Edward Lee Allesandro was born in April 1923 in Denver, Colorado, and grew up mostly in Pueblo, Colorado. He left high school to go into the Coast Guard in 1941, choosing the Coast Guard over other branches because the work seemed "really neat." He had enough credits to graduate high school, and was awarded his diploma after he joined the military. Allesandro was scheduled to attend the Coast Guard Academy, but while waiting for the next class to begin, he went to boot camp in Townsend, Washington. Happy with what he was doing, he declined the academy opportunity. He worked at the Point Adams Lifeboat Coast Guard Station at the mouth of the Columbia River, then was sent to radio school in Baltimore, Maryland, and afterward attended stoorkeeper school. From the 3rd Coast Guard District in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] he was assigned to USS Cavalier (APA-37) in the early part of 1942.

The newly commissioned USS Cavalier (APA-37), with Edward Lee Allesandro aboard, picked up Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, traveled through the Panama Canal, stopped in Hawaii, and delivered the men to the Eniwetok Atoll [Annotator's Note: Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands]. The vessel went back to Hawaii to pick up Marines bound for Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands], then stayed in the war zone, moving troops and supplies wherever they were needed. Allesandro said that in January 1945, they were coming out of Subic Bay when, at about one in the morning, the ship was hit between its propellers and the aft magazine by a torpedo. The Cavalier was lifted out of water and cracked in the middle, buckling the plates. It all happened very fast, and everyone on board was at general quarters immediately. The damage was extensive and three men were injured but no one was killed. A Catholic, Allesandro feels the favorable outcome of the "scary" catastrophe was a miracle. After the attack, he said, no one slept for a week. The ship was out of commission, and the crew thought they would be going back to the United States, but the Cavalier was sent back to Hawaii for repairs. While in Hawaii, Allesandro went about the island in a fire truck with his cousin, who happened to be the fire chief in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. The government was also providing tours for the many servicemen who were coming through. Allesandro said he was "treated cordially," and enjoyed his stay. After the ship was repaired, the Cavalier was sent back into the South Pacific again, but by that time the war was over, and the ship was shuttling men on their way home. Separated from his combat comrades of three and a half years, Allesandro was shipped back to the United States on the USS New York (BB-34).

With no working equipment to run or steer the USS Cavalier (APA-37) after it was torpedoed, Edward Lee Allesandro said it was "loose" off Corregidor, and "out there floating" toward Negros [Annotator's Note: Negros Island, Philippines], which was still held by the Japanese. Everyone on board prepared to fight, but an Army tug came through with another convoy, and it towed the Cavalier to Yap [Annotator's Note: Yap, Caroline Islands], the graveyard for damaged ships. That was in January [Annotator's Note: January 1945], but by May, the ship had been rerouted to Hawaii for repairs, going through a couple of heavy storms on the way. Harking back to his reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Allesandro said he was in the Marine hospital in Seattle, Washington when he heard the news, recovering from a back injury that happened in a service vehicle. And then the war started, and very soon he was off to the Pacific. The ship on which Allesandro served was a new Liberty Ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], commissioned out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. It could carry a whole regiment, all its supplies, ammunition, vehicles and LCIs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] and LCVPs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP]. Allesandro also mentioned that the Cavalier landed Marines in Saipan and Tinian [Annotator's Note: both in the Mariana Islands], and was trapped in the Lingayen Gulf after landing infantry troops on Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] when the big naval war took place. Usually, the ship had Navy frigates alongside. There was always bombing, strafing and "Kamikazing." Allesandro mentioned that when the troops went into shore by landing craft, the Japanese would let a few of the waves come in, and then "open up" with mortars and shelling; the Allied air power would come in and knock them out. A lot of men were lost in the seventh wave.

Edward Allesandro had a lot of artifacts from Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands] that he picked up at an ammunition dump. He "stored" them and brought them home in his sea bag because he couldn't ship them. When Allesandro returned with fanfare to the United States, he went to work as the property officer at the Coast Guard station in San Pedro, California, but when 3rd District in New York heard he was back, he was ordered to return to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He took a leave to visit his hometown [Annotator's Note: Pueblo, Colorado] and folks on his way east. He remembers that he had to wear a "ruptured duck" [Annotator's Note: nickname for an insignia worn on military uniforms indicating that the wearer had been honorably discharged from the military] on his uniform, and had to read a manual on how to become civilized again. Life among civilians was "strange" he said, but he adjusted. Allesandro stayed in the Coast Guard another six months, and was discharged 1946 as a Chief Petty Officer. As a "regular," he was on a ten year assignment, and might have had to serve during the Korean War, but he had enough service time and enough points to stay home.

The most horrible of Edward Lee Allesandro's experiences were when men died while he was holding them. The ship also operated as a temporary hospital, and although he was not a medic, Allesandro was "handling" wounded who came back on board. He remembered in particular a Marine captain who was in machine gun crossfire, with bullet wounds from the chest down, who died when they took him on board the ship. And when he cradled a beautiful little native girl of about ten years old who was dying, Allesandro thought of the injustice that an innocent child would get caught up in such horrors. His ship took no prisoners of war. He had occasion to go ashore in the Philippines for a short time, and again in the Admiralties, where he went touring inland in a jeep, despite Japanese snipers lurking about. When he came back to the United States, he married a New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] girl while he was still in service. Once he was discharged, he worked for a tea importer in New York City. He brought his bride back to Colorado, and she loved it, so they stayed. Allesandro worked in different endeavors, fathered three children with his first wife, remarried "a couple of times," and currently has 23 grandsons who are nice people "scattered all over the world." He never talks about his service in the Second World War. Although he feels it was something that needed to be done, he doesn't feel it was something to be proud of. A lot of things that went on were not good. It was a "bad scene and a bad way to live." It was not the way the world should be.

Edward Allesandro said that most people are surprised to hear that the Coast Guard was fighting in World War 2. The USS Cavalier (APA-37) was Coast Guard manned under Navy command; a foreign governor came on board and took over in each new domain. Most of the time, the Cavalier was the flagship for a convoy. Initially, the ship was under Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey], but was transferred into Nimitz's [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] Fifth Fleet. When the war ended in Europe, the Cavalier was under repair in Hawaii, and Allesandro was in Honolulu; he was still in Hawaii with the ship when the atomic bombs were dropped, although the sailors knew nothing of what or when it happened, and when the Japanese surrendered. When the war was over, there were exciting celebrations with all the ships in harbor blowing whistles and horns and firing rockets. The news came over the radio, and the ship's captain announced, "Now hear this!" Allesandro said it was a big relief. He regrets that so many people were killed unnecessarily. Wars, he said, "are not a pretty thing, and they are useless." He feels the United States "lost the war," considering the billions Americans spent repairing and restoring Japan and Germany, and "got no thanks for it." But Americans were in a fight for their lives against totalitarian governments, and he went.

The United States came together in the Second World War, Edward Allesandro said, and he is sure that the soldiers' family members were behind them, although the letters from home didn't sound like they were in a war at all, except for rationing and bond drives. The soldiers were too busy to notice what was going on in world politics. He thought there was hometown bonding during the war, but a lot of men came back crippled, mentally ill, or not at all. Allesandro said the saddest thing was seeing your buddies sewn up in heavy canvas, and sending them over the side to the sound of taps during a burial at sea. But, he admits, there were also good times, and he appreciated the invitation to tell his story. He said he did it for all the men and women who served and died during that time. A lot of sacrifices were made, and many paid the full price. Allesandro said he was fortunate to come home alive, even if he was "a little coo coo" at first. He had flashbacks, and had to get over it for the transition back into everyday life. He thinks people should learn to live and give to one another. According to Allesandro, "That's the way it should be."