"So when they dropped the bomb, ending the war, we were of course ecstatic. It was a reprieve. So we did all this, and we then returned to Pearl, back to San Diego where, a few months later, I got discharged and went home and started college."…

"The final day of school they took everyone in our class and sent them to the amphibious forces in Camp Bradford, Virginia. Now, instead of having the nice Navy blues and so forth, they gave me an out of draft uniform, 30-30 rifle, combat shoes,…

"And then they sent me up to electrician’s school, and the most complex thing I had ever done electrically was to screw in a lightbulb, so why in the world they would pick me to go to electrician’s school, I have no idea. At any rate, that was a…

“…they loaded us onto a transport, the General Meigs. And we went to sea. We were at sea for 12 days. Nobody knew where we were, where we were going, or what was going on. We just, there we were and we were on. There goes the 12th day we were at…

"Went to Charleston, South Carolina, got on another rocket ship, and took it out to the Pacific. We went through the canal, on to Pearl, and from there on to Enewetak and the outward islands ready to go and do the same thing again in Japan. I don’t…

"We went back out to the transport area, and we stayed there for three days in the off chance we might be needed again, in case there was a retreat or something of that nature. And at the end of three days they said our services were no longer…

This guy’s name was Kenzie. He’s from Chicago. He was a young hoodlum, and it matched my background because I was the poorest kid in a poor neighborhood back in Buffalo. I was a scrounger, and he was a scrounger, and we put things together.Editor's…

"Well, life on the base there, it was pretty good. The duty was light; we were just waiting for the ships, and they weren’t there. So we played cards. We went into town. There was very little else to do. There was a problem that I had, and again…

"There were so many screw-ups that you can’t count them. I mean, we crashed into piers. One time we were on the Dart River, being as efficient as we were, our propellers got hooked up with some of these buoys and bent them badly. And there was…

"It was only about a day later that we were indeed given our mission, our assignment. We were to assemble at Poole, which is a nice harbor for landing craft because it’s shallow. Big ships can’t go in there but you could put a ton of landing…