Floyd Stahl was born in October 1924 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He grew up on a farm near Alto, Michigan. He was the oldest child. He attended a one room school through his first eight grades. He had two brothers and two sisters. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Stahl if he remembers hearing about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was just graduating from high school. They wanted to go over there and take care of the situation in Japan. He was deferred [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] for one year because the farm production was more important. His deferment could have been extended for milking the cows, but he did not want that. He went to Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan] for his physical exam. He chose the Navy because he did not want to dig foxholes. He went to basic in Sampson, New York [Annotator's Note: Naval Training Station Sampson in Seneca Lake, New York]. It was December 1943. It was his first Christmas dinner away from home. He spent a month there and got to go on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. The snow was deep when he returned. He was asked to do various jobs but chose storekeeper school. He went to New London, Connecticut [Annotator's Note: Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut] for training. He spent a couple of months there and was assigned to the USS Sway (AM-120) [Annotator's Note: Mine Squadron 6]. He went to Oran, Algeria [Annotator's Note: on 1 November 1943] and to Bizerte [Annotator's Note: Bizerte, Tunisia].

[Annotator's Note: Floyd Stahl was assigned to the minesweeper USS Sway (AM-120).] On the troopship over [Annotator's Note: to Africa] they were fed twice a day and had to stand up to eat. They ran out of food on the journey and had to eat C [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] and K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. The Sway was in Bizerte, Tunisia when he boarded it. There was a storm when they left, and everyone got sick. It was the only time he was seasick. The Sway was a minesweeper. Stahl was the storekeeper. They went to Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944] and then got sent to Norfolk [Annotator's Note: also called Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia] to be outfitted to go to the Pacific after the invasion of Southern France. They stayed in Norfolk a month getting new radar and other changes. They gave them foul weather gear. They had no use for it in the South Pacific. They went to Miami Beach [Annotator's Note: Miami Beach, Florida 27 March 1945] and had air-search radar installed. They passed through the Panama Canal to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to Hawaii [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] for supplies. He got liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Hawaii. The morale was pretty good. The Battle of Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945] and Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945] had occurred.

Floyd Stahl stood watch with everybody else. He had a lot of different assignments. In the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean], he had a nighttime watch on the 40mm gun [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] at the rear of the ship. He had not been wearing his life jacket. They sounded GQ [Annotator's Note: General Quarters, or battle stations] for a potential submarine. For that he was a fuse setter for the three inch gun [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun] and the hedgehog [Annotator's Note: anti-submarine mortar]. He had no life jacket on and did not know how to swim. After that, he took his life jacket with him. They went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and resupplied the ship. The supplies were part of his duties. When they left port, he ran the engine order recorder on the bridge. In the Pacific [Annotator's Note: Pacific Ocean], he was in CIC [Annotator's Note: Combat Information Center] on the bridge behind the three inch gun. He recorded where ships were and when that gun went off it would scare him. They went to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], loaded more supplies, and traded with the Marines. Stahl kept the records and was involved with the pay records for the crew. They went to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] just as it was being secured. He was there when the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped.

[Annotator's Note: Floyd Stahl served in the Navy as a storekeeper aboard the minesweeper USS Sway (AM-120).] Going from Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], he could see B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] flying to Japan. When they returned, there would be missing planes. Part of the minesweeping job was to watch for airmen in the sea. They swept all around Okinawa and after the war all around Formosa [Annotator's Note: Republic of Formosa; now Taiwan] and Japan. The ship had mine cutters, both mechanical and explosive. The mines would gather down the cable and be cut loose. Ships were following them that would either explode or sink them. Stahl was on the 40mm gun [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] one day and there were three mines still entangled in the cable. There was scrambling then. The men had 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] and wanted to go home. They were anchored in Buckner Bay [Annotator's Note: Nakagusuku Bay, Okinawa, Japan] when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. The USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was anchored there. Their duty there was making smoke at night. A lone Japanese torpedo bomber came in and hit the Pennsylvania in the fantail [Annotator's Note: 12 August 1945]. Quite a few men were killed. A man who lives near Stahl now had been on that ship. They met on an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: flights conducted by non-profit organizations dedicated to transporting military veterans to visit Washington, D.C. at no cost to the veterans]. The Sway left Okinawa when the typhoon hit [Annotator's Note: Typhoon Louise, 9 October 1945]. There was a destroyer that had to ride it out. Stahl saw the results of the kamikazes that had hit it.

When the war ended, the Sway [Annotator's Note: USS Sway (AM-120)] swept mines off Formosa [Annotator's Note: Republic of Formosa; now Taiwan] and Kyushu [Annotator's Note: Kyushu, Japan]. They were at Hokkaido [Annotator's Note: Hokkaido Island, Japan] where a lot of mines were. They swept a lot around Formosa. Stahl was a Navy storekeeper, and that job was a premium. 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] to return home with the Sway, so he was assigned to CTG 52.3, Command Task Group 52.3, aboard the USS Monadnock (ACM-10). It looked like he was going to be reassigned, but then got to go back on that ship, a minelayer. They went back to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] and then it was to be deactivated in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. The Supply Officer wanted Stahl to stay so he did for another ten days. He finally returned home after his discharge. He went into the Reserves and then went to college on the G.I. Bill at Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan.

When Floyd Stahl graduated in 1954, he had trouble finding work. He had taken insurance courses. He got an offer in Chicago, Illinois for a job and met his wife who worked there. The company was transferred to Decatur, Illinois. They got married there. He did not see a future there. He did not own a car when he graduated from college. They had lists to get cars then. He finally got a car in South Bend, Indiana and he asked about a job at the place he got the car. He got a job at Studebaker [Annotator's Note: American automobile manufacturer]. They were going to have a child and bought a new home under the G.I. Bill. Studebaker stopped making cars and the place was taken over by Mercedes Benz [Annotator's Note: German automobile manufacturer]. He moved to New Jersey when Mercedes moved the operation. He retired from Mercedes in 1999. He had been visiting the South in the winter. His children had moved away so he and his wife went to see what the weather was like in July one year. They decided to build a house in Foley [Annotator's Note: Foley, Alabama] and moved December 1993. Stahl always thought the United States was going to win the war. The determination of the people was evident. He has friends whose stories show him their determination. He has a friend he wished could have been interviewed. The friend was severely injured in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The friend had not been trained well before being sent to war. Another friend fought on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan] and it was terrible what he went through. The people were determined to win, and they did.