Radke served as an electrician in the Navy and spent some of his time in New Guinea. Later, he served in the Phillipines and recounts the beautiful birds and thick jungle there. His stint in the Navy concluded around Christmas 1945.
Peterson served in the Infantry in the Philippines and New Guinea. He drove a Jeep and achieved the rank of Corporal. He recounts a close call with a grenade and another close call with Japanese mortar shells. He discusses how the mail was sometimes…
Pace entered the Coast Guard which was under the Navy's auspices in WWII where he started as a seaman and spent some time on a lighthouse off the coast of Connecticut. Later he became a radio operator in the Aleutian islands.
Otto served as a private in the Air Force and recounts less than ideal conditions living in tents while undergoing training in Florida. When sent to England, he worked with ordnance, loading bombs onto airplanes. He smuggled home a photo of a B-17…
Oatman's Army service took him to Okinawa, where he joined the Army track team and participated in the 1948 Olympics in Tokyo. He served as a clerk and a quartermaster laundry. There were times of boredom, but he was happy to have a radio to…
Oatman's Army training included 12-mile hikes. When he arrived in Washington state, he was assigned as clerk to headquarters company because he could type and his spent his entire service stateside.
McDanel enlisted as a replacement and intended to go to Europe, but while he was in basic training, the war in Europe ended, and he was sent to Japan instead. He never saw combat and served in an Army postal unit in Hawaii, where he saw a two-person…
Lindquist enlisted in the Navy in 1938 and was put through maneuvers off the west coast of Africa. Later, he went to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands. Following that, he spent time in the in the Hawaiian islands and was there when Pearl…
Kischer joined the Navy in 1938 and was trained as a machinist's mate and was trained in refrigeration and worked in the engine room on a destroyer. He traveled to the Hawaiian islands and the Gilbert islands, and tells how his ship was hit by a…
Goodman was a clerk for the military police and traveled to Hawaii and then to Japan. He maintained the rosters for 800 soldiers, ensuring they had food and a place to sleep. Because he wasn't a smoker, he sold his cigarettes in exchange for laundry…