally not documented other than with birth and death certificates. For USACE, oral histories similarly enrich the source material for telling the Corps’ story. Oral history preserves the voices of those not usually heard in official documents. Their oral histories can speak to the motivations for decisions and fill in gaps in official records.

The interview itself and the continued interaction with interviewees afterwards also tends to have the positive side effect of quickly converting interviewees into proponents of history programs because they become invested in the process of turning their interview into oral history. It also provides the oral historian with an opportunity to ask interviewees for documents and images that were important for projects they led or worked on which would otherwise not have been available.

CEHO’s oral history collection has grown to more than 3,000 interviews. In recent years, office historians and contractors have conducted hundreds of interviews about careers, events, programs, and operations ranging from support to the recovery effort after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to response and recovery missions after Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, and Maria to support for BRAC, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more.

What’s the Difference between Interviews and Oral Histories?

To explain the differences between interviews and oral histories, let’s start with similarities. Both are interactions between (usually) two people where one person asks questions and the other answers them. The result is a product of a collaborative effort between interviewer and interviewee. What distinguishes oral histories from other interviews is the way they are processed afterwards. Transcribing the recording of an interview is the first step in the process. The interviewer then edits the transcript lightly and provides it to the interviewee for review. Once the interviewee returns the reviewed transcript to the interviewer, the oral history is accessioned into an oral history collection or archive that ideally makes it available to researchers and historians to write the history Corps of Engineers.

An oral history is primary source, similar in importance to a letter or diary. Like letters and diaries, oral histories rely on an individual’s memories and interpretations of events. Therefore, a common caution about oral history is that the interviewee might have fallible memory or might have misinterpreted events as they happened. Although people usually retain the most important facts of events—the gist, so to speak—they might recall events in which they participated or which caused them distress or made them happy more precisely than other happenings.

Oral History Program Planning

When planning an oral history program, there are a number of things to consider. Firstly, determine what kinds of interviews you want to collect and what purpose your interviews will serve. Secondly, figure out in what kind of format (video, high resolution WAV, or lower resolution MP3 audio files) you want to record, because that will determine what kinds of recording equipment you will need. Thirdly, decide where and how to store the interview files. Finally, find a transcriber or transcription service that turns the audio file into a lightly edited text document and decide how to make the oral histories accessible to users.

Lt. Col. John Lory, Deputy Commander, Sacramento District, interviewed by Jonah Bea-Taylor at district headquarters in California, March 2018

With the basic framework in place, cast the net wide when selecting interviewees. Interviews with many different participants in and outside of USACE on all levels of involvement in an event or operation provide the best foundation for future researchers.

A good strategy for identifying possible interviewees is to learn as much as possible about the project and the people involved in it. Then start with a person who has worked on the project for a long time and knows the organization or team and its members well. This person may point out other participants and may even act as a facilitator for further interviews.

Generally speaking, Office of History oral histories fall into four broad categories: career interviews, end-of-tour interviews, topical interviews, and informal short interviews. In a career interview, an interviewee who is going to retire soon reflects back on his career with the Corps. End-of-tour interviews with commanders, section chiefs, and other senior leaders serve to capture recollections of significant experiences during the interviewee’s tenure. Topical interviews focus on a single event or project such as recovery and repairs of major infrastructure after floods or construction of a dam. Informal short interviews are usually ad hoc interviews with “targets of opportunity” about current events and operations. The informal interview serves a purpose similar to notes taken during a meeting or to receive a quick update or assessment of an ongoing operation.

To allow USACE historians and academic researchers to cite an oral history in their work, interviewers should have interviewees who are not federal employees sign an access agreement that states explicitly that the interviewee grants the USACE rights to the oral history. (see Appendix A)

The Makings of a Good Interviewer

Among the qualities that good interviewers share, two stand out. The first is preparation and the second is a quickly established rapport with the interviewee. Yet, even with the best intentions, both interviewer and interviewee might feel nervous before they begin and even during the interview because both want to perform well. Interviewers want to make a good impression and appear comfortable and competent. The same is true for the interviewee who wants to do well. The microphones and recording equipment may appear intimidating, too. Nobody wants to sound forgetful or stammering, especially when recording equipment is capturing everything.

For both to perform well, the interviewer should become the interviewee’s partner. Help the interviewee with questions that encourage full and accurate answers and help out with names, dates, and other information. To be that partner, you have to prepare. Do your homework!

Preparation is Key

Preparation is ninety percent of the work, the actual interview is ten. Besides researching an interviewee’s background, his or her work experience, or the topic at hand, your prep work also includes contacting the interviewee, setting up a pre-interview, if possible, and, of course, developing a set of questions. Preparing the question list will challenge you to learn about the interviewees’ areas of specialization, the projects they were involved in, and details about that work. The order and number of questions helps you to structure the interview for the time allotted to the interview.

By and large, finding information about the life and career of a member of the armed forces is easier than for a civil servant. Soldiers, especially officers, assume and leave command and perhaps have to deal with controversial issues that local newspapers tend to cover. Nowadays, all kinds of publications, big and small, as well as social and professional networks are online and even older articles or posts are readily available in newspapers’ online archives.

Civilians, unless they were involved in highly publicized events, tend to leave less of a media “footprint.” Here, requesting a copy of a resume or a search of professional network sites such as LinkedIn would be helpful. In both cases, a possible pre-interview meeting with the interviewee might enhance the interview. It gives the interviewer and the interviewee a chance to get acquainted and to talk about topics to be covered in the interview.

The Question List

Meeting the interviewee ahead of the interview is ideal for drafting a questionnaire, but because that is not always possible, there are a few other strategies for putting together a question list. When planning for a career or biographical interview, arrange the questions in chronological order. A method rule is to begin with general questions and to ask more detailed questions as the interview progresses. These “funnel” questions lead to more and more specific information. Another useful approach is to send a draft question list to a colleague to ask for suggestions and, if need be, corrections.

As a general rule, it is better to have too many than too few questions. When drafting your questionnaire, use “how,” “what,” and “why” questions that are broad and open ended. Other examples of questions that usually result in longer or more elaborate answers are “Help me understand,” “Walk me through,” or “Give me a snapshot of the situation or organization when you arrived.” Questions should logically build upon one another. Questions that begin with “Did you” or “Have you” might result in yes or no answers.

As the interview nears its end, a question about challenges, successes, “take-aways,” or recommendations to a successor usually leads to thoughtful answers. The interviewer should resist the temptation to ask about “lessons learned” in an environment in which people speak in Army jargon because the Army uses that term for an institutionalized process that produces tactical how-to manuals for troops in the field. To end the interview, a good “catch-all” question might be “Is there anything that I didn’t touch on that you think should be on the historical record?” It gives interviewees a chance to reflect and to wrap up the interview.

For a series of interviews with members of a task force, a team, or a command in charge of a particular project, a disaster relief support mission, or a contingency support mission, it is useful to develop a standard questionnaire. The questions should cover the essentials of the mission and provide structure to the interview. Follow-up questions serve to tailor the interview to the experiences and perspectives of the individual interviewee. (see Appendix B)

Scheduling an Interview

With your question list ready, it’s time to schedule the interview. Contact interviewees to explain the mission and purpose of the interview. Provide your question list to the interviewee for review. Try not to schedule early in the morning or late in the day so that the interviewee is neither stressed from commuting nor tired after a long day. If possible, conduct the interview in a quiet room other than the interviewee’s office to avoid interruptions by ringing phones or email alerts on computer screens. Interviewing is strenuous work for the interviewer and the interviewee. Mind the time and try to keep sessions to a maximum of two hours. If the interviewee is an older person, keep the session to about an hour.

Conducting the Interview

On the day of the interview, arrive a few minutes early. It is a gesture of respect for the interviewee’s time and it gives you some time to collect your thoughts before the interview begins. If possible, conduct interviews at a table where you can set up your equipment and take notes. While setting up, use the time to go over your oral history program with the interviewee. Describe how oral histories will be used as primary sources to tell the story of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and explain the nature of your questions and how you will use them as a scaffolding or framework for the interview. Let the interviewee know that you will not necessarily stick to the question list but that you are willing to go on detours if an interesting thread develops that may provide valuable information. Explain that you will ask follow-up questions to shape the interview so that it reflects the interviewee’s experiences. Think of this introductory talk as an opportunity to put the interviewee at ease. Many interviewees who are new to oral history interviews find the interview process, or at least the equipment, intimidating.

Before beginning the interview, run a check on your primary system and make sure to turn on your backup recorder. Begin the interview with a formal introduction of the interviewer, the interviewee, and where and when the interview is taking place. The transcriber will use this information for the cover sheet of the transcript.

Conducting the interview is an exercise in multi-tasking. As the interviewer, you have to take notes quickly and keep track of your questions while listening and encouraging the interviewee to continue. It takes practice. Choose your seat so you can see your questions, take notes, and keep an eye on your recorder. During the interview, try to maintain eye contact with the interviewee as much as possible. Your facial expressions, nods, and smiles will encourage the interviewee to continue. Try to keep audible “uh- huhs” and “mm-hmms” to a minimum because they will end up on the recording.

John Lonnquest interviews Gene Stakhiv, Adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority on water management, Institute for Water Resources, at the Republican Palace, Baghdad, Iraq, July 2003.

When the interview comes to a close either because you have exhausted your question list or the time allotted for the interview is almost up, it is time to ask a “wrap up” question that lets the interviewee reflect and perhaps draw conclusions. If the interviewee’s schedule only allows a certain amount of time, keep track of the time without giving a hurried impression. Relatively unobtrusive ways of monitoring time are using the recorder’s display or perhaps wearing a watch with its face on the inside of your wrist. Before you depart, take a picture of the interviewee and have him or her sign an access agreement that states that the interviewee grants the U.S. Army rights to use the oral history.

The principles and issues to keep in mind are the same whether one or two persons conduct the interview. The difference is the distribution of roles and labor. While one person talks, the other monitors the equipment, takes notes, takes photographs, and has time to think about possible follow-up questions. If the accompanying interviewer would like to ask a question, the team should agree on a signal for that eventuality.

While interviewing individuals by themselves is generally preferred, mostly because one-person interviews are much easier to transcribe, sometimes interviewing a group of people simultaneously cannot be avoided. In that case, using a two-person team of interviewers is highly recommended. One interviewer conducts the interview and the other teammate takes notes and, most importantly, keeps a list of who is speaking when. The voices of different speakers tend to blend together, making it difficult to determine who said what. If you are alone in conducting an interview with multiple interviewees, have participants identify themselves for the transcriber each time they speak. Making a video of the interview session can also facilitate identification.

Processing the Interview

Processing is what turns an audio file into an oral history interview. Without this step, the recorded interview remains just that, a recorded interview.

Usually, processing entails having the interview transcribed and storing the audio file and all associated documents (such as images, email messages, filled-out questionnaires, articles, or records the interviewee shares with you) in an archive or research collection where it is accessible to other historians and, when appropriate, the public. Processing an oral history interview takes a lot of time, but it is a vital step.

If interviews are going to be transcribed, develop a common template for the transcript. A title page should contain the names of the interviewee and interviewer and the date. Throughout, the transcript should have uniform margins, last names of the interviewer and the interviewee to identify the spoken passages, and a descriptive footer on each page. To make the transcriber’s job easier, prepare a list of acronyms and keywords and give spellings of names and places. If several interviews deal with the same subject—for example a construction project—update the list with new terms and names and use it as a master keyword list. In this process, the transcriber and the interviewer are partners. The more help the interviewer provides by conducting well-organized interviews, producing high quality recordings, and providing detailed and comprehensive keyword lists, the better the transcript will be.

When choosing a transcriber, be aware of the different types of transcription services. Some transcribers specialize in oral history and work alone as small business owners, others are employees of a larger transcription firms, and for some (for example, court reporters) transcription might be a side business. Most transcribers nowadays use some version of the rapidly emerging artificial intelligence transcription software. That’s where the similarities between transcribers end. Depending on their backgrounds, the products transcribers deliver might vary widely. Some transcribe an audio file verbatim, including verbal tics such as “umm” or repeated overuse of “like,” while others will lightly edit the transcript as they transcribe. An experienced transcriber may also take out fillers, recognize and correct or omit false starts, and include punctuation in sensible places. Oftentimes, this style of transcription is preferable because it reduces the time needed for staff to edit raw transcripts into products that an interviewee can review. In addition to editing out vocalized cues, a transcriber should spell out acronyms, add place names and titles and full names of persons mentioned, and correct the inevitable transcription typos. It is therefore very important to coordinate in detail what you expect of the transcriber or transcription service before you hire. Transcribing takes time and money. In 2020, a transcriber will charge anywhere between $130 and $200 per hour of recorded audio. And remember, you get what you pay for.

When a transcriber returns the finished transcript, the interviewers may choose to edit it slightly by rephrasing or shortening their questions and comments for clarity. When editing an interviewee’s response, however, the interviewer should refrain from altering the content and meaning and use a very light touch when editing punctuation and correcting misspellings. Once this first edit is done, give the interviewee a chance to review the transcript and edit it. Encourage the interviewees to go over the transcript with a fine-tooth comb and clarify or embellish their answers. Deleting passages is discouraged. The version of the transcript that the interviewee edits becomes the final version of the oral history interview that will be available to researchers. If there is no plan to have interviews transcribed, it is helpful to prepare a short interview summary or an audio index.

That said, the audio or video recording of an oral history interview has value and can be a great resource for presentations, broadcasts, or museum exhibits. Although technically not an oral history, interviewers, in collaboration with and with the consent of interviewees, could select passages of audio or video recordings for use in audio stations in various exhibits. Beyond that, oral histories can help to provide context or point in a direction for further research for a planned exhibit. (see Appendix C)

Maj. Kimberly Colloton, Commander, Forward Engineer Support Team of Baghdad FEST-A, interviewed by Eric Reinert at Headquarters, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad, Iraq, August 2003

Managing Your Oral History Collection

Most digital recorders currently available automatically write the recorded audio to memory cards and create folders and numbered audio files in those folders. After downloading the audio files from these cards, rename the file using the interviewee’s name and the date of the interview. Using a common naming convention makes the collection easier to manage and more accessible to researchers. To keep audio files safe, store them in two separate places. One copy on an external hard drive and another on a shared drive is a tried and true formula.

For a growing oral history program, a file architecture consisting of a single folder per interview that contains sub-folders for audio and backup audio, photographs, and documents is helpful. Another useful tool, even in the days of file searching software like dtSearch, is a log of interviews. A simple spreadsheet with names of interviewees, positions, locations, dates, name of interviewers, length of recordings, and stage of processing—for example, has the interview been sent to a transcriber? has it returned? has the interviewer edited the transcript? has the interviewee returned the transcript with edits?—helps keep track of your program.

Recording Equipment

The best interview is only as good as its recording. Bad sound quality limits the uses of the recording and it can interfere with the accuracy of the transcript. Also, a transcriber will charge more for the transcription because it is more time-consuming. It’s best to use high-quality digital recorders designed for professionals.

The Office of History uses good quality equipment as both primary and back-up recorders. Many recorders are geared toward professionals and can record in uncompressed, standard formats such as WAV and broadcast WAV, and do so at resolutions ranging from at least 16bit/44.1kHz to, in some cases, even 24bit/192kHz. Using an external microphone is vital to making high-quality recordings. For group interviews an omni-directional mic that picks up audio equally from all directions is more practical.

To transport your equipment safely, consider using hard-shell cases that are water resistant and have perforated foam inserts that you can customize to fit your equipment securely.

Last but not least, practice, practice, practice with your equipment before the interview. It is important that you are well acquainted with your recorders and know how to use them optimally. Always test the equipment before you begin an interview. If several interviewers use the same equipment, prepare equipment and procedures checklists and sign-out sheets and ensure that you have all parts—such recorders, power adapters, extension cord, microphones, and batteries—before departing for an interview session.

Now you are ready. Good Luck!