Edward Chinnis was born in August 1924 in Ravenel, South Carolina. After graduating high school Chinnis had a scholarship to play football for Carolina but he rejected it and went into the Navy instead. When he was growing up his parents weren't with him. His parents had separated when he was five years old and his mother was in Chicago and his father was in North Carolina. He was raised by his grandparents who raised all ten of their grandchildren. Chinnis attended a two room school until seventh grade then went to two different high schools. Chinnis had an uncle who was at Pearl Harbor aboard the repair ship USS Medusa (AR-1) at the time of the attack. Chinnis thought the attack was wrong and he went into the Navy shortly after that. A lot of people volunteered during World war 2 because they wanted to get rid of the Japs [Annotator's Note: period derogatory term for Japanese], Germans and Italians because they were out to take over the world. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor they heard more about Germany than the other two belligerent countries.

Edward Chinnis enlisted in the Navy on 11 November [Annotator's Note: 11 November 1942] in Raleigh, North Carolina then took his boot camp training in Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia]. While there, they were quarantined for several months because of the mumps. Had he not been quarantined he likely would have ended up in North Africa. Chinnis had an aunt who served in North Africa as a nurse. Chinnis was primarily a radio operator. Prior to entering the service he had worked for the railroad as a telegraph operator and that helped him once he entered the service. He attended radio school in Bedford, Pennsylvania. While at radio school they got one day a week off and Chinnis would go to Altoona, Pennsylvania to dances at the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations]. Radio school lasted about four months. Chinnis later taught code in Norfolk.

Edward Chinnis, Jr. was assigned to a tanker after completing radio school. Prior to that he was assigned to a mine sweeper. While out on a patrol aboard the mine sweeper, a tanker was torpedoed right behind them. After leaving the mine sweeper, Chinnis reported aboard a tanker then went to Ohio. From there, he joined the aviation program and was sent to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. While he was in pilot training he decided that he liked being a radio operator. Chinnis encountered two typhoons and a storm during the trip to invade Japan which Chinnis had volunteered for. He had been training at Newport, Rhode Island for sea duty and was injured during a fire fighting exercise. From there they went to East Saint Louis, Illinois where he reported aboard the Dorchester [Annotator's Note: USS Dorchester (APB-46)].

When Edward Chinnis reported aboard the ship [Annotator's Note: USS Dorchester (APB-46)], there was a third class aboard who was not able to copy code. Additionally, the ship suffered a communications failure that no one could repair. Chinnis was ordered to remain on watch until he fixed the problem which he eventually did. His ship and three others then steamed from East Saint Louis, Illinois to New Orleans then out into the Gulf of Mexico. They passed throught the Panama Canal and into the Pacific. When they were between Enewetok and Guam, they ran into a typhoon and were forced to use their radio even though Japanese submarines were known to be in the area. Chinnis had recieved a message that the ship was headed into a typhoon with waves 55 feet high. The captain of Chinnis' ship told the other vessels with them that it was every man for himself. After clearing the storm, they continued on to take part in the invasion of Japan. Just as they arrived the bombs [Annotator's Note: the atomic bombs] were dropped. They put in at Sasebo, Japan where they encountered another typhoon. The captain of Chinnis' ship was told to run the ship aground but he managed to keep the ship afloat. Chinnis feels that he had a good captain. On a ship near them, the captain sent out a few men in a little gig [Annotator's Note: a small boat] to get a new movie from another vessel. The gig overturned and the men were all killed. That captain was a bad captain. They gone to Japan as an invasion force but instead acted as occupiers. Chinnis left the ship four and a half months later and returned home.

Edward Chinnis and his fellow sailors hated the Japanese even after the war ended. Chinnis was on occupation duty for about four and a half months after the war. They were based in the harbor at Wakayama with the 6th Fleet. They were occasionally allowed go ashore. One time, Chinnis took some money from a Japanese civilian. The Japanese were different back then. They are not the same today. Chinnis thinks that atomic bomb being dropped on Japan was the best thing for the United States to do. He believes that Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] did the right thing because the bombs took a lot of lives but they also saved a lot of lives, American and Japanese.

Edward Chinnis was ready to go home after the war but he did have a lot of fun in the Navy. After leaving the Navy, he went to the University of South Carolina but was paying for it himself. he had forgotten about the G.I. Bill. After going broke, he dropped out of school and went to work. He later went to school at night at Pembroke State College and went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut for about six months. He never finished school. He had a wife and four children to support by then. Right after World War 2, Chinnis lost his only brother, William Chinnis. William had joined the Navy against Chinnis' wishes and was serving aboard a submarine as a radio operator. One night his submarine was caught in a storm off the coast of South Carolina. William was on watch and was washed overboard. his body was never found.

Edward Chinnis' most memorable experience of World War 2 was going through a typhoon with 55 foot waves. He fought because he felt he had to. He was working at the time and likely could have not gone in but the Germans, Italians and Japanese were trying to take over the world. The war made a man out of him but he had a good time in the Navy. He served for almost four years from 11 November 1942 until 30 March 1946. As a result of his service, he gets help from the VA [Annotator's Note: Veterans Administration] that he ordinarily would not have gotten. As a result of the war, the country is free but he is not happy with his current living situation. Chinnis feels it is important to continue to teach World War 2 to future generations so they will know what it was all about. He feels that New Orleans is a good place for the the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum] to be. He had a bosun's mate from New Orleans who left him to fight five Marines by himself. The man later went blind from drinking the alcohol that was used to fuel torpedoes. Chinnis drank some of it as well but not much of it. Chinnis copied the message stating that they were going into a typhoon with 55 foot waves. They never saw the three ships they were with again.