Ernest Cowell was born in January 1927 in Los Angeles, Hollywood [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. His father died when Cowell was very young and had been in the movie business. When he died, Cowell's mother took over the business and when Cowell was seven years old, the family moved to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], where he was raised. He was raised in an apartment but does not remember being close to the neighbors. They were in a middle-class area. Cowell had an interest in the developing wars in Europe and Asia. He would follow the news on radio and with news reels. Shortly after the war started, Cowell built a radio, but could not make it broadcast. He accidentally sent a broadcast saying he was the USS Mississippi [Annotator's Note: USS Mississippi (BB-41)] and had been torpedoed and was sinking. A day or two later, some people showed up and took the radio. Cowell was at home listening to the radio when news came through of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He went to school with Army brats [Annotator's Note: slang for children of service members], and he was in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] in high school. During that time, Cowell would go to the Presidio [Annotator's Note: a park and former military fort on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula] stables to ride horses. There were many forests in the area. Cowell does not remember his reaction to the Pearl Harbor attack. He was interested in what was happening in China and the Rape of Nanking [Annotator's Note: Nanjing Massacre; Nanking, now Nanjing, China, 13 December 1937 to 20 January 1938]. When Cowell was eight years old, his uncle took him to China, where he visited Shanghai [Annotator's Note: Shanghai, China] and Hong Kong [Annotator's Note: Hong Kong, China]. He was in the International Settlement in Shanghai when the Japanese were shelling the city. The China Clipper [Annotator's Note: Martin M-130 four-engine flying boat], which he was on, took him all the way to Hong Kong and was a four-engine flying boat run by Pan Am [Annotator's Note: Pan American Airways]. Cowell wanted to join the military, but also wanted to have a medical career. He took as many medical courses as he could. Cowell wanted to be a surgeon, but that did not work out. He would play in the Presidio and smoke cigarettes and would lie to his mother about it.

When Ernest Cowell was in high school, his friends started being drafted. One boy was a tanker [Annotator's Note: part of a tank crew] and drowned in his tank. Cowell wanted to join the Navy but was not accepted because he wore glasses. Later in life, he had eye surgery to remove his cataracts and now has perfect vision. When he was six years old, he had a deviated eye, so he had a surgery to fix it. The Army had a program called the Enlisted Reserve Corps, so Cowell signed up for it, despite being 16 years old. When he finished school, he would go on active duty. He went into the service when he was 17 years old. He did his boot camp at Camp Roberts [Annotator's Note: in Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County, California], which was an infantry replacement center. During the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], men with eight weeks training were flown away in C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. He was dating the daughter of the commandant of the Presidio [Annotator's Note: a park and former military fort on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula], which is one reason he joined the Army. He figured they were moving out, and he did not want to lose his girlfriend. That unit was the 30th Infantry Division and went to Africa and landed at Anzio [Annotator's Note: Anzio, Italy]. Cowell was sent to the South Pacific. When Cowell sailed away, there was fanfare and bands playing. He boarded a train with blacked out rail cars and was taken to a camp in Oregon. The next day, Cowell was sent back south as a ploy against spies. He was told he would be going to Oakland [Annotator's Note: Oakland, California]. On the way, the train hit a truck. Eventually, Cowell arrived in a replacement depot in Oakland and was transported back to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], where he boarded a troopship and sailed away. He thought going overseas would be interesting. Cowell had no reservations about where he was being sent. He did what he was told to do.

Ernest Cowell was first sent to Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands], an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. There were hundreds of ships around the atoll. Eventually, he ended up in Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines; 6 through 9 January 1945], in the Philippines. He then walked to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. Cowell was a rifleman [Annotator's Note: in the 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division]. Landing at Lingayen Gulf was scary, but the resistance low. This was Cowell's first combat experience. Cowell had been briefed well, but he was worried when he went down the cargo net to the LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. If someone slipped between the landing craft and ship, they would be smashed. Some of the men above and below him were heavy. Cowell remembers the island being tropical. Cowell did what he was supposed to do. When he got to Manila, MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] stopped them and let the 2nd Cavalry [Annotator's Note: 2nd Cavalry Division] enter Manila. They served as his personal guard in Japan. MacArthur was like a king in the Philippines because he had lived there for so long. Cowell and other Americans called the Filipinos "gooks" [Annotator's Note: a derogatory word for people of Asian descent] and "flips" [Annotator's Note: a derogatory word for people of Filipino descent]. They tried to sell the Americans cheap booze. Many Americans got sick from drinking the liquids. Cowell worked on mines and booby traps. The Japanese soldiers camouflaged themselves well. Cowell was bayoneted and was captured for a few days.

After the war ended, Ernest Cowell was sent to Korea [Annotator's Note: with the 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division] to relieve the 40th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 40th Infantry Division in October 1945]. He served in southern Korea in the headquarters company. He was on the tip of a Japanese naval seaplane base. Cowell did not salute officers because that as a good way to get them shot. A second lieutenant thought he should be saluted and eventually the men under him got tired of him. One night, they hoisted him out of his quarters, put him in an oil drum, and rolled him down the seaplane ramp into the water. Cowell was sent to a hospital and started giving shots for VD [Annotator's Note: venereal disease] at night. It was the first time he saw a white girl in a long time. Cowell was then sent to the 365th Station Hospital in Nagaoka, Japan. He befriended a chaplain there and was allowed to use his jeep. He was in Japan for a few months. Cowell was put onto a hospital ship and sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge [Annotator's Note: in San Francisco, California] on the Fourth of July of 1946 [Annotator's Note: American holiday celebrating the country's independence from Great Britain in 1776]. He learned how to play Bridge [Annotator's Note: a card game] on the ship. His parents always wanted him to learn, but he did not think it was a fun game. Cowell's plans for medical school were over because he did not have the patience for school. Instead of attending Stanford [Annotator's Note: Stanford University in Stanford, California], he moved south, where his parents moved. He started school at UCLA [Annotator's Note: University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California] for business administration. Cowell used the G.I. Bill to go to school. When he was done with his textbooks, he sold them back. Looking back, he would have done other things. Cowell was active in politics after school, so he thinks he would want to be a senator.

Ernest Cowell took a train from Fort Mason, California [Annotator's Note: in San Francisco, California], to Fort Lewis [Annotator's Note: now part of Joint Base Lewis–McChord near Tacoma, Washington] where he was discharged. A WAC [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] asked Cowell if he wanted to stay in the Reserve. He agreed if he could go into the Army Air Corps. He was assigned to a medium bomb group, which was stationed at Santa Monica airport [Annotator's Note: in Santa Monica, California]. He was discharged right before the unit was sent to Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. Cowell walked across the street to the naval reserve base. He spoke with the Marines who asked his degree and told him he could be a supply officer. Being a Marine meant you would be a grunt, so he decided to join the Navy Reserve. He served one weekend a month and two weeks a year, unless activated for regular duty. When he was activated, Cowell was sent to the Pacific in a "tin can" [Annotator's Note: naval slang for destroyers] and a carrier. He did not face an enemy because the North Koreans did not have a Navy. Cowell served on the New Jersey [Annotator's Note: USS New Jersey (BB-62)] during Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. He did shore bombardment missions. Those were not wars, they were conflicts, like the wars of today. Only Congress can declare war. While walking along a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp in the Philippines, Cowell heard his name called, but did not see anyone. He was able to find a man he went to high school with. Japanese families would send their families to Japan for vacation to keep the culture alive. When his schoolmate went to Japan, he did not return because he was drafted into service for Japan. Cowell ran track with him in high school. The man made a cartoon in Cowell's yearbook of him running in polka-dot shorts and a helmet. Cowell does not know what happened after he got the man out of the camp. He became an interpreter. Cowell was forcefully retired from the Navy in 1990. He felt like he was in good shape and argued he should be allowed to remain in the service. He thinks forced retirement should be at 70 years old. After Vietnam, Cowell handled cargo for the Navy, which was the last unit he was assigned to. He went to school in Oakland [Annotator's Note: Oakland, California], but it does not exist there anymore. All the military instillations there were shutdown. He was taught how to load ships and planes so they were balanced. Cowell enjoyed that mission. He joined the Navy League, which was a program for young people, for 20 years. He started a unit in Los Angeles and worked for President Reagan [Annotator's Note: Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States]. Cowell talked to Reagan about the unit and was allowed to use his name. Cowell started working as a volunteer for the Department of Defense. His job helps make sure veterans get a job after returning home from war. He also works with various veterans' organizations and the Veterans Administration semi-runs them all.

Ernest Cowell thinks being on shore in the Army is different from being at sea in the Navy. In the Navy, he did not have opposition, which was a big difference. He did what he had to do without resistance or opposition. The naval guys that had a hard time were the naval pilots. Some were shot down and became prisoners. In Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], Cowell did patrols and in Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975], he did shore bombardment. On one hand, the infantryman had a different experience than the sailor. The sailor was not fighting anything. The infantry had a hard time. Cowell believes that the government does not learn from history. Adolf Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] did not learn from history, because he did what Napoleon [Annotator's Note: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte] did in Russia. Cowell thinks if the Japanese did a follow up attack after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], things would have been different. In World War 2, there was a patriotism that made people want to defend the country. In Korea, it was a United Nations effort, and he does not think we went to win. He thinks if Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] let MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] run the war, things would have been different. Cowell thinks it was a mistake to stop moving forward in Korea. He thinks if the government keeps its nose out of the military, things would be different. Cowell does not think schools teach history or patriotism. He was taught history when he was in school. He thinks history is taught in a different way today. Patriotism is not bred into kids anymore. Cowell helped several kids get into various military branches. Cowell was amazed by the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] when it was dropped. His division [Annotator's Note: Cowell was a member of the 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division] was supposed to receive 80 percent casualties in the invasion of Japan. He was going to land in Osaka [Annotator's Note: Osaka, Japan], Kobe, [Annotator's Note: Kobe, Japan] which is like San Francisco Bay [Annotator's Note: San Francisco Bay, California]. He believes that despite its horror, the bomb saved lives. Cowell was in a jungle and ran across the skeleton of an American. It still had its gun. He also thinks getting his school friend out of a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp was another memorable moment in World War 2 for him.

Ernest Cowell had difficulty adjusting to civilian life. There were many servicemen in UCLA [Annotator's Note: University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California]. It took patience. Cowell had some nightmares about the war. He spent time in the hospital during the war. He was diagnosed with battle fatigue after the war, now known as PTSD [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder]. There are many things he does not want to talk about. Cowell wanted to serve in World War 2 because everyone was going to war. There was no question about serving or not. He thought watching the fleet coming in was a gorgeous sight. Cowell liked to visit the California [Annotator's Note: USS California (BB-44)]. The battleships would anchor in the bay and give a search light display at night. The smaller ships would tie up along the harbor. There was pride in the ships. Cowell never became a doctor but is still interested in medicine. He did a job that needed to be done but he does not think he would do it again because of how the country is today. Cowell thinks World War 2 is a forgotten event. He does not think people think about it. Kids are not taught about the war. Cowell thinks it is sad that history has become politically correct. He thinks people should be taught what happened during the war, including the deaths and the dreams that people have afterwards. Cowell thinks everyone wants something but does not want to pay for it. The armed forces are smaller than they were before World War 2. He thinks people are patronizing when they thank him for his service because they do not understand the service. Cowell thinks it is a disgrace that future generations have been deprived of the knowledge of what happened. He thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important, but thinks it is a shame that it is in New Orleans because he wants it to go all around the country. He does not think enough politicians go through the Museum. Cowell thinks the draft is a great equalizer and should be in place. Some people were able to get out of service because they were more concerned about themselves than their neighbors and country.