Elmer Koenig was born in July 1925 in Santa Ana, California. His older sister died in 1918. He grew up in Orange [Annotator’s Note: Orange, California]. His father had an orange grove. His mother worked during the war. She had a defense contract. He grew up during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. He walked to school or rode a bicycle. For the seventh and eighth grades, he rode a bus. They had combination classes. His dad always had a job. People would come to the door and ask for food. His mother would feed them. They had chickens and she always had eggs. People would ride on the boxcars of the trains during the Depression. They would play in the creek for fun. They were visiting friends when they heard Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They heard it on the radio. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was. Later on in December they heard anti-aircraft guns start going off in the Orange area.

Elmer Koenig enlisted on 7 May 1943. He graduated from high school in June 1943. His parents expected him to join. In those days, they assumed everybody went into the service. He joined the Navy because his family was always in the Navy. Koenig went to Georgetown, Texas for two semesters. He got the measles and missed out on classes and was then sent to boot camp at Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois] in July 1944. He was supposed to go to signal school, but he volunteered for submarine school. Then he went on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and visited his aunt in Iowa. After boot camp, he was shipped to New London where he went through submarine training. He had a two-week course in radar in Connecticut with the Coast Guard. Then he went to San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] for sonar training. Next, he went to gunnery school in Rhode Island. When they got off the train they were told that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died. They built 28 submarines in Wisconsin and sent them down the Mississippi River. Koenig spent his 20th birthday in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. They went down to Bourbon Street and listened to New Orleans jazz music. The players were in their 70s and they could play. He trained in Panama doing torpedo runs when the war was over. Then they went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. The day that Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey] sailed from Pearl Harbor, Koenig was up in the tower and saw them sailing back to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California].

Elmer Koenig wanted to get out of the Navy, but he did not have enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. He left the Navy in April 1946. In January they sailed back to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. Then he went on a 30-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. On the USS Menhaden [Annotator’s Note: USS Menhaden (SS-377), Koenig’s job was on a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. When the submarine was submerged, he would work in the torpedo room to reload. There were some bunks in the torpedo room. One time the temperature got up to 140 degrees. After he got out of the service, he used 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] to go to school. He got his bachelor's and master's degrees. His master’s was in education. He got his doctorate in 1972.

Elmer Koenig was interviewing teachers about why they were leaving. He taught in Los Angeles County [Annotator’s Note: Los Angeles County, California]. He taught fifth through eighth grades. Then he went to Germany to teach for the military. He taught there for 28 years. He spent his last 13 years at a medical center. His final rank was Seaman First Class. He thought serving in the war was a big adventure. All the kids who served were products of the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. Koenig saw Admiral Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] lower his flag at Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Koenig was a history major. European history is fascinating. You can learn a lot from history and hopefully not make the same mistakes. He was married twice and widowed twice. He has two sons and a daughter.