George Mouton was born in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1926. He was young during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and does not remember it too much. His father was a policeman and was paid with chits which the Heymann's Department Store honored. Mouton went to school and sold newspapers. He had seven brothers. He was the youngest. He was attending high school before the war. He delivered bread to the Air Force base as a job. He and his brothers volunteered or were drafted. His oldest brother had five children at the time. Mouton volunteered for the Navy. He went to San Diego, California for his training. He went through amphibious training where he learned to drive LCVPs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat].

George Mouton went to San Pedro, California, and reported aboard the USS Bosque (APA-135). From there he went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Then he went to Leyte, Philippines. He did not experience any combat at Leyte. After Leyte, they went to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They landed on 1 April 1945. They saw a lot of kamikazes [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers] off Okinawa. The troops landed during the day. The Japanese did not meet them at the beach. His ship shot down a Japanese bomber. One ship went down within 17 seconds after it had a direct hit on it. The ship was between eight to 20 miles from Okinawa. His ship did not get any damage from the kamikazes. After that, they went back to the Philippines. His brother died while he was in the Philippines. They were on the same island. After the war, he visited with a guy from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] who served with his brother. His brother died from machine gunfire. They made the first landing in Tokyo Bay [Annotator's Note: Tokyo Bay, Japan] after the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. They dropped troops off. He witnessed the USS Missouri (BB-63) having the surrender signing happen.

George Mouton's oldest brother was drafted. The second oldest brother was in submarines. The third brother was in the Navy. The fourth brother was drafted into the Army and was killed in the Philippines. The fifth brother was in the Navy on a destroyer. The sixth brother was in the Army Air Forces and was shot down over Germany and went missing for days, but did not get captured. Mouton volunteered for the Navy. It was a tough experience for his mother. He and his brothers wrote to each other. His brother that got shot down got by because he knew Cajun-French [Annotator's Note: Louisiana French is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally in colonial Lower Louisiana]. His mother had nightmares about her missing son. He was shot down in 1943.

George Mouton thinks the war made a man out of him. The war showed people the United States was great and worth defending. The United States made the world a better place to live in. He does not have anything negative to say about the war. He does not think wars are good. 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 college. His boss told him to use the G.I. Bill instead of going to work. He went to school for two months then he went into business with his brother. He thinks the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is a wonderful thing. Something everyone should be thankful for.