Jack Weiss was born in Elkhart, Indiana in June 1923. He grew up there during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. His father was a railroader. After the war, Weiss decided to be a machinist mate. He had two brothers and one sister. His father was in World War 1 and World War 2. He was on the USS Missouri (BB-11) in World War 1. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Weiss if he recalls hearing about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He did not know too much about it when it was going on. He decided it was time [Annotator's Note: to enlist]. He and his brother joined up so they could be in the Navy. They went to Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Great Lakes, Illinois]. Weiss went to machinist school at the River Rouge Ford plant [Annotator's Note: Ford Motor Company automobile manufacturing plant] in Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan]. He graduated and went to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. The Navy had decided that for him. This was when the race riots in Detroit happened [Annotator's Note: 1943 Detroit race riot, Detroit, Michigan 20 to 22 June 1943]. He went to by troopship to Pavuvu, Solomon Islands [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands] where he boarded the USS Columbia (CL-56).

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Jack Weiss what life aboard the USS Columbia (CL-56) was like.] He had duties. The Columbia was a light cruiser with 12 six inch 47s [Annotator's Note: six inch 47 caliber naval gun] and 12five inch 38s [Annotator's Note: five inch 38 caliber naval gun]. They had a bunch of 40s [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and 20s [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and two catapults for four aircraft for observation. [Annotator's Note: Weiss details how the aircraft landed and were retrieved.] Weiss was a Machinist Mate. He was in the engine room when they were hit by suiciders [Annotator's Note: Kamikaze aircraft]. He had boarded the Columbia in the Solomon Islands. They operated two cruisers at a time up and down "The Slot" [Annotator's Note: [Annotator's Note: New Georgia Sound, Solomon Islands]. They bombarded the beachhead for the landing on Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville campaign, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. They ran into Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] planes at dusk. They shot a couple down and then turned around for a Japanese fleet coming in. Captain Burke [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral Arleigh Albert Burke; Chief of Naval Operatons from August 1955 to August 1961] was in charge of the Little Beavers Squadron [Annotator's Note: Destroyer Squadron 23 (DESRON-23)]. The USS Cleveland (CL-55) and the Columbia took on the Japanese force [Annotator's Note: Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, 1 and 2 November 1943]. They sunk a cruiser [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Sendai] and a destroyer [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Hatsukaze]. They worked their way up to the Philippines and escorted the minesweepers in. That evening, Japanese bombers were coming in. They went to sea and the bombers followed them, which is what they wanted to keep them from the fleet. This was before MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] went ashore.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Weiss served in the Navy aboard the USS Columbia (CL-56).] They got word the Japanese fleet was coming up the straits [Annotator's Note: Surigao Strait, southern Philippines]. Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey] went north. The Columbia took on ammunition and fuel. In the straits, they were the second cruiser on the left flank when the Japanese came through [Annotator's Note: 24 October 1944]. It is a beautiful sight to see all of the star shells [Annotator's Note: artillery used to illuminate the battlefield] go over and land on a target. The Columbia got credit for sinking several ships. They were almost out of ammunition when the jeep carriers [Annotator's Note: escort aircraft carrier or CVE] came in. They later went to Lingayen [Annotator's Note: Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, 6 January 1945] and three kamikazes hit them [Annotator's Note: 6 January and 9 January 1945]. Weiss was in the forward engine room, a couple of hundred feet away. They ended up finishing their tasks. They had shot down several planes before that. The second plane that hit threw fuel all over everybody. That fuel would take your skin off. They lost around 66 men and buried them at sea. They went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], got the ship repaired and removed the dead from the hull. [Annotator's Note: The tape briefly cuts out.] The ship was repaired enough there. If you did not know the ship, you would not know it was hurt.

The first time Jack Weiss returned to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]; an English ship was there. The English ship was made to stay in the harbor so they could not see the American dead being taken off the Columbia. They went ashore right away on 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], one half of the crew at a time. He went home to Elkhart [Annotator's Note: Elkhart, Indiana]. He returned and helped get the ship ready to go back in the water. When they had stopped in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] when coming back earlier, they were tied up alongside the USS Arizona (BB-39). He went into town. Pearl Harbor today has been ruined. Back then, there were big dry docks. The submarine base was across from that. There was a narrow-gauge railroad that went into town. It was free to take into town and back. They stayed in Pearl a week or two in the beginning of 1945. Now it has big hotels and is a tourist town.

Jack Weiss got off his ship [Annotator's Note: USS Columbia (CL-56)] and went on the South Dakota [Annotator's Note: USS South Dakota (BB-57)]. He went on a trip around the country and then went to Great Lakes and got his discharge [Annotator's Note: 1946]. When they dropped the bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945], he was in the China Sea making sweeps aboard the Columbia. He got a cholera [Annotator's Note: infectious, often fatal, disease of the small intestine] shot. Their orders were to sink anything that floated. They were readying to go into Japan. The cholera shot knocks you down. Half the crew was down for a day or two. When they got word the bombed dropped, he was happy because it stopped the war. He hopes it never happens again though. He got his discharge and went home to Indiana. He worked on the railroad for a while. He whittled wood while he was on ship. They did acquire a jeep during the war while in the Solomon Islands. A submarine had one and they traded them 15 gallons of ice cream for it.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Jack Weiss what he thinks of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.] He thinks it is great. He went on an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: flights conducted by non-profit organizations dedicated to transporting military veterans to visit Washington, D.C. at no cost to the veterans] to see the memorial [Annotator's Note: World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C.]. His first ship reunion was in Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida in 1984]. He went to others across the United States. He has a piece of the deck of his ship [Annotator's Note: USS Columbia (CL-56)]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Weiss what the lessons of the war are.] You cannot win anything. It is a hard question. It is not much fun doing the job you think is helping your country. He knows a lot of people who were in Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] and they were treated liked dirt by people in our country. He is not sure Americans today really understand what World War 2 was about or would stand up and fight like then. It is almost scary at how much things have changed. It is a shame. People loved their country, but he does know for sure if people still do. The technology of today is overwhelming and scary.