Burl Loving was born in January 1927 in Garden City, Kansas. In 1930, his family moved to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] where he spent his childhood. His father had obtained employment in San Francisco. He had two sisters and a half-brother. His parents divorced which placed a burden on his mother to raise the children by herself. The Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] was particularly hard on the family. In 1944, with his mother’s approval, he enlisted in the United States Navy when he was 17 years of age. His older brother’s sailor uniform looked good and enticed Loving to join the Navy. Loving’s friend enlisted with him, but they were separated during boot camp. Loving was later deployed overseas, but his friend spent the war guarding a gate on the home front.

Burl Loving did his Navy basic training at Great Lakes [Annotator’s Note: Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, Illinois]. As a midwestern recruit, he found the men from the northeast to be quite different. He was admonished by his instructor to not to get caught doing anything negative while in the Navy. After training, he was transported by rail from Illinois through Salt Lake City, Utah where his mother lived. He found it difficult to not be able to visit with her despite seeing the lights of her home as he went through Salt Lake. He even considered going AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave]. Continuing on to California, he deployed on an APA [Annotator’s Note: Auxiliary Personnel, Attack troop transport ship] directly to Ulithi [Annotator’s Note: Ulithi, Carolina Islands] near Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands]. Leaving from San Francisco, he recollected walking across the Golden Gate Bridge right after it was completed. His stepfather had been stationed at Presidio [Annotator’s Note: a military post in San Francisco]] during that time. Loving still has a stamped penny he received as a souvenir of the bridge’s opening. Upon deployment, he had no idea of his future assignment. While in Guam, he met Gretchen Strasser [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling] from his hometown [Annotator’s Note: Garden City, Kansas]. She was a flight nurse during the war. Loving had a chance to talk with her before moving on. He boarded an airplane for a two-leg flight to Kwajalein [Annotator’s Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] in a stripped-down C-47 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport]. At that point, Loving received his orders.

Burl Loving was ordered to report to the 317 [Annotator’s Note: USS YMS-317 minesweeper] which was a 130-foot-long, wooden hull minesweeper. It had a crew of 30 men. It swept magnetic contact mines that had to be shot by crewmen on the flying bridge [Annotator’s Note: an open area attached to the enclosed bridge for unobstructed observation]. Hardhats had to be worn while the shrapnel from the mines showered the ship. Loving worked in the kitchen for a while, but was then transferred to the deck force with Jimmy Lott [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling]. The men on the ship attempted to spot mines that the sweep gear did not pull up. The clear water allowed good visibility to discover the mines. Working around Kwajalein [Annotator’s Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] initially, the 317 also worked Eniwetok and Bikini [Annotator’s Note: both in the Marshall Islands]. The friendly natives on Bikini were surprised to go aboard the minesweeper and drink from a cold water fountain in the ship’s galley. They had never tasted ice water. The natives had been paid by the Japanese to lay mines and then the Americans paid them to show where they had placed the mines. They received funds from both sides for the mines. It was a good deal for them. The Marshalls were secured, so Loving had no contact with the Japanese. Loving found a hand fan made of grass that he later gave to his daughter who has it on the wall of her home. Loving and Jimmy Lott discovered one mine. It was destroyed. The explosion in crystal clear water killed hundreds of fish. The 317 worked solo, but the 318 [Annotator’s Note: a sister ship] had been at Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan], but did not survive the combat. The 317 did not know what to expect when the bomb tests were conducted after the war [Annotator’s Note: major nuclear weapon testing was performed at Bikini Island starting in 1946]. The crewmen on Loving’s ship heard of the end of the war in Europe [Annotator’s Note: Germany surrendered in May 1945]. They also heard about the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] and the Japanese surrender [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. The crew was in line for pay being dispersed in the galley at the time the surrender was announced. Some of the crewmen went to the fantail to break out the dice and play craps. The first to lose their money went to borrow funds from those still in line to be paid. [Annotator’s Note: Loving chuckles.] Loving stayed with the minesweeper and swept mines until he came back.

Towards the end of the war, Burl Loving transferred to an APA [Annotator’s Note: Auxiliary Personnel, Attack troop transport ship] bringing troops home from the Pacific. It was the USS General Glynn [Annotator’s Note: USS Glynn (APA-239)] which transported troops from overseas back to the United States. He was discharged in August 1946 and returned home [Annotator’s Note: to Garden City, Kansas]. He traveled cross-country with his cousin, Dean Marsh [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling]. They met their aunt who lived in Oklahoma City [Annotator’s Note: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]. She helped them continue their journey home to Garden City. Loving surprised his parents when he arrived. He married his wife in 1947 and had 69 years of married life together [Annotator’s Note: the interview was conducted in July 2016]. Loving and Jimmy Lott [Annotator’s Note: a crewmen and Loving’s friend on the minesweeper YMS-317] would fish when time allowed. Despite being in shark infested waters, the sailors would cast their lines for fish. Lott fell in the water off the fantail once and comically hurriedly climbed a boat pole that was provided to save him. [Annotator’s Note: Loving chuckles.] That ended the fishing for the day. Loving had no problems adjusting to civilian life upon his discharge. Some boys had much worse times. Loving went to barber school in Salt Lake [Annotator’s Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] on the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. Loving worked in his uncle’s barber shop in Garden City and eventually took over the shop. He closed the shop after working there for fifty-five years. Loving was 17 years old when he enlisted and was discharged at 19 years of age. He married at 20 years of age. Loving’s father was a World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] veteran. Not everyone understands what went on in World War 2. Loving feels remorse when he observes the lack of patriotism in his neighbors.