1943 - December 1945

In 1943, Marion D. Young Joined the navy Sea Bees. The reason he joined up is that he was due to be drafted and he didn’t want to get into the regular army. He wanted to get into the branch of service that fit him best. So, he joined the Navy Sea Bees. He went to the recruiting station in Provo and told the recruiting officer that he would join if he could get a 1st Class Carpenter’s rating. Two weeks later, the recruiting officer called Marion and told him he could give him the 1st Class rating. He got all the way to Camp Pearly, Virginia and then he found out that the officer lied to him. Marion was a 1st Class Seaman, not carpenter. This made a big difference in his pay. Marion stayed there and trained for two months. Then, they transferred him to Rhode Island, where he continued his basic training. They then again transferred him to Gulf Port, Mississippi to finish his training, after which, he got a five-day leave. He went to Orem, “where the folks lived.” His girlfriend, Carla Beverly Lewis (wife now), made him late. He arrived back at camp two day’s A.O.L. (Away over leave/) They punished him by making him clean the bathrooms for two weeks.

After that, he went to Port Hahnium in California. There, he waited to be shipped over seas. He traveled on a Danish ship that had been converted into a troop ship.  On his way to New Caledonia, he stopped off at Elis Island to resupply the ship. There he and his friend went ashore to explore. They came to a native village and observed how they lived. He remembers they had a long, wooden trough that had shredded coconuts that they were drying for storage. Marion said that it had a lot of flies on it. There were lots of pigs that would just come and help themselves right alongside the people.

On his way back to the ship, he stopped at another village and cut himself a whole stock of bananas from a tree. While he was there, he also talked to the chief and his family. The chief had a really pretty daughter that he wanted Marion to marry, but Marion said that he had to leave and he and his friend ran back to the ship. He hung up his stock of bananas by his bunk by the hold. He said that all of the other guys just helped themselves to his stock of bananas. 

Marion  traveled across the equator to New Caledonia, (between New Zealand and Australia) where he finished his training while waiting to get farther into the war zone. One night, a group of Japanese refuge soldiers snuck into his camp during the night. They lifted mosquito netting off a U.S. soldier and woke him up. He was so scared that he took his rifle and shot indiscriminately all over camp. Luckily he did not shoot any of his own men.

Marion also went hunting in the dense jungle for wild pigs and big bats in New Caledonia.  In New Guinea, a few Australian troops were camping around his camp. There were lots of dirt roads. One of the U.S. "big ducks" (a land vehicle that could travel on water, too) ran into an Australian truck because they drive on the left side of the road. 

They assigned him guard duty to guard a yard of heavy equipment away from camp at night. He said, “It was pretty scary ‘cause you didn’t know when a Japanese was gonna’ sneak up on ya!”   He was then moved farther into the war zone to Okinawa (an island just east of Japan).  The U.S. Army forces were on the North half of the island and the Japanese were stationed on the south half of the island, so there was a lot of fighting, trying to get the Japanese off  the island. While stationed there, he learned that his brother, Keith Young, was stationed on the same island in the field artillery. He also learned that his brother, Ted Young, was also on the same island in the 7th infantry. Marion got a mission from the Chaplain on a Sunday to go where they were holding the church service thirty miles away. The Chaplain let him take his jeep. Marion ate dinner with Keith at his camp. The army didn’t have very good food. He can still remember the meal they ate. He calls it “wormy macaroni.” Keith got a hold of Ted and they got together. They couldn’t believe the good food that the Navy had. A turkey dinner every Sunday! 

After he was there for about a year, the president of the United States ordered the atomic bomb on two islands. Afterwards, the devastation of the islands was so great, no one on the islands lived. All of the Japanese residents of the island were wiped out.

In 1945, the Japanese surrendered, and Marion waited to be shipped home. Keith went home first. Then Marion went. He shipped out December of 1945. He landed in Treasure island. He went to the Naval station and there were so many troops that he said “They had no place to bed us down.”  He was told to get his best blue uniform on and find a place to stay in San Francisco. They stayed on their own for a week. Marion went to visit his cousin in Oakland. He also went to San Francisco zoo, where he specifically remembers the monkey that he saw there. It would get some water into it’s mouth, spit it out on people and cackle. He also remembers how cold it was. Even though it was very cold, he remembers the beautiful flowers that they had in Oakland. Marion went to Hollywood and Vine. He also went to dance clubs where you would pay a dime a dance.

One night, he couldn’t find a place to stay, so he went to an all night movie and watched the same movie over, and over again. A man offered him a room in his big house, which Marion took with gratitude. The man told him to stay until his sister got there in the morning, but Marion got up early and left.

He went by train and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah on Christmas day.  He spent a little time looking for his girlfriend, but he couldn’t find her so he went to Old Mrs. Hoffman’s place. Marion then caught the Bamburger and got off in Orem to go to his parents’ house. Within two weeks, he bought a car and got married.

His brother, Jay Young, went down on the Arizona in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.