Earl Williams was born in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] in April 1923. He remembers being hungry all the time during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. His father had a job, but the company could not afford to pay him every week. At that time there were only poor people and rich people. There was no middle class. His mother and father had 10 children. Williams is the second of 10 children. In order to survive people had to fish. They had gardens. They raised chickens. Nobody used the electricity in the houses because they had to pay for it. They had wood stoves. Williams lived in the Seventh Ward [Annotator's Note: neighborhood in New Orleans] and they were considered Creoles [Annotator's Note: person of mixed European and Black descent]. They lived in the same neighborhood as white people. The Italians ran the grocery stores. The grocers gave food out on credit. People were friendly and helped each other. They were a Catholic family. They had a Catholic education. Once the war started, things started getting better. There were defense plants and people went to work. Williams was in high school when the war started. After he graduated, he got a job in a furniture factory. He worked there for six months. Then he heard about another job in woodworking where he would make twice as much. He quit his job and took that one. He worked there for about six months and then he was drafted and went to war.

Earl Williams went to Camp Lee, Virginia [Annotator's Note: now Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia]. When he was drafted, both his parents cried when they had to tell him goodbye. Williams took the train to Camp Beauregard [Annotator's Note: in Pineville, Louisiana]. They lived in tents. After that, he rode on a train to Camp Lee for basic training. He loved marching. He was there for six months. After basic, they did endurance training. In the wintertime it was cold. They slept in tents. They hiked every day. After a week he had frost-bitten toes. After that, he got a two-week furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Then they were sent to California. This is where he learned they were going to the South Pacific. He was disappointed because he wanted to go to Europe.

Earl Williams was shipped out to New Guinea [Annotator's Note: with the 318th Port Company, 512th Port Battalion]. They were stationed at a port in New Guinea. They stayed there until they found out where they were going next. It was hot there. They set up tents. It was dry. Then the monsoon season came, and it was a mess. On the troopship, they were fed twice a day. They were on the ship for 31 days. They ate coconuts. There were a lot of coconut trees. They survived on coconuts until they got food. From there they went to Hollandia [Annotator's Note: Hollandia, New Guinea] where they had to guard their equipment on the beach. The next day Williams decided to go swimming. The Japanese had left 500-pound bombs along the beach. While he was swimming one of the 500-pound bombs went off and then another started going off. His friends had made it onto a boat that was going out into the water. He was left behind on the island. He found a tent further down the beach. There was a medic treating some soldiers who had malaria[Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite]. He had to take a tablet to prevent him from getting malaria. It was turning them yellow. When his friends got back to the island, they discovered all their things and equipment had been blown up. Then they joined their company in the invasion [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which invasion].

Earl Williams [Annotator's Note: with the 318th Port Company, 512th Port Battalion] had equipment that was used to pick up loose things and to unload jeeps and tanks. Their company commander told them anything they needed they would steal. They stayed there for a long time [Annotator's Note: Hollandia, New Guinea]. They went in after the invasion [Annotator's Note: Operation Reckless, 22 April to 6 June 1944 at Hollandia, New Guinea] and set up a camp. For work, they would go out on the ship. They would unload the ship out in the water onto other boats. Then they would bring the boats to shore. They unloaded food, clothing, bombs, trucks, jeeps, carriers, amphibious trucks, tanks, and airplanes. His favorite planes to watch were the P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft]. There were a lot of dogfights. They worked eight hours a day. Williams liked his job. He learned how to use the winches and the lifts. He was given the rank PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class]. They stayed in the area for about 10 months. They fought with the Japanese. They pushed them back into the woods. There was a perimeter of infantry soldiers to keep them back there. Sometimes they would get through at nighttime. The Japanese would climb trees and tie themselves to the tree. They had people guard the tents. The tents were against the woods. Sometimes they would see the Japanese in the woods. They would shoot at them. They were attacked often at nighttime. His friend was shot. They took him to the hospital. The doctors said he would not make it. He was shot by friendly fire.

Earl Williams and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 318th Port Company, 512th Port Battalion] would be attacked by the Japanese happened after the invasions. Every time they attacked it was at nighttime. They never captured any Japanese. The Japanese had set up a pillbox [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns]. They fired on the pillbox. When they went to check it out there was a Japanese soldier crawling and using his hands only. This was in New Guinea. When he got to the Philippines it was the same thing. There were two types of natives in New Guinea. There were black natives and there were New Guinea natives which were short with large features, they looked like Orientals [Annotator's Note: generally means "eastern"; traditional, now unfavorable, designation for anything from Asia]. They adopted a couple of kids and kept them in the tent with them. After that, it was time to invade the Philippines. They were one ship until all of a sudden, they were in a convoy with destroyers and carriers. They fed them breakfast on the ship. They had Mass on the ship for all the Catholics. Later that day, they found out they were going to the Philippines. They were going to land at Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines]. They landed in the Leyte Gulf and then took LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] onto the shore. They did not have the equipment when they landed. A typhoon hit the island and they were tying themselves to trees.

Earl Williams was a corporal [Annotator's Note: in the 318th Port Company, 512th Port Battalion] when they landed [Annotator's Note: at Leyte, Philippines]. He and the commander went to find the headquarters. He had never seen so many dead Japanese. They were in the Philippines for about a year. They dug trenches and foxholes. When they landed, they had air cover from the aircraft carrier. Once the aircraft carrier moved into the gulf it was sunk by the Japanese. The planes had to land on the beaches. The sand caused them to flip over. For three months they had no air cover. Williams liked to watch the P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft]. He liked to watch dog fights. Whenever something got too close, Williams would dive into his foxhole. They were there for quite some time. After they developed the airport, he would go watch the planes take off. They had B-24 liberators [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. The planes would make formations when they were in the air. Some of the planes were shot up with a lot of holes in them. The Japanese would try to intimidate them to get them to shoot so they would know where they were. He does not know how they got the Japanese to surrender.

Earl Williams used to play baseball and softball with his unit [Annotator's Note: 318th Port Company, 512th Port Battalion]. A captain came out and trained them. There was a point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to determine when the men went home. After they dropped the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] he waited three months to go home on an aircraft carrier. There were rows of cots and hammocks. The next day they ran into a typhoon. There were waves 60 feet high. They were in the wind from the typhoon for five days. Everyone was seasick. It took 16 days to get back. The ship went under the Golden Gate [Annotator's Note: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California]. They drank milk and ate a lot of food when they got back. There were cots with a mattress. He does not think the war changed him. When he went overseas, he thought he was going to die. After he was there for a year, he got more confident about living. The fastest way to get home was a Greyhound bus. The worst experience he had was on the bus ride home. They made it to Alexandria [Annotator's Note: Alexandria, Louisiana] and then they had to get on another bus. Some of the Black soldiers were arrested before the next bus came. He was more scared at the bus station than he was in the Army. When the bus hit the New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] city limits he fell asleep.

For Earl Williams, the war liberated Black people a great deal. There were the Tuskegee Airman [Annotator's Note: African American pilots; 332nd Fighter Group and 477th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces; name applies to all associated personnel] and there were Black Marines. The Black Marines were not fighting. They cleaned up the soldiers on the battlefield. People were brave during World War 2. Everyone rose to the occasion. People were poor. After the war, everything blossomed. Even women were liberated. Other countries hated the United States because it was a rich country. The United States helped the world a great deal and took on a lot of responsibility to help other countries. Williams was involved with B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] while he was overseas. The war changed everything, especially race relations. In New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] the young black people today are destructive. Williams is a Creole [Annotator's Note: a person of mixed European and black descent]. He was married for 54 years, and he had six children.