His experiences aboard the PT boat tender USS Jamestown and the rocket launching ships LCIR-74 and LCIR-34 in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Enlistment in the Navy at age seventeen in 1937; assignment aboard the cruiser USS Northampton, 1937, as a machinist’s mate; diesel mechanics school, New London, Connecticut, 1941; assignment to the converted yacht USS Jamestown, 1941; conversion of the Jamestown into a PT boat tender, 1941; transfer to the Pacific and operations in the Solomon Islands, 1942; supporting and servicing PT boat squadrons while based at Tulagi; his work overhauling Packard engines for PT boats; move to Rendova, 1943; return to the States, 1944; his steady advancement through the enlisted ranks and promotion to ensign, 1944; assignment to the LCIR-74 at New Guinea, 1944; Leyte Gulf landings, 1944; his first command, LCIR-34, 1945; preparations for the invasion of Japan; subsequent postwar career and promotion to admiral; influence of his widowed mother on his naval career.