J. W. Childs was born in Cisco, Texas. From a young age, however, he and his little sister lived with their parents in Breckenridge, Texas because of his father's job at the bank there. Childs said that during the years of the Great Depression, his family grew most of what appeared on the table, and they had enough to eat. As a youth he enjoyed hunting, and finished school at the age of 16. He went to Abilene with a buddy and tried to enlist in the Air Force, but was underage, so he returned to Breckenridge for trade school. Although his mother wanted him to go to college, it was not financially possible, and in June 1941 he returned to Abilene with his parents' permission to join the Navy. He attended boot camp in San Diego and applied for classes that were being conducted on the USS West Virginia (BB-48). He skipped boot leave in order to take the assignment and sailed out on a troop ship to Pearl Harbor to get aboard. There his routines changed. He lived out of a locker and slept in a hammock. It was all different to him, and he enjoyed his new life.

On the battleship, J. W. Childs said, it was mandatory for a sailor to wear his white hat if he went outside of his compartment. On 7 December 1941, the crew initially thought the deck officer of the USS West Virginia (BB-48) was calling a fire drill, and everyone ran to get their hats. When they got topside, it turned out to be a call to general quarters, and the crew made a hasty retreat to their battle stations. Childs remembered that he had finished breakfast, and was mopping the deck when the first alarm sounded. When the next alarm came Childs, who was striking for the position of electrician's mate, was with four other men in the smaller of the two distribution rooms. The ship was hit by torpedoes launched from the Japanese attack planes, and fuel oil started coming in through the ventilation system almost immediately. The ladder that the men had to use to go up and out had no dogs [Annotator's Note: a dog is latch that makes an airtight seal on a hatch] on the inside, and had to be opened by someone on the deck above. Luckily, when the abandon ship orders were issued, someone remembered that fact, and came back, when the compartment's occupants' heads were barely above the oil, to open the hatch. [Annotator's Note: Childs takes a long pause.] From that point on it was a matter of getting topside and finding a way off the ship. The West Virginia was tied up next to the USS Tennessee (BB-43), and both were tied to the quay adjacent to Fort Island. Childs made his way up from the port bow to the focsle, climbed down to the armor belt, stripped down to his shorts and jumped into the burning water. He swam under the flaming oil, as he had been trained, about 50 yards and climbed up the embankment, cutting his feet on the coral bottom. On Ford Island, everyone was wondering what had happened and why. Childs and others migrated to a Marine housing project on the island, and someone hollered for him to turn on the radio. Childs turned the knob and went in search of footwear, and when he came back to adjust the radio signal, found the instrument had been strafed in two while he was gone. Fearing an all-out invasion, everyone was scrambling to the landing strip to get weapons, which took a while. Childs was armed and sent to the sub base, where personnel from the ships were gathering, still corroded and unable to get any straight answers. Childs was young and new to the ship, but he remembers the older crewmen calling the Japanese bad names, and saying that it would just be a matter of time before the United States was at war. As it turned out, Childs said, they were right.

The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, J. W. Childs went to the USS Nevada (BB-36) which had managed to get underway during the raid and was ocean-bound when it was hit. Its dying captain backed it up on the beach so that it would not block the channel. Childs' mission to the Nevada was to salvage food, and he spent the day on that duty. While he was aboard the Nevada, Childs took a bath in brass polish to get the oil off his body, and he appropriated a uniform out of a crewman's locker. Revisiting his memory of the attack, Childs said he was not aware of what was happening to the USS West Virginia (BB-48) while the raid was in progress. He, like many others, thought they were going through a drill. Being the low man on the totem pole, he was manning the phone that communicated between the two distribution rooms. The 15 men in the other room perished from flooding fuel oil, and Childs was talking with them as they drowned. That was scary, Childs said, because he was in a similar predicament. He said the funny thing was that his only thought was to hang on. Childs decided it wasn't his time to die. The worst thing he saw when he got topside was crewmembers who could not swim trying to get off the ship. Some of them were knocked into the sea when life rafts were being tossed overboard. So preoccupied with what was happening on the water, Childs paid no attention to the planes in the skies above the harbor. He was too naïve about the world situation, and did not know how close the country was to war when he arrived at Pearl Harbor. When he was asked what kind of assignment he wanted next, Childs replied that he wanted a small ship. He was assigned to the USS Worden (DD-352), which he served on until it was lost.

On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Sunday, 7 December 1941], J. W. Childs saw one Japanese plane when he was on his way to the munitions store. His opinion of the Japanese changed for the worse on that day. Many years later, Childs and his wife traveled to Japan, and found the natives kind and welcoming. They encountered a Japanese couple who were touring Pearl Harbor at the same time. They discussed the duties of a soldier during war time. Childs visited Pearl Harbor several times during the war, and has been back twice since the war. His memory has faded, and he has accepted that it is all in the past. When he joined the crew of the USS Worden (DD-352), he made Third Class Electrician. It was a tightly run, older fighting ship, and Childs said it covered practically every action in the Pacific. It sunk a submarine on Christmas day, which thrilled its captain [Annotator's Note: later US Navy Rear Admiral William Grady Pogue]. In Childs' opinion, he was a great skipper. His seamanship saved the ship and its crew from of a typhoon that boasted 30 foot waves. After that storm, Childs was a tin can man.

J. W. Childs was at the Battle of Midway, but remembers nothing in particular about the event. The USS Worden (DD-352) escorted several trips to New Caledonia, and on one, just before the Guadalcanal invasion, the ship's fresh and frozen food supply had spoiled, and the crew lived on very little until the ship could be resupplied. One source of sustenance came from the flying fish that marooned themselves on the deck overnight. Another vivid memory Childs recalled is of taking in 13 Alaskan Scouts [Annotator's Note: members of the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon (Provisional), also known as the Alaskan Scouts or Castner's Cutthroats], and under the cover of darkness, sending them ashore at Amchitka to take over a Japanese radio station. When they brought in reinforcements, Childs was told that the trip out would be difficult, and true to prediction, the Worden went aground and broke apart. The crew had to abandon ship in 28 degree water. Childs suffered from cramps and was brought aboard the recue ship in a net. Several men were lost and some died from exposure, but Childs didn't event catch a cold. Childs was transferred to the USS Trathen (DD-650) [Annotator’s Note: the USS Trathen was (DD-530)], and he stayed on that ship until just before the end of the war when he moved to an APA [Annotator's Note: attack troop transport ship]. When the ship was in Ulithi, Childs got notice that he could return to the United States for V-12 Training [Annotator's Note: the V-12 Program was a Navy college training program designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers]. Instead of going through the program, Childs took his discharged from Farragut, Idaho, finished his education as a civilian over time, and spent his post-war career in the oil industry.

J. W. Childs only became close friends with one crewmate while he was in the Navy, and thinks that is the greatest reason the war didn't affect him too severely. He became a Christian while he was at sea, and credits his faith with his ability to cope with his memories. He believes it important that we teach the lesson of the war to our young citizens. He applauds Tom Brokaw for bringing the memory of the war to the forefront. Childs is complimentary of institutions like The National WWII Museum for their contributions. The war made Childs appreciate life, allowed him to travel and see the world, and opened his eyes to the fact that most humans are good people if left alone, and not led astray by their leaders or governments or religion. Childs, as a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors, said there is one thing that the organization stresses: Remember.