Raymond Birdsall was born in Lockport, Louisiana. In 1941, he went over to the high school because they did not have a television and learned about the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. In May 1943, he decided to join the Navy. He went to San Diego, California for boot camp. He volunteered for submarine duty and was sent to Midway Island [Annotator's Note: Midway Atoll] where he was assigned to the USS Batfish [Annotator's Note: USS Batfish (SS-310)] in February 1944. He served on the submarine for two years. He was only 16 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He graduated from Holy Savior High School [Annotator's Note: in Lockport, Louisiana] in 1943. He became a Torpedoman 3rd Class, learning on the ship. When the submarine first came out from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 70 percent of its crew had no training. This was its first patrol. Birdsall caught up with the sub on its second patrol on Midway. They stood watch - four hours on, four hours off. His battle station was in the forward torpedo room, on the gyro [Annotator's Note: a gyroscope] sitting down, waiting to press the button before the captain would fire the torpedoes. The submarine could dive 100 feet in 45 seconds. It was a good duty. The Batfish had three captains during Birdsall's tenure. The one he spent the most time under was Jake Fyfe [Annotator's Note: US Navy Commander John K. "Jake" Fyfe], under whose command the Batfish sunk the most ships. They once sunk three Japanese submarines in 76 hours. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte Gulf, 23 to 26 October 1944 at Leyte Gulf, Philippines], the Batfish sunk three enemy submarines.

On Raymond Birdsall's [Annotator's Note: a Torpedoman 3rd Class on the USS Batfish (SS-310) serving in the Pacific] last patrol with the Batfish [Annotator's Note: USS Batfish (SS-310)], they picked up three pilots in the Pacific and dropped them off at Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. George Bush [Annotator's Note: George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, a torpedo bomber pilot who was shot down during the war] was also picked up by another submarine and brought to Iwo Jima. The Batfish was depth charged [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] a few times, usually below 400 feet so the charges were above them. Birdsall made six patrols with the Batfish, which made seven total patrols. He missed the first one. His six patrols took two years. One of their captains was Captain Small [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Commander Walter Lowry Small, Junior]. When Birdsall first got on the Batfish, the torpedoes were steam-driven and would leave a wake. They were later replaced with electric torpedoes that would not leave a wake, which were safer, since there was no wake to lead enemies towards them. They mostly did daytime attacks. They stayed underwater all day long, only coming up at night to charge the batteries. They sunk some Japanese sampans [Annotator's Note: a flat-bottomed boat]. The Batfish had a five-inch gun [Annotator's Note: five-inch, .25 caliber naval gun] which they would fire in front of the sampans so that they would stop, in case they were carrying ammunition, but it was mostly families. One of the Japanese was hit in the leg by rifle fire, and they doctored him up and gave him food. They got pretty close to Japan, a few miles off the coast. They ran into a typhoon on his first patrol and Birdsall was seasick for five days. When on leave in Hawaii, he spent time at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel [Annotator's Note: in Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii]. Some torpedo motors used 180-proof alcohol as fuel, and the captain would give the fore and aft torpedo rooms five gallons each, which they would mix with orange juice to drink. That is how Birdsall learned to drink.

Raymond Birdsall [Annotator's Note: a Torpedoman 3rd Class on the USS Batfish (SS-310)] was 17 years old when he joined the Navy. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the Archerfish [Annotator's Note: USS Archerfish (SS-311)] in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] where he was discharged and took a train home. The submarine would shudder when it was depth charged [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum], the explosives never got close enough to do damage. Once, they fired a torpedo that did not go all the way out and would only stay so long before it would explode. Luckily, they were able to expel it with compressed air. A few submarines were blown up like that. Fifty-two submarines were lost during the war. Birdsall met his wife [Annotator's Note: speaking off camera] on a Saturday night dance in Lockport [Annotator's Note: Lockport, Louisiana], where they were both from, after the war. Birdsall crossed the equator on the Batfish, partaking in a King Neptune ceremony [Annotator's Note: a line-crossing ceremony performed by naval crews when passing the equator, usually involving some sort of hazing for "pollywogs", or those men who had never crossed the line before]. They crossed on their way to Darwin and Perth, Australia. The had repairs done in Perth. There were six torpedo tubes loaded in the forward torpedo room where Birdsall was stationed, and six reload tubes. The aft torpedo room had four loaded and four reload tubes. Birdsall sat at the gyro [Annotator's Note: a gyroscope] and would push a button so that it was ready when the captain fired the torpedo. Two men could load a torpedo using a pulley. Initially the torpedoes used alcohol as fuel, but these were replaced by electric torpedoes whose batteries had to be kept charged. The Batfish sunk 14 ships, Birdsall was on board for 12, the first two being sunk on the first patrol which he missed. The Batfish received a Presidential Unit Citation [Annotator's Note: PUC, originally called Distinguished Unit Citation, awarded to military units for extraordinary heroism, on or after 7 December 1941] and Birdsall received a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for his six patrols.

Raymond Birdsall [Annotator's Note: a Torpedoman 3rd Class on the USS Batfish (SS-310) serving in the Pacific] was onboard the Batfish when she sunk three Japanese submarines. They sunk a destroyer once [Annotator's Note: the Japanese destroyer Samidare, 26 August 1944]. Shortly after they sank the three submarines, they learned that the war was over. They were in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, the Philippines]. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English-speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] once addressed the men of the Batfish, saying that they would never see their loved ones again. They heard her on the radio often. They headed back to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] once the war was over, then onto San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] where Birdsall was transferred. At Mare Island [Annotator's Note: Mare Island Navy Yard, California], the Batfish was decommissioned [Annotator's Note: on 6 April 1946]. The Batfish was in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] as a training vessel for a while, and is now in Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: Muskogee War Memorial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma]. Birdsall has been to 24 reunions since 1985 which take place at the Batfish in Muskogee. Going aboard the submarine brings back memories.

Raymond Birdsall [Annotator's Note: a Torpedoman 3rd Class on the USS Batfish (SS-310) serving in the Pacific] felt lucky to make it home, as so many submarines were sunk during the war. The food on the sub was especially good. They were 72 men and 8 officers on the Batfish. Birdsall was stationed in the forward torpedo room and slept in there with two of the mess cooks. He slept on top of a torpedo [Annotator's Note: Birdsall laughs]. He is proud to have served and was glad he was in the Navy. His brother was a radio operator on a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber], making bombing runs over Germany, completing 30 missions. His younger brother also served onboard a submarine but did not see any action. There are only six men left from the Batfish's original crew. [Annotator's Note: interview cuts off]