George Rudloff was born in San Francisco, California in 1923 and grew up there and in Palo Alto. His father started a wholesale bakery business in 1930 at the height of the Great Depression. The family never had a lot of money, but his father worked hard while his mother took in washing. They bought a home as a result. Around this time, Treasure Island naval base started in San Francisco. Rudloff's father had a contract with the military that helped them financially. Rudloff attended grade school and high school in San Francisco. He graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1942. Rudloff was on vacation in Oregon when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was shocked at the news of the attack. Joining the military was not a goal after high school. Rudloff attended San Jose State College for a time after high school. The war was on at that time.

George Rudloff enlisted in December 1942 in the Enlisted Reserve Corps as a college student. In April 1943, a group of San Jose State students were marched to a rail station and sent to Monterrey for induction. Rudloff was looking forward to the enlistment and travelling as part of the military. At the induction center, Rudloff signed up with the Rangers because it had to do with water and he was a competitive swimmer in college. After two months of waiting, he was advised that he would be going into the Army Air Corps because he passed the more stringent test for entry. After being transferred to Fresno, California for Army Air Corps basic training, he was selected to be a physical training instructor. That selection pleased Rudloff because he had a friend in the same location. After eight weeks of training in Fresno, his friend was shipped off because he was a baseball player. Rudloff was also shipped out and spent time in Tampa, Florida. This was his first trip to the Southeast United States. It was very different than California. After six months, Rudloff was shipped to Abilene, Texas. That assignment was rough. The Abilene duty was outstanding because Rudloff enjoyed being with the fighter pilots. His responsibility was to get fighter pilots in good physical shape. The Tampa base was a transitional base. Flights from Jacksonville, Florida would refuel in Abilene and then go to either San Diego or Long Beach in California. The assignment at Abilene lasted a year and then Rudloff was transferred to Greensboro, North Carolina which was an overseas replacement depot for the Air Corps. For his three months at Greensboro, he was a physical fitness instructor. He then shipped out for India.

George Rudloff was sent to India via Australia. He arrived at Chandigarh which was a staging area in India. From there, troops and supplies were distributed through that sector of India and Burma. Landhi, India was his next destination. He was a physical training instructor there for three months before being sent to Myitkyina, Burma as one of the first groups of Americans there. The Japanese were being moved out of Myitkyina and the Americans replaced them. Rudloff was in the Tenth Air Force in a unit referred to as the Burma Bridge Busters [Annotator's Note: 490th Bombardment Squadron]. He was still working as a physical fitness instructor. He was sent to Calcutta, India to set up a variety of entertainment activities for soldiers. Calcutta was removed from the fighting. The CBI, or China-Burma-India, Theater was primarily an ANZAC, or Australian and New Zealand, theater. The American forces consisted of the Tenth Air Force and the Air Transport Command, which was used for shuttling supplies over the Hump [Annotator's Note: the Hump refers to the flight paths over the Himalaya Mountains between India and Burma or China]. Part of Rudloff's duties in Myitkyina prior to Calcutta dealt with air traffic control to and from China. The weather at Myitkyina was very humid and uncomfortable. While in Calcutta, the Americans and British had to be separated for their swimming, games and other activities as they were not pleased to be with each other. Rudloff did get an invitation to a nicer British rest facility. He was honored to have received the invitation.

In November 1945, George Rudloff left India to return to the United States via troopship. He travelled to Bombay, India then passed through the Suez Canal on his way home. He landed in Staten Island, New York. It felt great to see the Statue of Liberty. It had been a miserable ride. The trip to India was much better than the return home because of the difference in troopships, but the main thing was that he was on his way home. Dysentery and malaria were common in troops from India so Rudloff went into isolation for about a month to make sure the diseases would not spread. After the isolation, he was flown to Marysville, California and discharged in January 1946.

George Rudloff saw a competition between the American and British soldiers. The territory of India belonged to the British and they were protective of that prestige with the Americans. There was British envy about high levels of pay given the American troops compared to their British counterparts. Rudloff never had British friends during his service in India. An American pilot who was a friend of Rudloff was lost over the Hump. The Northern Burma operation was an American operation. The Central Burma operation was more of British operation. The American MARS Task Force [Annotator's Note: the 5332d Brigade (Provisional) was known as the MARS Task Force] also operated in Central Burma. They were a wild group. Melvyn Douglas, the American actor, was in charge of operations for the Americans in the Calcutta area.

While in Calcutta, George Rudloff developed physical activities in which the American soldiers could participate. There were Friday night boxing matches and pools were set up for the troops. The word got out that there were things to do and the American troops came to participate. This included areas near the Taj Mahal. There were no enemy attacks on Calcutta while Rudloff was there. The enemy was in the area but the Japanese Air Force was nearly eliminated by that time. Rudloff carried a .45 caliber pistol in case he ever got into a dangerous situation. It was hard to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese. As a result, it was best to carry a sidearm for protection. The Chinese seemed to expend their ammunition very quickly. There was concern about how wasteful they were by firing at birds.

George Rudloff felt like the Japanese had to be killed. The atrocities committed by the Japanese military were very bad. He had friends who suffered under Japanese captivity. The dropping of the atomic bombs were justified due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The most memorable experience of the war for Rudloff was shaking hands with General Merrill of Merrill's Marauders [Annotator's Note: Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill commanded the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), also referred to as Merrill's Marauders]. Rudloff served in the war because it was the thing to do. It changed his life by maturing him. He learned to take the bad with the good. America is a special place to live and should not be taken for granted. World War 2 is important to many people in this country. The National WWII Museum and institutions like it are very important, and it is important to continue to educate the population on the war. Rudloff met many fine people during his time in the service, both in the United States and in India. He shared respect for many of the men he served with during the war.