Jack Madden was born in Troy, New York in 1924. He is a lifetime resident of Troy. Troy was a good town in which to grow up. Spring would bring downstream floods. The high water could be anticipated ahead of time. As an only child, Madden understood that his mom had a rough time giving birth. His father worked for a good business in Troy called the Simmons Company. The business's focus was on diamonds and jewelry. His father started as a delivery boy and during the Depression worked at that same position. His father had an outstanding eye for diamonds. As a result, he was referred to as Diamond John. Madden did not feel that the family had a difficult time. With all that was happening, it was just part of the situation. His father was lucky to work for Simmons. Madden was 17 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. He did not know where those military bases were located or what the circumstances were. The main concern was how to protect the country. After finishing high school, Madden attended the first year of college before deciding to join the Navy. There was no real rationale for joining that branch except Army infantrymen had to storm beaches and often took a battering doing so.

Jack Madden took his basic training for the United States Navy in Newport, Rhode Island. He originally signed up to become an officer. After doing so, Madden was sent to Holy Cross College for a series of science courses. His goal was to take medical courses to become a dentist. The courses turned out to be difficult for Madden to master. As a result, three weeks into his college training he fell behind in his course work and then determined just to have a good time while he remained at Holy Cross. He was returned to Rhode Island for Gunners Mate training. Madden had decided to volunteer for PT boat [Annotator's Note: Patrol Torpedo Boat] training. His related PT training was at Melville, Rhode Island. He saw the small boats as being fast and exciting. He was fascinated by the swift boats ripping through the water. He knew he wanted to participate in that action. He trained in Gunners Mate School before his arrival at Melville. After completion of his PT training, he departed Rhode Island and sailed to Bizerte, North Africa via Norfolk, Virginia on a baby flattop, the CV Shamrock Bay [Annotator's Note: USS Shamrock Bay (CVE-84)].

Jack Madden was transported on the old 40 and 8 train cars to his destination [Annotator's Note: following PT boat school, Madden was deployed on an escort carrier to Bizerte in North Africa where he boarded a rail car to continue his deployment journey]. The rail cars could carry either 40 men or 8 horses and were barebones inside. Nothing was in the interior of the car as they travelled through North Africa. The train only stopped long enough for the passengers to heat up some C rations. The journey eventually took them to Maddalena where they were split up into various crews in different squadrons. Madden was assigned to PT-304 in Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22. He spent the rest of the war in that assignment. The squadron had advance bases in Leghorn or Livorno, Italy and Gulf Juan in Southern France. The boats would operate at night and search for convoys. Upon discovery of enemy ships, the boats would make torpedo runs on their targets. The PT boat had to be aimed at the target to fire its torpedoes. In rough weather or seas, it is difficult to achieve success in this process. The German convoys would sail from Genoa or other locations to supply their troops further down the Italian peninsula. All along the Italian coast were 88mm guns which were very wicked weapons. During most nightly PT runs, three boats would be involved. The boats would include one British PT boat along with two American boats. Madden found the PT boat to be an excellent means of striking the enemy. Generally, the boats were used in weapons firing conditions in the Pacific while in the Mediterranean, torpedoes were the main armament utilized against the enemy. The boats did a good job along the Italian coast but with the Higgins PT boat being 78 feet long, rough seas made aiming the boat to fire the torpedo very difficult. There were 12 to 13 enlisted men and two officers on the boat. A lieutenant would be in command with a j.g. [Annotator's Note: lieutenant, junior grade] as his assistant. For the most part, crewmen stayed together on their boats. There would be an infusion of new men only on rare occasion. This enabled the more seasoned crewmen to mentor and teach the new arrivals about their duties and specifics of boat operations. Missions were usually every other night unless the moon prevented the PT from edging up close to its target. Moonlight would allow the boat to be spotted by the enemy more easily. Torpedo release usually had to be within a mile of the target. A mile sounds like a lot of distance but the 88s had a range of a mile and that discouraged the PTs from getting up close to shore. Missions could be very risky if there was a full moon. It could be frightening. While his squadron was based in Livorno, there was a Spaghetti Bowl football game in Florence, Italy. It was the 5th Air Force against the 15th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 5th Army and 15th Air Force]. With the light of the moon, the PTs could not go out on a mission so they were allowed to attend the football game. The Army beat the Air Force but the latter claimed the only reason they lost was that their better players were serving air patrol over the competition to keep all those involved in the game safe. The attendees included many high ranking sector commanders at the time. [Annotator's Note: Madden chuckles at the memory.] In reality, the Luftwaffe had very little assets left at the time to threaten the Allies from above. Night time patrols in search of convoys were not always successful but with radar installed on the PTs, they got lucky sometimes. The Germans did not have radar so the Americans had a good advantage. PT-304 had two enemy sinkings before Madden joined the crew. The boat was credited with four more victories during his service aboard her. The boat rarely stuck around in order to count sinkings. The risk of discovery by the enemy was too great. One raid up north in the vicinity of Genoa lit up the skies. The 88s would search for the PTs. With only a 40mm automatic cannon onboard the PT to go up against an 88mm, it was a losing proposition. The best decision was to get out of harm's way after unloading ordnance. One of the boats, PT-311, was lost during the campaign. The boat hit a mine that blew it up with the loss of some personnel. Another boat hit a storm en route from Maddalena to southern France. The boat lost the cockpit off the vessel and, in the process, lost its skipper and a gunner's mate. There were three squadrons operating in the Mediterranean. Madden was scared for his own safety on a couple of occasions. Madden's boat, PT-304, was called the USS Cherry. The name had a sexual reference. The crew got along well with each other. Eight men slept up forward and four slept aft in the lazarette [Annotator's Note: the lazarette is a small under deck storage space on the aft end of the boat]. The officers had their own compartment. The boat operated with high octane gasoline. If it took a hit in the wrong area, the vessel would ignite catastrophically. The high noise volume of the three 1,500 horsepower Packard engines would eventually result in hearing losses for the crewmen. There was no ear protection, and the men paid little attention to the noise. The crew had liberty on occasion in Southern France. There were chances to go ashore and listen to music and relax. The crew could have some beers and take it easy. At night time, the boats usually dispersed to discourage German air attacks. Tied up alongside a larger ship, the crew had to climb a rope ladder to reach the deck of the ship so that they could access the dock on the opposite side. On one occasion, the crew spotted numerous cases of beer on the dock and immediately set their minds to making a plan to obtain some of the beverages. MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] were protecting the beer. Two PT-304 crewmen went a distance from the stockpile of beer and simulated a fight. The MPs responded to the fighting. Simultaneously, some of the other PT crewmen grabbed several cases of beer and made their escape. The trip down the rope ladder to the PT boat was a comical sight. [Annotator's Note: Madden chuckles at the memory.] Food for the crewmen was mostly provided from base rather than using the boat's galley. Patrols were at night and return voyages occurred before daytime. The men slept on the boat. There were good times. A high ranking chaplain was transported on PT-304 from Maddalena to Southern France. He was very sick during the voyage. The chaplain later made the comment that it was a highlight of his career, but he would prefer not to see a PT boat again.

Jack Madden was in Europe when the war ended. He was delighted. He had not followed the course of the war too closely during those times. After the end of the war, Madden and his PT boat [Annotator's Note: PT-304], along with numerous other Allied vessels, made a run up the coast of Italy just to show the enemy that they were the victors. That was their celebration. Immediately afterward, the squadron [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22 (MTB Ron 22)] went to Maddalena and then to North Africa. The PT boat made the trip back to the United States by being stacked on top of an LCT [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Tank] which was placed on top of an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. The PT only draws about five feet of water so the trip back was very rocky. Some of the men who took the voyage were concerned that the LST would break apart or roll over so they never went below deck during the crossing. Madden was not one of them. He went below deck and slept without a worry. Upon arrival at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the PT boat was offloaded. The longshoremen were not sure of the status of the outside shell of PT-304 so they did not want to board her to check. After returning from the chow hall, Madden agreed to check her out for them. Everything below deck was fine. After the war in Europe ended, Madden's squadron was disbanded. He ended up on a "tin can," a destroyer. Not having enough points to get out of the service, he subsequently went to Japan. Madden saw the ruins in Nagasaki as part of the occupying forces. As his time in the service came to an end, he was on a larger ship. He returned to the United States via Honolulu where he had quite a celebration. He never told his mother about that incident but it led to a fight with the Shore Patrol [Annotator's Note: Navy military police]. After being released from jail, he returned to his ship and made the eight day run to Panama. In recognition of his high jinks in Honolulu, the skipper ordered him confined to the ship for the duration of the run to Panama. Madden credits that to his otherwise good record. [Annotator's Note: Madden chuckles at the recollection.] Madden was discharged in Florida. He was slated to take a flight back to his home but there was an accident which caused concern for his fellow air passengers. Madden was undaunted and took the flight anyway. After returning home, Madden joined the reserves in order to maintain his rate in case he was called back up for service. He was called up during the Korean War. He was in for 15 or 16 months, but was not deployed to Korea. He was on a destroyer escort in California but luckily it sailed around to Boston and he was able to go home on weekends. That was the end of his naval career. He used the GI Bill at Siena College in Loudonville to study business. He later earned his MBA degree from Siena. Later he would also get a master's degree in Theology. He got a lot out of that following the passing of his wife. Madden thinks that the generations of today think that the history of World War 2 is old and something that happened long ago. People today still congratulate him on his service during that war.