Jack Dye was born in Alamosa, Colorado. His family left when his three and his mother passed away. His father was transferred to Kingman, Kansas to open a JC Penney store. The Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] hit and he lost his job. They moved to Kansas City, Kansas for another job. Dye attended school there and graduated in 1943. Shortly afterwards, he went into the Navy. He had always wanted to be in the Navy. He went to Farragut, Idaho [Annotator's Note: Farragut Naval Training Station in Bayview, Idaho] for boot camp and then Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Great Lakes, Illinois] for basic engineering school. He was selected to take diesel training in Richmond, Virginia [Annotator's Note: Naval Training School (Diesel), Hampton, Virginia]. He returned to Farragut to the factory that built diesel engines used on ships, Fairbanks Morse [Annotator's Note: Fairbanks Morse Company], the opposed-piston diesel engine. He took amphibious ship training in Little Creek [Annotator's Note: Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, now Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Virginia]. In Beloit, Wisconsin [Annotator's Note: Naval Training School (Diesel), Fairbanks Morse Co. in Beloit, Wisconsin], he picked up the ship where it was built. His crew had been formed in Little Creek. They were in Wisconsin before the ship [Annotator's Note: USS LSM-232] was completed. They inspected the ship as it was finished. He gained a good working knowledge of the ship that way. They went with the crew of the factory on its shakedown cruise [Annotator's Note: a cruise to evaluate the performance of a naval vessel and its crew]. The regular crew took it to Little Creek, Virginia. [Annotator's Note: Dye changes the ship's location from Wisconsin to Wilmington, Delaware.] USS LSM-232 picked up the rest of their crew in Little Creek. They went through the Panama Canal [Annotator's Note: Panama Canal Zone, Panama] to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] where they loaded up with ammunition and fuel. They returned to Washington, D.C. and picked up three gun barrels. They returned through the Canal [Annotator's Note: Panama Canal] and did some firefighting training in San Diego. They actually set fires in the ship to train on. During training, a mistake was made, and they were wading in fire up to their knees. It got put out eventually and then they headed out.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Dye served in the Navy aboard USS LSM-232.] There were 60 men and 6 officers on their crew. They knew each other very well. He was a motor machinist mate and took care of the port [Annotator's Note: in maritime terminology, port means left side] engine. His good friend took care of the starboard [Annotator's Note: in maritime terminology, starboard means right side] engine. In anything other than routine, Dye was in charge of both engines. It was very hot in the engine rooms; there was no air conditioning. They put corn starch on their bodies to keep from getting heat rash. They went from San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] in November 1944. It took 12 days to get there. They could see the ship laying on the bottom when they passed over it [Annotator's Note: USS Arizona (BB-39), sunk during the Japanese attack 7 December 1941]. They helped clean up a lot of the wrecks. They hauled troops, Alligators [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator], Ducks [Annotator's Note: six-wheel-drive amphibious truck; also known as a Duck], and tanks. The alligator is an amphibious ship similar to a tank. They were used at islands that had reefs that prevented the ship from getting close. They transported the soldiers too, about 50 of them. There are Ducks in Branson, Missouri that people can take rides on. Dye was not based anywhere. They were on many of the Pacific islands. They moved troops from one to another. The ship had a flat-bottom. If the island has a sandy beach, they could put the ship right up on the beach. Every time they hit a beach he was in the engine room. They had a red light to let them know they were going to hit the beach so they could hang on. They used an anchor to pull the ship off the beach. They would reverse the engines to wash the sand out from under it. They would then go pick up their next load. Dye never saw any of this being done.

Jack Dye [Annotator's Note: as a crewman aboard the USS LSM-232] landed at various islands both during the battles being fought on them and afterwards. It took months to secure an island, but even at the end of the war, Japanese soldiers were still on the islands. There were soldiers on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] killed by a Japanese sniper [Annotator's Note: called Japanese holdouts] in 1950. Dye's crew never took any prisoners. They did encounter Japanese submarines. A torpedo went under the ship. They were at Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] when it was hit by the tornado [Annotator's Note: Typhoon Louise, 9 October 1945] in 1945. They had taken Marines there. They left when the storm hit to go to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. It was rough. They could not steer. They would go up the waves and then drop. The crew would be thrown all over. An engineering officer was thrown from his bunk and had his shin cut open. Dye was going to check the engines and came across him. Dye got him to the corpsman. He also remembers picking up a group of Marines that had not had a freshwater bath in two months. They were going to another island and they shared showers with them. They swapped off nights taking the showers. They had both saltwater and freshwater showers on the ship. They took Marines into Okinawa. The Navy pounded the coast for weeks before the soldiers went in. The Marines went into the north end and met no resistance going in on the beach. Dye said there were a lot of ships preparing for the invasion of Okinawa. They went to Saipan and loaded fuel to take back to Okinawa. They were preparing to invade Japan. Dye says that if had not been for Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States], he would not be here today. They were hauling in gas for the tanks and Alligators [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator]. They were fortunate that the war ended while they were on their way. The atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945].

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Jack Dye what his reaction to the news of the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945 was.] "Hallelujah!" All they knew was that General Quarters [Annotator's Note: go to battle stations] was blown at night. They did not know what it was about. Everybody has to man their stations. They blew General Quarters about midnight which was not uncommon. They made an announcement that the war was over and for everyone to come have a drink. The gunnery officer had been smuggling whiskey aboard the ship. They went into the medical locker, got the alcohol and poured it into grapefruit juice. They partied all night long. Dye was on duty and he would not get his men the juice. He was the officer of the watch on routine nights and managed all of the equipment and men, including a freshwater-making machine [Annotator's Note: distiller used to make freshwater from saltwater]. Their first encounter with a submarine was on their first trip from San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. That was his first combat experience. It was like somebody hit him in the stomach. There are no words to describe the feeling. They would go to General Quarters an hour before sun up and an hour before sunset. That is prime time for enemy submarines and ships to try and attack.

Jack Dye was still in the Navy when the war was over. They took their load of fuel to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. They figured they were on their way home. There were submarine gates around the islands that were closed at night. They went in, loaded with men of the 1st Marine Division, and headed for Tientsin, China [Annotator's Note: Tientsin or Tianjin, China]. Dye talked to the Marines. When the weather was tough, they would tease them to make them vomit. [Annotator's Note: Dye laughs.] They were just a bunch of kids. They went up to Manchuria [Annotator's Note: region of China] and picked up an injured Chinese general. They made the trip up and down [Annotator's Note: up and down the coast of China] a couple of times. They loaded a Coast Guard cutter and took it to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. They returned to the United States in February 1946. Dye was offered an advancement if stayed with the ship, but he wanted to get out. He was discharged in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Dye tries not to think of the bad times. They had a lot of good times and he saw a lot of beautiful sunsets. He enjoyed being at sea. He got paid to take cruises. Things come forward every once in a while, and he has dreams, sometimes good and sometimes bad. They had a terrible experience that really tore up a bunch of men. He does not recall where they were, but they got a very thick fog. They had no lights on. They had two dogs on the ship. Those dogs howled all night. 60 men did not sleep that night due to the fear. Fear is an unknown.