David E. Verlander, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1923, the youngest of four children. His father was a plant manager for a laundry business, and the family was managing well through the Great Depression until the banks were closed. They had to move to a new home, but Verlander said he was too young for it to affect him substantially; he was still with his loved ones. After graduating from Fortier High School in 1940 he began classes at Tulane University, and was a student there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Shortly after the outbreak of war, Verlander's two older brothers entered the armed forces. His oldest brother became an officer in the Navy and his other brother entered the Army Air Corps through the draft. All of his other friends were joining as well, and in November 1942 Verlander attempted to get into the Navy's V7 program [Annotator's Note: and officer training program for college students]. He was at turned down, so he volunteered for the Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps. Contrary to the prevailing theory that he would be allowed to complete his degree and become eligible for officer candidate school, Verlander was activated six months later.

After a short orientation at Camp Beauregard [Annotator's Note: in Pineville, Louisiana], David Verlander was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas for 17 weeks of basic training. He was offered a place in an officer candidate school, but found that wasn't to be. Verlander spent a short leave with his brother in Saint Louis, Missouri before reporting to Junction City, Kansas, and then went home on furlough. He traveled by train to Los Angeles, California then continued on to Fort Ord for amphibious training. From there, Verlander was sent to Camp Stoneman near San Francisco and in late 1943 he boarded a troop ship [Annotator's Note: Verlander thought it might have been the USS General John Pope (AP-110), but was not certain] headed for the south Pacific.

After crossing the equator without initiation, David Verlander landed in Noumea, New Caledonia. He was trucked to an infantry replacement center, where he spent Christmas among GIs [Annotator's Note: nickname for American soldiers] who were drinking Aqua Velva as an alcoholic beverage to celebrate the holidays. Verlander took a typing test. Although he did not know how to type and did rather poorly on the examination, he was placed as a clerk serving with the 5th Island Air Command (VIAC). He traveled by Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], keeping watch in the crow's nest, and enjoying the good food provided by the Merchant Marines, headed for the Solomon Islands. When the ship unloaded at Tulagi, Verlander was ferried over to Guadalcanal and spent the next year and a half as a corporal, working in an office among Navy and Air Force personnel.

David Verlander said he couldn't really say what he did most of his days on Guadalcanal, although he can still picture the structure where he worked. There was a lot of leisure time, because the commander was rarely on the scene. He and his companions drank a lot of 3.2 beer {Annotator's Note: beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent which is less than the normal 4.0 to 7.0 percent], and they swam in a fresh water swimming hole. They became friendly with some of the Marines on the island, but unlike the Marines who slept in tents erected over red clay in the hills above them, Verlander was living in a screened structure built on a platform on the beach between the mouth of the Lunga River and Henderson Field. They had laundry service and nightly movies, and Verlander remembers it as "good duty." Nobody was shooting at him, he was never called upon to use his rifleman training nor was he plagued with illness. Although there were still Japanese coming out of the mountains periodically, he was there after the last air raids. He admitted that he never saw any enemy troops. They had good communications, and were able to keep up with the news of the war.

There was not much interaction with the New Zealanders on Guadalcanal, according to David Verlander, except for the occasional party. He recalled the Navy crash boat attached to his unit and the liquor those sailors made called Raisin Jack that was concocted from raisins and torpedo juice, the alcohol used to fuel the torpedoes, which Verlander refused to touch. For the most part, there was no communication with the Guadalcanal islanders either. He remembers walking up and down the beach and a place called Ironbottom Sound where a great many old ships had been beached. An OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School] board that was visiting Guadalcanal accepted him as a candidate and shipped Verlander back to Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, in the spring of 1945. He was there for V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], but for unexplained reasons, was restricted to the post.

David Verlander was given leave, and he went home to his family in New Orleans, Louisiana, after which he began a four week pre-OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School] course at Fort Benning, Georgia, to get back into physical condition. He then started infantry OCS and was nearing its completion when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Verlander had enough points for discharge as an enlisted soldier, but would not have enough if he continued his pursuit of a commission. He asked his father for advice, but was told it was something he had to decide for himself. Even though he was only a week or two from graduating, Verlander decided to resign. He was busted down to the rank of private, but he didn't have to go back overseas. He was assigned to the infantry school's Headquarters Company and spent the remainder of his service there in the classification section, eventually regaining his rank of buck sergeant.

David Verlander attended the graduation of his former classmates from Officer Candidate School, and, as was the tradition, they paid him a dollar for his effort. But, he contends, resigning from the class was the best decision. In February 1946, David Verlander was sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi where he was discharged from the Army with the rank of sergeant. He went home and had no problem assimilating back into civilian life. Verlander immediately resumed his education at Tulane University. Sometime in early June he caught sight of his future wife at a wedding reception, and asked her out on a date the next day. Verlander said his resignation from Officer Candidate School put him in the right place at the right time to find his wife of 70 years, and it kept him out of the Korean War. But, he admits, he made many friends while he was in service, and it was a "good experience" for him, but he was also ready to get out.

From David Verlander's perspective, the Second World War has relevance today because the United States forged stronger ties with other nations of the world at the time, although he doubts the relevance of any war to people of today. He does believe it is of interest to a lot of people, and that The National WWII Museum is very effective in presenting the history of the war. Among his most memorable experiences of the war was dancing and having his picture taken with a chorus girl at Earl Carroll's. He has high praise for the military organization of the United States during the war in which he participated.