Floyd James Reissig, known as Buddy, was born in Travis County, outside of Austin, Texas in March 1919. His father was a farmer during the depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through the 1930s]. His family had some cattle and a garden. If the family would not have had those things, they would have starved. Texas was very dry at that time. The depression was very bad. Reissig's father died in 1934 due to disease. He grew up with his mother and sister. Reissig would plant corn, bail hay, and worked the cows and mules. Reissig worked several jobs and eventually got a job at a lumber mill where he worked until 1944, when he was drafted. He had considered volunteering, but the company was doing government work, and he was asked to stay. Reissig also had a small child by that time. He was drafted in May 1944 and went to boot camp. After passing his exam, he chose the Navy. His boot camp was at Camp Wallace, Texas [Annotator's Note: in Galveston County, Texas]. It had been an Army camp, but the Navy took it over in 1940. The camp was used to house and train amphibious forces. After boot camp, he was sent to the West Coast [Annotator's Note: West Coast of the United States] and assigned to the USS Harry Lee (APA-10), an amphibious personnel attack vessel. His crew could haul 1,200 fully equipped troops right onto a beachhead. Reissig had fun on the ship, but also worked a lot. Not long after joining the crew, he went out to the Pacific. Before crossing the equator, he was called a pollywog [Annotator's Note: Navy sailor who has never crossed the equator]. After crossing the equator, he became a Shellback [Annotator's Note: a type of status given to sailors who cross the equator]. There was an initiation ceremony. Reissig was hit while doing his ceremony. Despite that, he had fun. After leaving the United States, his ship took some Sea Bees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] to an island. They took the lumber off the ship to use in a building project. After that, Reissig went to Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea] to pick up Army troops and then set sail to Hollandia [Annotator's Note: Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea]. An ammunition ship blew up near the island and killed the whole crew. Reissig's ship had been anchored next to it not long before it exploded. He then participated in the invasion of the Philippines [Annotator's Note: Philippines campaign, Operation Musketeer, or Liberation of the Philippines, 20 October 1944 to 15 August 1945]. The cooks were not prepared for the Army troops picked up at Bougainville. Reissig got his lunch and the soldiers thought he had been given steak. He gave them part of his meal, despite it not being steak. He was surprised how hungry they were. Reissig was happy he chose the Navy.

Floyd James Reissig sailed around Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] towards Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippines]. On 3 January [Annotator's Note: 3 January 1945], his second daughter was supposed to be born. On that day, he saw a Japanese plane being shot down for the first time. It looked like an uneven fight. There were two Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U-4 Corsair fighter aircraft] on the Japanese pilot's tail. After they passed the convoy, the Corsairs shot the Japanese plane down. The same day, some kamikaze planes came out towards the convoy. American planes circled the two convoys in the area. Reissig's ship [Annotator's Note: USS Harry Lee (APA-10)] received an alert for enemy planes, so he went into position at the number one gun. The two Hellcats [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft] circling the convoy moved to intercept four Japanese torpedo bombers. The Hellcats and Corsairs knocked the Japanese out the air. A kamikaze bomber hit a small carrier in the forward convoy, but the ship did not sink. Reissig later saw the ship at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. It was called the Kitkun Bay [Annotator's Note: USS Kitkun Bay (CVE-71)]. The invasion was 9 January [Annotator's Note: Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, Philippines on 9 January 1945]. Mines in the water had to be cut so the ships could make it through the area. Reissig's second daughter was born on the same day as the invasion. His ship had Army soldiers on it, and they were supposed to land 36 minutes after the first wave hit the beach. Their equipment did not get fully unloaded, so the ship had to remain in the area overnight. Torpedo boats sailed round the gulf all night and destroyers would chase them down. Reissig's ship had a watch up all night because the Japanese would use anything to float to ships, climb up anchors, and lay satchel charges on them. Nobody got much sleep that night. The sailors had to be up before sunrise in case of attack. Reissig was stationed at the number one gun. The largest gun on the ship was a three inch 50 caliber gun [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun]. A Japanese plane dove towards Reissig's ship, but it pulled up before hitting the ship. In a second dive, he dropped two bombs around the ship without hitting anything. Reissig was not allowed to fire at the enemy plane. He thought the bombing run was going to kill him. From there, Reissig sailed to Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands on 19 January 1945], where he picked up mail. He received 72 letters that day, many from his wife. From there, he sailed to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Marianas Islands], where he picked up the 3rd Marine Division, which was going to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. While at Guam, they were alerted that a Japanese submarine might have breached the area. A destroyer released a depth charge [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum], which broke some pipes in Reissig's ship. The engineers did not know what was happening and surfaced to find out.

The 3rd Marine Division was loaded up and brought to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan on 22 February 1945 for the Battle of Iwo Jima]. The division was supposed to be a reserve force. When Floyd James Reissig got to Iwo Jima, the shelling of the island was already underway. It was something else. The island was honeycombed and had caves with artillery guns hidden in them. The only way to get to those enemy troops was by using flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire]. Some Marines were sent to the beach in rubber rafts. Reissig does not know if they made it to the beach. It was difficult to get any sleep at night. A destroyer was firing near Reissig's ship [Annotator's Note: USS Harry Lee (APA-10)]. One day while Reissig was on the deck, a battlewagon [Annotator's Note: nickname for battleships] was in the area. An observation plane was giving the battleship coordinates to fire on. One time, the person on the battleship told the pilot to not be nervous when giving the position. The pilot said it makes sense to be nervous during the firing. When the ship would fire, things would go silent. A Japanese gun knocked the pilot out of the air, but he survived. While Reissig was on the bridge, he watched the flag raising [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on top of Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima on 23 February 1945] through binoculars. That moment made him feel very good. The ships started blowing their whistles. The United States wanted the island because it was between Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Marianas Islands] and Japan. It could be used as an airbase for fighter planes that would fly during bomber missions. The Japanese commander [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Army General Tadamichi Kuribayashi] was a good officer, but he was killed on Iwo Jima. The Japanese fought to the last man. The Americans had to use flamethrowers to kill the enemy. Reissig saw pictures of the burned bodies. The hospital ship was full of patients. The doctors on Reissig's ship were very good. The hospital ship had to send patients to his ship for treatment. Getting the people onto the ship was not easy. Reissig and another sailor had to bring a man on a stretcher below deck. It was not easy to get down the ladders carrying the stretcher. When they finally got below deck, Reissig found out the man could walk without assistance, which made him unhappy. The man had been shot a few times but had been treated on the other ship. The Marine had a Japanese sword hanging off of him. One night, a barge hit the ship during rough weather. It had to be sailed to New Caledonia [Annotator's Note: New Caledonia, Overseas France] for repairs. He grew a mustache while he was there. The Navy wanted its sailors to be clean all the time. While on the island, the men would work on the ship and get dirty. One of the men refused to take a shower, which irritated the other men in his quarters. A number of men forced him into the shower. The ship could not make enough fresh water sometimes. The shower room was not very big, so when the water was turned on, Reissig would fill a bucket of water, wait until the other guys finished showering, then go in and clean himself using the bucket of water.

Floyd James Reissig was in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] when the war ended. When he got there, he was supposed to pick up troops and prepare for the invasion of Japan. However, in the afternoon, Reissig received word about the Japanese surrendering. He had liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] that day, so he went down into the market area of the city. Servicemen were breaking into liquor stores to celebrate, but only the Navy was blamed. Reissig wanted to get food at a restaurant, but they were all full of people. The market was full as well. MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] were lining up drunk servicemen. There was a vendor selling fresh fruits. Reissig ate a peach for dinner that night. He decided to go back to the ship [Annotator's Note: USS Harry Lee (APA-10)]. On the previous day, Reissig decided to have a picture made of himself. When he had liberty again, Reissig wanted to get the pictures back, however, servicemen were restricted from going back to that area. Eventually, he was able to get back to the area. The photographer did not make any money when the servicemen were restricted. Reissig had to unload all the ammunition from the ship so he could pick up food stuffs from Oakland [Annotator's Note: Oakland, California]. He tried to steal some fruit, but the captain of the ship caught him in the act, but he was able to have some of them. Reissig was on the ship for a full day and night. He decided not to go on liberty after he took a nap. After leaving, he unloaded some replacements in the Philippines, then went to Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines]. At the end of the bay, he could see a volcano. A couple of days later, the volcano erupted. Reissig loaded troops in the Philippines and started sailing towards Japan. He received a report about a typhoon. It took nine days to make it to Japan. The weather was rough in the typhoon. Reissig had to steer the ship while it was in the storm. The water would knock things off the deck that were not secure. At Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan], the goods were unloaded. Some men went straight to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], but Reissig stayed in Yokohama. Everything was bombed out. He saw some iron safes on the slabs where buildings had been. Japanese bars were serving beer to the servicemen. Reissig thinks it would have been terrible if the United States invaded Japan because the civilians would have defended the homeland. He thinks it would have been worse than what happened with the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He believes more people on both sides would have been killed in an invasion. When Reissig returned to the United States, he was eligible for service discharge. He would have stayed on the ship if he knew it was going to go through the Panama Canal. He was discharged at Camp Wallace [Annotator's Note: in Galveston County, Texas]. Before he was discharged, he had a cyst removed. He was discharged on 26 March 1946. The wound did not heal correctly, so he had to have another doctor look at it. After some time, it healed, and he was able to leave. While he was in the hospital, the workers would come around with things for the inmates to build. Reissig made a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] model and gave it to the doctor that helped his wound heal.

Floyd James Reissig was a Petty Officer 3rd Class in the Navy. He served as a Coxswain [Annotator's Note: person in charge of a boat]. While at Camp Wallace [Annotator's Note: in Galveston County, Texas], he took an exam as a radio operator. During the test, his pencil broke, and he could not get another, so he did not finish the exam. He could have been a radio operator. He could have been a wood worker and patched up the Higgins Boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP]. His ship carried 17 Higgins Boats and a couple bigger landing craft, plus some trucks. The ammunition hole was the number one hole. Reissig worked on the forward part of the ship. When the boat would go up a big swell, the crew would have to drop some equipment. One time, they accidently dropped a shell, but it did not go off. An ammunition ship at Hollandia [Annotator's Note: Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea] that Reissig had been anchored next to blew up an hour after his ship set sail. The crew could not get it to stop smoking. Reissig could see it from where he was in the Pacific [Annotator's Note: Pacific Ocean]. He had heard about the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] at his mother-in-law's house. She had heard about the attack on the radio and then told the rest of the family. Reissig started listening to the radio after he was told. He had been working at a shop in Austin [Annotator's Note: Austin, Texas]. The day after, it was gloomy. People were already being drafted. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] declared war on Japan. Gasoline and sugar started being rationed. Reissig's business partner starting farming after the war. The previous owner of the farm returned to get something he left in the garage. The man had dug a hole in the garage and filled it with sugar. Unfortunately, it had turned into water over the years. Hoarding food was a criminal offense. Reissig was not bothered by the rationing because of how he grew up. His farm still had some cows on it and his mother would milk the cows. She was able to make butter, so the family was able to live just fine with the rationing. Sometimes the family had to be more conservative. Sometimes people would buy things just because they could buy it. If a person had an "A" card, they could only get a few gallons of gas. Reissig was given a "B" card, so he did not have to worry about gasoline. People tried not to waste gasoline. They would save up gas for longer trips. Reissig's wife had enough gasoline to get to and from Huntsville [Annotator's Note: Huntsville, Alabama] to visit her parents. The rationing did not bother Reissig.

Floyd James Reissig was drafted in May 1944. He was allowed to choose his service after his physical. He was not guaranteed to be sent to the branch he chose. He chose the Navy because he would have a bed to sleep in at night. He was happy to be in the Navy. Reissig did his boot camp at Camp Wallace [Annotator's Note: in Galveston County, Texas]. Some of the men he was at boot camp with could not swim. They would do swim tests at Galveston [Annotator's Note: Galveston, Texas]. Reissig was sent to Galveston to help the men learn how to swim. Before he boarded his ship, Reissig was sent to a school, where he would have to jump from heights into the water, then learn how to use his clothing as a floatation device. He was also taught how to be a fire fighter. When he was first at boot camp, Reissig had to complete a strength test. At the end of boot camp, recruits did the same test and could compare the results of the two tests. Everyone did better on the second test. By the end, Reissig could do 35 chin ups. He thought his instructors did a good job. He felt prepared when he made it to his ship [Annotator's Note: USS Harry Lee (APA-10)] for overseas duty. He did not know how to handle heaving lines on a ship but learned quickly. The heaving line was used to help moor the ship to a dock. An officer complemented him on how he threw the line. While at Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], the anchor was dropped in deep water. They needed to tighten some lines to keep the anchor chain from breaking loose. It started jumping from its track, causing sailors to jump out of the way. When the anchor hit the bottom of the ocean, the line finally stopped moving and they had to tighten it again. Things like that were exciting.

Floyd James Reissig arrived at the Harry Lee [Annotator's Note: USS Harry Lee (APA-10)] a week and a half before he left the United States. He believes it was in October [Annotator's Note: October 1944]. The ship was in San Pedro [Annotator's Note: San Pedro, California], where it was being worked on. The ship was older, and workers were working on its steam winches. When he got aboard, Reissig had to clean it up and put on a coat of paint. Reissig served in the deck division in the forward section of the ship. He did various jobs including loading and unloading, cleaning, painting, working winches, and handling lines. The Boatswain 1st Class [Annotator's Note: Boatswain's Mate 1st Class] would tell the men what to do when loading and unloading. In New Guinea, the ship took on Army troops. It was raining, but not windy. During that experience, Reissig worked the winches, which moved equipment into the ship's holds. He brought the load to the Philippines, unloaded, and returned for more goods and it was still raining. He had to work all day with a poncho and a hat on, but he would still get wet. His general quarters was on the number one gun, a three inch 50 [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun], where he served as the setter [Annotator's Note: a setter inputs the coordinates of a target into the guns finding aid]. One of the men would give the elevation and Reissig would set it into the gun. Sometimes it would take time to get the right bearings. Another time, the ship was in convoy and Reissig was steering the ship. It was one of the last ships in the convoy. A destroyer thought it spotted a floating mine and told the other ships to turn to port to avoid it. Reissig was given orders to move ship but gave the wrong coordinates. Reissig knew it was a wrong course and asked for it again. He asked a junior officer for the coordinates again. Eventually, they figured out the course was wrong and had to be adjusted. The rear admiral in the convoy asked about the course correction and it was blamed on a miscommunication. The ship's captain apologized to Reissig for the mistake. He thinks a junior officer should have caught the mistake. He had gunnery training at Camp Wallace [Annotator's Note: in Galveston County, Texas]. One time a shell would not go all the way into the gun. When the crew took it out, only the case came out, so they had to fire another shell to get the remains of the first shell out. Nobody knew what would happen, but it worked. There was a twin 40mm [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] on the deck above his gun. When it would fire above him, his helmet would reverberate on his head. The 20mm guns [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] were good for antiaircraft firing. One of the gunners had a misfire happen. He burned his hand while grabbing the muzzle. Reissig did not know the history of the Harry Lee. It had been in the invasion of Sicily [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky 9 July 1943 through 17 August 1943, Sicily, Italy]. The veteran crew had to tell him what to do. On his first watch, he was stationed as a messenger on the ship's bridge. The boatswain [Annotator's Note: senior enlisted man in charge of equipment and crew] taught Reissig some things about the work. Eventually he would be allowed to steer the ship. There would be two men steering the ship during their shift. One of the men did not want to steer the ship. The captain knew Reissig was qualified to steer the ship, which is why he was told to steer it during a typhoon.

When he had free time, Floyd James Reissig would chip paint and paint the ship. When he was on an island, the crew would play baseball. He also enjoyed making things including belts and belt buckles. One man traded him a pen and pencil for a belt buckle. He made a belt out of cow hide. He made a book cover out of leather. One man would use signal flags and other brightly colored materials as trade goods with Filipinos. Some sailors sold their t-shirts to the locals. Christmas 1944 was kind of lonely. The ship gave the men a Christmas dinner. The executive officer enjoyed strawberry shortcake, so the troops also got some cake. The Army troops enjoyed the dinner. Reissig was in Long Beach [Annotator's Note: Long Beach, California] for the following Christmas. The sailors could get as much food as they wanted. He spent the day at the beach. Reissig tried to call home but was told it would be six hours before he could talk to his family. He thought his officers were pretty good. One officer had attended Baylor University [Annotator's Note: in Waco, Texas]. Reissig became friends with that officer because he loaned the officer his baseball shoes. That officer allowed him to avoid work duty on Sunday's by telling him to go to church. The ship did not have church services every Sunday. There were a good amount of people that would attend the services. Reissig was trained on how drive a Higgins Boat [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] near Galveston [Annotator's Note: Galveston, Texas]. He did not learn how to drop the ramp on one. Reissig got along with the soldiers and Marines. The Marines would be in a different hold than the sailors. They would sleep in bunks. When he first got onto the ship, Reissig's quarters were on the main deck. Not long after, the various divisions sleeping quarters were split up to avoid serious losses during torpedo attacks. Reissig was moved close to the galley, which he did not mind. The baker kept the bread nearby and at night, the sailors would steal bread. There was an air trunk that had a leak in it, which Reissig used to keep cool in the hot sleeping quarters. The ship had cots and several sailors took some and decided to sleep on the deck. He did not mind sleeping in the rain because he would bring his poncho. Eventually, the cots were taken from the sailors.

One night, Floyd James Reissig called general quarters while sailors were sleeping on the deck. There was an unidentified ship on the horizon. Finally, the ships parted ways, but they never found out who the ship belonged to. There was a captain onboard that would sleep on a cot in the bridge. During the incident with the unidentified ship, that captain left his bunk and sent everyone to general quarters. He was an older man who had come up through the ranks. Some of the officers had only just gotten into the Navy. Reissig does not know how many were in the Regular Navy [Annotator's Note: professional sailors in the Navy]. One officer had never had sea duty before. That officer had not been on the ship very long and all the officers did not like him. They managed to get rid of him on one of the islands. One night, some officers made a sarcastic remark about the ship being run aground near Midway [Annotator's Note: Midway Island] and that officer got his gear to abandon ship. Reissig thinks the other officers got that man off the ship because he did not know anything about sailing. The hospital ships off of Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] were all full, so Reissig's ship took some in. It had good doctors on it. They brought the patients to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Northern Marianas Islands] for more treatment. One man died on the journey back and was buried at sea. That Marine's flamethrower blew up and burned him. Reissig felt bad for those men but knew it would happen in war. A kamikaze missed his ship by about 50 yards. That same day, some Japanese torpedo bombers attacked the convoy Reissig was in. A plane did hit a ship in the convoy ahead of his. The antiaircraft fire took out a Japanese plane that tried to turn into Reissig's ship. There was strong air power at Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], so there were not that many aerial attacks. One Japanese pilot tried to attack, but a pair of P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening fighter aircraft] caught him. When he was picking up Marines at Guam, there were some P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] around the area. Reissig would go see the planes when he had recreation. He would play football on recreation. One time, he landed on his back in some coral, which caused several cuts. The P-51s would fly over the sailor's heads. Reissig thinks they had a good time flying those planes. They wanted Iwo Jima so the fighter planes could land somewhere. When he was coming back from Iwo Jima, a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] passed his convoy and was losing altitude. Reissig saw the crew throwing everything out of the plane. It was put down in the water and a destroyer picked up the crew. He thought the kamikaze pilots were crazy. They would fight to the end for their country, but they wanted to kill as many Americans as they could. The landing gears on the planes would fall off after it took flight. Reissig does not think the Americans would do something like that. The Japanese could kill more people through those kinds of attacks. The California [Annotator's Note: USS California (BB-44)] was in Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands] and was hit by five kamikaze planes.

Floyd James Reissig was hit by shrapnel from one of his own guns. While they were firing, the shrapnel hit him, causing him to bleed. He decided to keep the piece of metal. An officer elsewhere on the ship was hit like Reissig but acted like he was seriously wounded. Reissig thinks it came from the five inch gun [Annotator's Note: five inch 38 caliber naval gun]. Reissig worked using the G.I. Bill. The bill was supposed to help make sure he got paid well. The person who he worked for was not following the rules for the G.I. Bill, so Reissig started working for someone else. Reissig did not start looking for a job for some time. He had no place to live. His father-in-law helped him find a house to live in. Reissig tore down the old house and built a garage apartment. He lived there until 1955, when he bought his own home. The military did not call Reissig back to service for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953]. Someone he knew was called back for that war because he had joined the reserves.

Floyd James Reissig does not think the war changed him too much but helped him grow up. It did not affect his marriage. His daughter had to get used to Reissig being around. She was one year old when he came home. He thought he did his job in the war. He did not feel like he was important. Reissig learned how to be smarter and learned the value of things. He learned how to treat people and how to control his temper. He believes people have to work to make a living. The war did not influence his career. He was used to building things like cabinets, so he did that for a living. In 1967, he decided to start working for himself. The person he worked for saw the building slab for his shop. That is when Reissig told him about his new business. He told his boss he would not leave if there was a big project in the works. After three months, Reissig left to start his business. His boss thought he was trying to steal customers. He did tell one customer about his new business, but that was it. Reissig built cabinets for that customer a number of times. He also did work for a man who built houses. He was asked to build cabinets for another contractor, but he did not go into business with them. His other customers gave him plenty of time to build the cabinets. He thinks things should be figured out without war. War is different from when he was in the military. War is more mechanical and less man-to-man. Reissig believes people get greedy and want to rule. Adolf Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] wanted to rule but could not handle fighting so many enemies. Reissig believes it is important for future generations to learn about World War 2. He does not think kids are taught about World War 2 in school. He used to watch late night television personalities ask people questions on the streets. One woman was asked about World War 2 and she did not know, and she was a teacher. He thinks people can learn about the whole war at The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He does not think his granddaughters know about the war. Reissig did not like history in school. He learned about history after school.