Jack Raskoph was born in Paterson, New Jersey in July 1926. He thinks World War 2 saved his life. Paterson was not an easy place to live. It was a manufacturing town. His father was a highway patrolman and his mother was a teacher. His father died when Raskoph was 13 years old. He graduated in 1943 and the nuns were very patriotic. Seniors that enlisted before graduating would be given their diplomas. One day after lunch, each boy had a recruitment poster on their desks. The posters offered jobs because during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]; nobody had jobs. One of the boys in class asked how the recruiters knew where the boys sat. Later in the semester they realized the nun's brother was the recruiter. The whole class went into the military and most of them ended up in the Navy. One boy could not pass the test to get into the Navy, so he joined the Merchant Marine [Annotator's Note: civilian merchant fleet that brought war goods around the world during the war]. Despite it being a civilian group, he probably saw more combat than anyone else. Raskoph got a job in a gas station and its cliental were upper class people. The owner would service their cars, but would not collect ration stamps. One day, Raskoph saw a rough looking man walk into the office and the man pulled out sheets of gasoline ration stamps. The owner paid for the stamps, then tore them up to scam the gasoline deliveryman. One day, someone Raskoph knew came to get some gasoline to visit a girl in another town. The man was a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division. The owner refused to help the sergeant, so later that night, Raskoph got his friend some gas. His friend died after jumping into Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] during D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Raskoph is happy he did that for his friend. When he turned 17 in 1943, Raskoph joined the Navy. He did his boot camp in Newport, Rhode Island. He slept in a hammock and occasionally people would fall out of them. He was assigned to radio school. He returned home for Christmas leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], then attended radio school in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. The Navy took over a commercial radio school. Raskoph had a sensitivity for Morse code and was the fastest in his class. He was promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class, Radioman 3rd Class. He could give his preference of duty, but it was not guaranteed. The best duty was aboard a destroyer escort because the ships were anti-submarine work. It was smaller than a regular destroyer and were used in convoys. Raskoph was assigned to the USS Maloy (DE-791).

Jack Raskoph was transferred to Pier 92 in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York], where people were transferred to different ships and stations. He was told to report to a small transport called the USS Tarazed [Annotator's Note: USS Tarazed (AF-13)]. While ferrying to the ship, Raskoph was asked by the chief how old he was because he looked so young. Raskoph arrived in Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] at dawn and was greeted by a bagpiper. He did not like the sound of the bagpipes. Raskoph boarded a train to Plymouth [Annotator's Note: Plymouth, England], where there was a Navy base. He did not have anything to do at the base. He was then sent to Portsmouth, England, where they were getting ready for the invasion. All he could see were Army trucks with troops boarding LSTs [Annotator’s Note: landing ship, tank]. Then invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] had already taken place when Raskoph boarded an LST. He did not participate in the D-Day landing. Onboard the LST, there was a 19 year old named Oliver Oliver. Raskoph was in charge of four men. He was given a helmet, eating kit, canteen, fatigues, and a shovel, which all made Raskoph nervous. Before boarding the LST, he was brought around the port looking for a DE [Annotator's Note: destroyer escourt], but could not find it, so they boarded the LST. As he got close to France, the four men saw their ship passing by. The captain of the LST would not let the four sailors board their ship. Raskoph landed on the beach a couple days after D-Day. The Navy took over a pillbox and the Navy beach master was sitting at the desk. The beach master told him to dig a foxhole on the beach and stay out of the way. Raskoph told the other sailors with him the orders and they followed them. For several days, the sailors did nothing until the met a Catholic chaplain. They took books from the chaplain to occupy their time. At some point, Raskoph hitched a ride on a truck down the beach, but it was full of bombs to be detonated. He decided to jump out of the truck and walked the remaining distance. Eventually, Raskoph heard a large explosion and figured it was the bomb. He remained on the beach until early August [Annotator's Note: August 1944]. The SeeBees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] had a good kitchen and after they fixed the port at Cherbourg, they had nothing to do. When their kitchen left, the sailors thought they were going to die. Raskoph returned to the beach and he found a lieutenant reading Yank Magazine. The lieutenant was not happy to see him again. A truck showed up to bring the four men to Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France]. A Coast Guard cutter brought them to the USS Maloy [Annotator's Note: USS Maloy (DE-791)]. He told the officer he reported to that the sailors had been on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: one of the two American landing beaches during Operation Overlord] and the officer told them they had been considered deserters.

Jack Raskoph was not much help in the radio room. He was a Radioman 3rd Class. His channel was operated by the British during operations in the Channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel]. The British radiomen were experienced and could transmit messages faster than Raskoph to translate them. It was like when he was at radio school and the machines would send out messages. He had a hard time reading the messages. The Germans still held Saint Malo [Annotator's Note: Saint Malo, France], so the Americans had a raid on it. Eight PT-Boats [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boats] left Plymouth [Annotator's Note: Plymouth, England] to Saint Malo to destroy the German transport ships. A Royal Navy lieutenant commander was in charge of the raid. The British man was very knowledgeable. Raskoph acted as the massager for the officer. He was worried Raskoph would run away, but he did not have anywhere to run to anyway. The raid was a failure. The PT-Boats came in under fog and when the fog lifted, the Germans started destroying them. Raskoph followed the officer to the bridge and he could hear the captain of the nearest PT-Boat and the British officer argue over the mission. After that mission, Raskoph's main assignment was to patrol the Channel Islands. During the invasion, the Channel Islands were declared open cities and many of the islanders decided to stay. The islands were captured by the Germans without a fight. The Germans put two divisions on the islands to hold them. There were large underground hospitals and food stores. The German buildings are still on the island. The islands were blockaded for the rest of the war. Raskoph's ship [Annotator's Note: USS Maloy (DE-791)] patrolled around Guernsey [Annotator's Note: Guernsey Island, Channel Islands, which belong to the United Kingdom] while another ship blockaded two other islands. That mission was successful. The Germans had no fuel, so they could not leave anyway. Raskoph did not like his commanding officer. One day, he heard a strange noise on the ship. Not long after, everyone was sent to general quarters because the ship got too close to the island and the Germans started shooting artillery at them. V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] is celebrated on May 9 on the Channel Islands. Raskoph patrolled his island for a year. On V-E Day, his ship started to get close to the port when a destroyer, the HMS Bulldog [Annotator's Note: HMS Bulldog (H91)], steamed into the port to take the surrender. The Americans never went ashore. He was sent back to the Philadelphia Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. It was there that he learned that the ship would be converted to an air-to-service ship for the invasion of Japan. His ship would be on the edge of the convoy of Kamikaze attacks. The Maloy [Annotator's Note: USS Maloy (DE-791)] had been hit off of Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: one of the two United States invason beaches for the Normandy invasion] and the Channel Islands. He was in the Philadelphia Navy Yard when word came across about the Japanese surrender. Everyone was given liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Everyone was very happy. The reflection pools were full of people. Afterwards, Raskoph was transferred to a minesweeper-destroyer. His mission was to locate the minefields. He was on a DMS [Annotator's Note: destroyer-minesweeper], which was a converted destroyer. They would cut the mines in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, then detonate them. The sailor's enjoyed watching the explosions.

When Jack Raskoph reported to the destroyer minesweeper, he was told the communication officer wanted to see him. He introduced himself and was told to paint the radio shack. Raskoph ended up painting it on the ship's day off, so he was not given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He went ashore in Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] to get the paint. He picked the biggest bucket of paint and some other equipment to paint. He crossed two ships to get onto his deck. After setting it all up, Raskoph tried to start, but the equipment would not work. After inspecting the paint line, they found the line was clogged and unusable. Raskoph told his superior about the problem with the paint line. He tried to show the man, but someone turned the air pressure back on, which shot yellow paint in the man's face. Raskoph yelled for someone to turn it off, but the paint kept coming out. Paint went all over the ship's decks and over its sides. The captain could see what was happening from the dock and ran to the ship. After the incident, Raskoph was told he would never be allowed to paint as long as he was in the Navy. That night, he was on night duty. Sailors from other minesweepers wanted to see the yellow officer. The next day, the officer still had yellow in his nose, hair, and shoes. He went up to Raskoph to ask what the captain said, but he did not hold a grudge. When Raskoph left the Navy for the reserves, the captain shook his hand and reminded him never to go near a paintbrush again. Raskoph enjoyed his time in the service. He thinks it was similar to a big movie. During the invasion, everything was grey, which reminded one older sailor of a movie that might have had John Wayne [Annotator's Note: Marion Michael Morrison, better known as John Wayne; American actor] in it. If a person did not have serious issues, it might not have been bad. Some of his friends did not make it back from the war.