Curtis Winfred Wise was born in September 1919 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Growing up there was great. It was a mill town for Cannon Mills [Annotator's Note: Cannon Mills Company], and he worked there. He also helped his brother deliver newspapers sometimes. His parents both worked in the mill. Their home was owned by the mill. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] did not hurt his family too badly. He finished high school. They did not discuss the wars in Europe or the Pacific. Wise later became the maintenance supervisor for the Kannapolis schools. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Wise what his reaction to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941 was.] It did not bother him. He had no desire to go into the military. He was drafted into the Army. That did not bother him either. He went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and made friends with people in his barracks. The training was needed.

After basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Curtis Winfred Wise went to Fort Rucker, Alabama to a new company being organized. He went on maneuvers in Tennessee [Annotator's Note: April 1943]. They were taught what they would go through in combat. He was put in a regular outfit after that and stayed with them for the duration. He was in the 81st Infantry [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry Regiment, 81st Infantry Division]. He did not know where they were headed, and he had no preference of Europe or the Pacific. They did more training and then just did what they were told. He was sent to the West Coast and then to Hawaii. He enjoyed it. They had jungle training and it was so dark at night he had to hold onto the other men when walking. He never knew it could be so dark. He was there for three or four months. President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] came to see them while he was there.

After basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Curtis Winfred Wise went to Fort Rucker, Alabama to a new company being organized. He went on maneuvers in Tennessee [Annotator's Note: April 1943]. They were taught what they would go through in combat. He was put in a regular outfit after that and stayed with them for the duration. He was in the 81st Infantry [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry Regiment, 81st Infantry Division]. He did not know where they were headed, and he had no preference of Europe or the Pacific. They did more training and then just did what they were told. He was sent to the West Coast and then to Hawaii. He enjoyed it. They had jungle training and it was so dark at night he had to hold onto the other men when walking. He never knew it could be so dark. He was there for three or four months. President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] came to see them while he was there.

After Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, September to November 1944, Peleliu, Palau], Curtis Winfred Wise went to Leyte, Philippines [Annotator's Note: with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry Regiment, 81st Infantry Division]. There were still Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] up in the hills and they went up to get them. The Japanese more or less wanted to give up and they had no problems capturing them. Most of the fighting had been taken care of where they were. There were little children living on the beach. During mealtime, they would come to the mess lines to get meals. Wise would give them some of his food. His wife sent him pillowcases and he gave them to the little girls whose mothers would make dresses from them. Other than that, he interacted very little with the Filipinos. The parents never came to get food. Wise was in the Philippines for six months. He never went to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines].

Curtis Winfred Wise [Annotator's Note: with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry Regiment, 81st Infantry Division] was not with the occupation force in Japan for long. He and another soldier went to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] and were waiting to return home. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] came along in his car, and they stopped and saluted him. He saluted back. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Wise what he thought about the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945.] He was glad they were dropped. When he was in Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan], he went into a store and it was just like he was at home, which surprised him. Women were shopping. He and some other soldiers got on a train on the front engine and the engineer was tickled. Being deployed with a wife at home, was rough. He wrote letters to her. He felt great coming home. He left from Tokyo and went to Tacoma, Washington. He went to the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] there and he saw a policeman from his hometown who had given him tickets before the war. They had beers together.

One of Curtis Winfred Wise's brothers was in the service. They did not talk much about it. He did talk to his parents about his experiences. He also told his wife the things he had seen. He had two mortar sections [Annotator's Note: with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry Regiment, 81st Infantry Division]. They were getting ready to lay down some fire, and the first shell did not come out. They had practiced what to do in basic training, but it is different in live combat. The boy was afraid to take it out, so Wise said he would do it. He had to catch it as it came out. That was his first combat action. He had a runner for contact with the company commander. They had landed on an island on the beach and were set up for the night. His runner was digging his trench in coral rock and could not go very deep. He laid on top of it. The ships were firing shells with parachutes and flares to light things up. They made shadows that moved, and his runner jammed his rifle into a tree, thinking it was a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. They laughed about killing that tree.

Curtis Winfred Wise had no trouble adjusting to civilian life. He did not use 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] and went right to his old job at Cannon Mills [Annotator's Note: Cannon Mills Company]. People he worked with would ask questions about what he did in the war. His most memorable experience of World War 2 was having the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] pinned on a ridge. They never did see them, nor did the Japanese ever shell them. Wise and his men shelled them plenty. They used illumination flares at night. He did not decide to serve in World War 2; it was decided for him [Annotator's Note: he was drafted]. The war made him appreciate life better. He says the whole thing was foolish and cannot say if the war means anything to Americans today. He does think The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important and that they should teach future generations to try to do things without killing people. After he returned to North Carolina, he and his wife lived with his parents until they got their own house in Kannapolis [Annotator's Note: Kannapolis, North Carolina]. There was a village built for veterans called "G.I. Town”. They got one of those houses. All of their neighbors were servicemen. Cannon Mills built 100 of these houses. They stayed there until they outgrew it. He and his neighbors were close. The houses were small.