Allen Haas, a Madison, Wisconsin resident, discusses his experiences as a signalman in the Navy on the Pacific front during World War II. Haas was born to a farm family in Roxbury, Wisconsin. He describes being the first person in his family to attend high school and college. As a freshman at Sauk City High School, Haas recalls learning about the bombing of Pearl Harbor while rehearsing for a play. He comments that he was one of the few students to graduate high school before joining the military. In 1944, at age seventeen, Haas enlisted in the Navy to avoid being drafted and because he "thought the gals liked sailors better than the Army guys." Haas describes boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Base (Illinois) and amphibious training at Camp Elliott (California). At Camp Elliott, Haas learned hand-to-hand combat techniques and was trained on landing barges called P-boats. Haas discusses at length the features of the P-boats, which held 120 sailors and Marines, and their training maneuvers in the choppy waters off Coronado Island (California). Haas explains he served on an attack ship, the U.S.S. Bowie, which carried 500 sailors and twenty-six P-boats. Haas served as a "deck monkey" and a signalman. He outlines his deployment to the Pacific from California via the Aleutian Islands and Guam. Next, Haas discusses in detail the Battle of Okinawa. He remained onboard the ship during Okinawa and recalls taking three days to unload all the P-boats in difficult waters. So many casualties came back that the U.S.S. Bowie was converted into a hospital ship. Haas mentions wounded Marines and sailors were housed in the officer's quarters while the crew performed "nursing procedures that we never even heard of before." Haas graphically describes treating some of these casualties: one man's right buttock was shot off when he sat on a grenade and another survived gunfire to the head. Haas witnessed many kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Okinawa including many "suicide swimmers" who pushed mines into battle ships. To confuse these Japanese swimmers, Haas reveals the Americans would circle their own ship in smaller boats and shoot Thompson machine guns into the water to create clouds that acted as camouflage. He calls this technique "smoking the ship" and tells of the artillery aboard the U.S.S. Bowie. Haas expresses relief that he was not involved in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He touches upon military life and tells an amusing story of the "deck monkeys" disobeying a direct order from the captain by rolling up their sleeves while they worked. All fifteen of them were thrown into the brig for about one hour for disobedience. After Okinawa, Haas states his ship made several landings in the Philippines, in Tacloban, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, and Manila. He also claims that his ship "invaded Sasebo, Japan ... but nobody shot each other." Haas clarifies that his ship picked up 2,000 Marines in Manila and headed for Japan before peace had been declared. They entered Sasebo Harbor, but they did not pull ashore at first. Haas describes mutual curiosity when the Americans encountered some Japanese soldiers and civilians on the docks at Sasebo, stating "they wanted to see what Americans looked like ... we wanted to see what Japanese looked like." Haas frequently describes tensions between the Navy and the Marines. He mocks Marines for getting seasick on the P-boats and recalls with bitterness that a Marine prevented him and some other sailors from taking "souvenir" artillery from a cave in Japan. Haas mentions he did take a Japanese Navy helmet as a souvenir as well as a shell that a friend in the Army later identified as a U.S. mortar shell. Haas also goes into detail about his duties as a signalman: he used semaphore and flashlights to communicate with other ships in the convoy. Haas claims that "only the signalmen ... knew what was going on," and he reveals that signalmen frequently communicated unofficially, comparing notes on where they had been. Haas recalls one conversation with a signalman on another ship who claimed that American sailors had pushed overboard a Japanese pilot who survived a kamikaze attack. In 1946, Haas returned to Norfolk (Virginia) via the Panama Canal and was discharged at Great Lakes Naval Base (Illinois). He mentions his family did not have a phone on their rural Wisconsin farm, so he surprised them when he came home. After the war, Haas attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the G.I. Bill. He discusses student life in the dorms and financial management of his monthly G.I. stipend. At first, Haas majored in chemical engineering because a Navy friend of his had been a chemical engineer, but he jokes that he was not cut out for engineering so he switched to business. He also mentions he bought his first home using a Wisconsin veterans home loan.
