For the Tarrant County War Veterans Project. Longtime North Texas business owner. Childhood in Navarro County, Texas, Altus, Oklahoma, and Lewisville, Texas; parents’ divorce and family break-up; struggles to survive in the Great Depression; experience working with heavy landscaping machinery in Civilian Conservation Corps at camps in Wyoming and Colorado; work as a ranch hand in West Texas; decision to enlist in U.S. Navy following Pearl Harbor; deployment as a mechanic on the USS Nassau; missions throughout Pacific theater; marriage to Lorena Bassinger; transfer to the minesweeper YMS-146; preparation for invasion of Japan; “shellback” initiations; discharge and return to North Texas; decision to open a tree-planting and nursery business; memorable jobs, including tree-planting at North Park Mall in Dallas and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport; lessons learned from World War II service.