November 19, 1944 - Spring 1946

He spent 10 weeks in boot camp, which was in San Diego. He then went to Golf Port, Mississippi to a basic engineering school. He went to the basic engineering school for three months. Then he had to report to Shoemaker, California and then he went to Treasure Island on a troop ship. He was drafted into the Philippines and was on land for three or four months. He went on a ship that hauled ammunition, and the ship was called the Mauna Loa. The ship hauled ammunition from the Philippines to Japan. His job was to work in the engine area of the ship. Late in the war, Okinawa got settled, got loaded up with ammunition, and went to Japan. He never fought in the war, his ship was an ammunition carrier, so he hauled ammunition to the ships all the time. 

The people that were in the war at that time were fighting against the Japanese. His home port was in Leyte Golf, in the Philippines. Leyte Golf was where they picked up most of their ammunition, then they took it to the ships in Japan, that were fighting against Japan. The 3rd and 5th fleet would take turns going in and bombarding Japan. Japan surrendered after a long but quick battle. He saw lots of ships, but didn't do or see much to haul ammunition for all the different battle ships, cruisers and destroyers. There were about seven different ships that hauled ammunition to all the fighting ships. 

When the Manna Loa was loaded with a full load, it weighed 7,500 tons. The 8E on the side of the ship stands for auxiliary explosives. After Japan surrendered, he and his crew members went up the Sacramento river to port Chicago and unloaded. When they were coming back, they decided to have some fun, so they made the bow of the ship go up and down in the water. The supply ships would sail during the day and it took the ships seven days to unload. When they unloaded they would have a battle ship on one side of them and a cruiser on the other side. The destroyer ships had to load by hand for bout four hours in port, and when they unloaded ammunition he would work full time. 

One thing that was very unique was that cement ships were used for storage, food, water, bedding etc. After the ship had been out for about 1 year and a half, it was sent to Bremmington, Washington, then to Portland, Oregon and stayed there for the rest of the time. Before they stayed in Oregon, they serviced the 3rd and 5th fleets. 

They hauled ammunition to 20 ships in one day and put off about 600 tons a day. When they hauled the ammunition to the ships they had to load the ships more than five miles away from the fighting grounds, so they wouldn't get hit. One ship got hit five miles away, because it was too close. After all this happened, they then stayed in Oregon for a while. Then they were ready to go home, but they still had ammunition in their ship, so they unloaded all the small ammunition in Oregon, and then they brought back the big ammunition to port Chicago. They used the small ammunition for target practice. They sailed the ocean, went to the beach and used the small ammunition for target practice. These were the three things they did for entertainment. When the war was completely over, they used the big ammunition to celebrate the end of the war. When we celebrate July 4, we use fireworks, but when they celebrated the end of the war in 1946, they used ammunition.