Alvin Sniff was born in March 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana. When the war started, he quit school and went to work in a factory making tents for the war effort. When he turned 17, his mother signed for him to join the Navy and was sent to San Diego, California for basic training for four weeks. He recalled basic training to be difficult in the beginning. He was then sent to gunner's mate training for 16 weeks. There, he learned how to fire everything from a .22 caliber pistol to a five inch, 38 caliber gun. They were also tested on recognizing a problem with a weapon and then fixing it in a certain amount of time. He graduated in the top five of his class and was rated as third-class gunner's mate. He was assigned to the Armed Guard in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] and spent two months learning and training on the five inch, 38 caliber gun. Sniff was then assigned to the SS Sara Teasdale which transported supplies for the military. With cargo, they left from Oakland [Annotator's Note: Oakland, California] to Nouméa, New Caledonia which took about three weeks to get to their destination. His duty on the ship was lookout duty. They never encountered the enemy. He crossed the equator for the first time, but no one on the ship was a veteran so he the did not get the typical initiation. When they landed in New Caledonia, they received more cargo and then left with a convoy and headed for Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, which took about a week. When they dropped anchor, one of the cargo holes accidently opened, letting a bunch of beer cans float out in the water. They offloaded bombs at the docks near Guadalcanal. Then his ship headed north to the Russell Islands where they docked, unloaded cargo, and were able to go ashore and see a movie. Sniff remarked that the Merchant Marine crew treated him well and he was well fed. His ship spent six months in the Solomon Islands and then went back to San Francisco. He was able to spend a month at home when he returned. His ship was then assigned to go to Port Hueneme [Annotator's Note: Port Hueneme, California] to pick up cargo and headed for Hawaii and stayed there for several weeks. He was then sent to Enewetak Atoll [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands] to wait until they were given orders to head to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands].

Once his ship [Annotator's Note: the SS Sara Teasdale] reached Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands], Alvin Sniff's group was assigned to deliver materials and supplies. During this time, Sniff experienced air raids, even though Saipan was secured by the Allies. They headed to Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands] to drop of cargo. His ship headed back to Hawaii and took a load of sugar and delivered it to Port Chicago [Annotator's Note: Port Chicago, California]. Sniff was able to go home on leave for Christmas 1944, and when he returned for duty, he was assigned to the tanker SS Hood River. On 5 January, the Hood River headed for New Guinea, stopping at the Admiralty Islands first. When they completed their duties in New Guinea, they were given orders to go through the Panama Canal and head to Curacao [Annotator's Note: Curacao, Dutch Caribbean] where they loaded up on aviation gasoline. Then the tanker headed to Dakar, French West Africa where they unloaded the cargo. They returned across the Atlantic, loaded up again at Curacao and headed to Casablanca to unload cargo. Their next mission was to Palermo, Sicily to offload aviation gas. They continued their journey, stopping at a couple of ports and then headed for the Suez Canal. Sniff recalled that they were required to get shots before entering the canal. After going through the canal in a stupor due to five shots, they headed towards Bahrain and loaded up cargo. They dropped that cargo off at Colombo [Annotator's Note: Colombo, Sri Lanka]. They made their way around Australia then received orders to go through the Panama Canal to pick up aviation gas and headed to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] to support the invasion. Halfway though their travel, they got word that the Japanese surrendered. He recalled that as they made it to the harbor of Okinawa, a typhoon came, and they had to ride it out for three days in the sea. After the storm passed, they headed back for San Francisco. Sniff's experiences in World War 2 allowed him to travel the world.

After the conclusion of World War 2, Alvin Sniff was sent back to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] in December 1945 to be discharged. [Annotator's Note: The microphone clip falls off the interviewee and disrupts the interview at 0:26:53:000.] Sniff was in the Navy Reserves and was called up to serve in the Korean War for 14 months. He was first sent to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] to train other Reservists for three months, then sent to Port Chicago [Annotator's Note: Port Chicago, California] to the Ammunition Depot as a guard for another three months. He was transferred to Astoria, Oregon to help put a ship back into commission. It took about five months to complete that project. He recalled that the weather was freezing at the time. He was then sent back to San Francisco to do various testing and practices with the ship. He then was sent home to New Orleans to be discharged and went back into the Navy Reserves. Sniff recalled one of the requirements for the Reserves was to go out on a ship once a month for training. In 1961, he was activated again during the Berlin Crisis, he was sent down to Guantanamo [Annotator's Note: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba] where he performed guard duty for about a month. After, they brought the ship to Rhode Island for repairs. As they left the state, they hit a hurricane which took about three days to pass through [Annotator's Note: The microphone falls off the interviewee and the tape is stopped at 0:33:50:000.] When he returned to New Orleans, he was convinced to sign up for the regular Navy. He was sent to Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida] and put on a destroyer, the USS Turner (DD-834). His ship was sent out to help retrieve a space capsule and had missions out in the Mediterranean Sea. As he visited different places around the world, he did not feel any animosity from the local peoples. Sniff then began to teach at officer training school and went to school himself learning about the latest missile technology; he was rated as a senior chief by this time. He also spent some time patrolling and rescue duty during the Vietnam War.

Alvin Sniff did numerous trips to the Mediterranean Sea while he was a career Navy man. He recalled when the Navy allowed women to serve on the ships and some of the adjustments. He lived in Italy for eight years before he had to come back to the United States. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops the interview to change tapes.] He was stationed in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Pensacola, Florida] where he wrote exams and training manuals. He had his retirement ceremony on the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) on 1 June 1988. He served 44 years and retired at a Master Chief. He enjoyed every moment of being in the Navy.