David Lamar Mealor was born in March 1923 in Newnan [Annotator’s Note: Newnan, Georgia]. He attended Newnan High School and graduated in 1940. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his family raised chickens, so they always had something to eat. He received hand-me-downs from his older brothers. He does not remember suffering from a lack of food or feeling poor. His father did not have a job for a long time, so his family moved in with Mealor’s grandparents. His two brothers both went into the service, and all three boys survived the war. After high school graduation, Mealor went to Florida and joined the National Guard. His unit was mobilized for one year and went to Camp Blanding, Florida for training. After the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], his unit was sent to Key West, Florida where they trained on 75 howitzers. He was then transferred to Camp Bowie, Texas and they became a training unit. He trained draftees and sent them out to different outfits. He was then sent to Camp Pickett, Virginia and volunteered for mountain climbing training. He was issued wool uniforms after his completion of training, and thought he was going to Europe. He soon learned that they were heading to the Pacific. Mealor’s stepfather was drafted and sent to Fort Lewis, Washington. His mother joined his stepfather in Washington and worked at the headquarters of the base. His mother ended up working for her future daughter-in-law. Mealor joined the National Guard in Florida by persuasion of his older brother. He assumed that he would put in a year of service and then separate, but after the Pearl Harbor attack, everything changed. He had no idea where Pearl Harbor was located, so it did not have an affect on him.

When David Lamar Mealor was shipped overseas, he went through the Panama Canal. After 14 days at sea, the ship’s rudder broke, so the convoy left his ship and it was tugged to the coast for repairs. After repairs, his ship journeyed through the Pacific unescorted. They arrived in New Guinea 34 days after leaving Newport News, Virginia. He was surprised when he arrived because there was no civilization and no roads. There was only jungle, Japanese, and native people. The weather conditions were mostly hot and rainy, and the terrain was very mushy. He was never dry because the weather was wet all the time. The radio equipment was not very good, so he had to run telephone lines so his unit could communicate. Mealor worked with communications setting up telephone lines and gun positions. The living conditions were horrible, and the mosquitoes were unbearable. He had to take pills that made his skin turn yellow, but it prevented malaria [Annotator's Note: disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans]. The jungle was so thick that his unit was always on alert for the enemy. He ate C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] from World War 1, and there was a field kitchen for hot meals. Although life was miserable on the island, he did not have any close calls with the enemy. At night, the Japanese dropped bombs over the island, but they were never close to him. Mealor is not disappointed that he was not positioned in a combat area. There was not a lot of time for rest. He was continuously cleaning equipment and on alert. When he first landed on the island, he helped unload the ship’s goods. Sometimes his unit hooked up with Australian troops at the north of the island. The Australians offered him “Australian beef,” which he knew was not actually beef. He corresponded with a girlfriend and his parents back home. He stayed n New Guinea for 10 months until he contracted jungle rot on his hands and feet. The medical staff painted medicine on his wounds but did not help. Mealor stayed in the medical center for almost a month before he was shipped back to the United States.

After David Lamar Mealor contracted a bad case of jungle rot in New Guinea, he was shipped back to the United States on a hospital ship. His journey home was much more comfortable than the journey going overseas. He shared a story on his way over to New Guinea, when the Merchant Marine cooks served raw chicken to the troops. Mealor and a friend went up to the officers’ quarters and showed them the raw chicken. From then on, the Army cooks prepared the food. After he returned to the United States, he was transferred to Miami Beach [Annotator’s Note: Miami Beach, Florida] for R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. He was stationed in Missouri when he heard the news of the United Stated dropping atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He was then transferred to Pendleton, California when the war ended, where he intercepted messages going in and out of the United States. His brother, who was on the USS Hornet (CV-12), came into San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. He found his brother in a holding area because he got drunk. They both hitchhiked up to Washington to meet their parents. While in Washington, Mealor met his future wife whom he married in November 1945. They were married for 61 years before she died.

David Lamar Mealor thought the Japanese soldiers were very brutal and treated people inhumanely. The dropping of atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] ended the war. The attitude was either kill or be killed. The troops would not have won the war without the help of home front production. His most memorable experience of World War 2 was his discharge. He served because he had no choice, but did not think much about it because it was something he felt he had to do. He does not believe his life or perspective was changed because of his war experience. He had the opportunity to go to college because of 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]. Because of his college education, he was able to find a job that supported him and his family. Mealor thinks that World War 2 means a lot to America and if the country was attacked today, kids would be compelled to defend it like his generation during World War 2. Mealor believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.