James Gaffney was born in 1924 in Texarkana, Texas. His family moved to several places in Texas. By the time he was six years old, his family was in Shreveport, Louisiana. They lived there until 1936 when they moved to New Orleans. It was during the Depression so moves were made based on where work existed. Gaffney attended a high school for several years, but he and the principal did not get along so he transferred to another school. When it was time to graduate, he discovered that he had enough credits for graduation, but they were not in the necessary subjects. He had to take several difficult mathematics courses at one time. It was too much for him, so he quit school. He waited for the draft to call him. He had been in a relationship with a girl for three years so they got married. When the Navy drafted him, they sent him to San Diego for boot camp and then elementary torpedo school. Afterward, he was sent to advance torpedo school in Keyport, Washington. There was a factory there that manufactured torpedoes. After graduation, he was offered PT [Annotator’s Note: Patrol Torpedo Boat], submarine or destroyer duty. Gaffney wanted submarines but his wife, who was with him, declined that service. He decided on PT boat school since he could be in the States when his then pregnant wife gave birth. He went to Melville, Rhode Island for the PT boat training. During training, Gaffney requested a transfer to New Orleans to be with his wife during the birth of their first child. Despite a couple of officers squabbling between themselves, Gaffney was granted the request. The man who took Gaffney’s place went off to Norfolk and then to the Mediterranean. Gaffney was in New Orleans for a few months until the squadron was complete. The first stop afterward was Pensacola and then on to Tampa where they ran the boat aground. The division officer declined to listen to a subordinate who would have prevented the accident. After being freed, the boat traveled on to Key West and then Miami for shakedown [Annotator’s Note: the process of final testing a vessel is referred to shakedown. In this case, it could have been a shakedown of the new squadron to coordinate working as a unit]. The officer in charge of the shakedown was Bulkeley’s [Annotator’s Note: Vice Admiral John D. Bulkeley] executive officer in Ron 2 [Annotator’s Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 (MTB Ron 2)]. After shakedown, the squadron headed to Cuba. The weather turned bad. The extra fuel carried in a bladder forward of the cockpit began to breakdown. That necessitated a return to Miami. Gaffney’s wife was there and she got pregnant during the time he returned to Miami. By the time he returned to the United States, he had two youngsters. The cruise from Cuba to Jamaica and then on through the Panama Canal was nice. The canal was crossed on 24 December 1944. The destination was Tulagi. From there, the boats went to Treasury Island. They were assigned to patrol off Bougainville. The island was never fully under American control so the patrols earned the only battle star the PT boat earned. After the war, the six boats of the squadron traveled from the Philippines to Okinawa in the well of an LSD [Annotator’s Note: Landing Ship, Dock]. Harsh weather was encountered en route. Although the boats were tied down, the order was given for the crewmen to come above deck. Gaffney and his mates on the PT boat did not get the order. They stayed on the boat. The men rolled out of their sleeping positions as the ship rocked. The ship rolled 45 degrees. At 47 degrees, it would have continued rolling over. The skipper did a good job getting them through the storm. The boats were unloaded at Okinawa where they assisted in air-sea rescue patrols. He left the squadron on 1 December 1945 and left Okinawa the next day on a converted LST [Annotator’s Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. His squadron would take their boats to the Philippines and decommission them and return to the United States prior to Gaffney reaching there. His LST only made nine and a half knots. While he was en route home aboard the LST, he observed the smoke of another ship coming up on the horizon. By the evening, the fast moving hospital ship had passed the LST, and its smoke was on the opposite horizon. There was not much to do on Okinawa except to occasionally go up in the hills and poke around. Local children would explore the garbage dumps for food. There was one child that Gaffney communicated with. The child spoke Spanish and Gaffney could speak a small amount so they would converse a little bit.

James Gaffney never spotted any Japanese while patrolling Bougainville. They did observe and report a bright light on the island. They called in an air strike but never saw a follow-up on that request. For all the other patrols, he basically stood watch forward on the boat and watched the fish swim and jump. The phosphorus in the water made any movements obvious. As a result of swimming in the water, he contracted a fungus in both ears. When he was off Okinawa, the boat was slated to participate in air-sea rescues. They never received a call on a rescue. One boat got caught in a storm. The heavy weather caused a deck box for ammunition to be washed overboard. Gaffney’s boat had a piling penetrate the shell as the boat slammed against the fixed structure. The squadron saw very limited action. That may have been due to it being attached to Admiral King [Annotator’s Note: Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King]. The admiral did not think much of PT Boats and that may have been the reason for the inactivity.

James Gaffney reviews the crew and officers of the PT Boat he served on in World War II. Some were good and some not so good. Some of the former crewmen even came to New Orleans after the war to visit with him. The comfort level on the cramped boat was not very good. The crew always seemed to be getting into the tail end of each assignment. None of the men ever got sick on the boat. Gaffney would experience sea sickness later in life but never on the rough riding PT Boat. After the end of the war, the crew was told to drain the fuel out of the boat’s torpedoes. They were told to let the fuel go over the side of the boat, but Gaffney collected about three gallons of it and set up a still. He made moonshine out of it and sold it to the Marines. It had to be good or the Marines would exact some revenge for bad liquor. In return for two gallons of the bootleg booze, he got a jeep and crates of steaks, oranges and eggs. He and his fellow crewmen consumed the other gallon of liquor. They never got caught. Everyone on the boat had a general quarter’s duty and a base assignment. Gaffney had to service the torpedo rack and the twin .50 caliber mount on the starboard side. Other men had the multiple duties like that. Some men were loaders for the guns. There seemed to be more guns than men to help load them. There was a 37mm up forward, a 40mm aft, a 20mm amidship, two deck mounted twin .50s and a couple deck mounted .30 calibers for use against personnel. There were also two .50 caliber twin mounts in tubs. All this and a 70mm mortar was carried, too. His boat was a Higgins Boat. Men on an Elco Boat swore by their boat because of its comfort level. There was a day room amidship. Although it seemed more comfortable, when it came to maneuvering, the Higgins beat the Elco. Rudders were larger on the Higgins giving it better maneuverability. It made turns easier. Gaffney preferred the Higgins. For recreation, the men played a lot of cards. Movies were available ashore. There were entertainers that came occasionally to perform for the military. Cards and gambling were very popular. Gaffney even learned some about playing Bridge. He would send his money home except for five dollars for cigarettes. On his last night on Okinawa, he parlayed five dollars into 50 dollars in a gambling match. He went home with money in his pocket as a result. He did not win much but did manage to do so occasionally.

James Gaffney was once allowed to buy a case of beer after an announcement that there was an excess supply. Each sailor was permitted to purchase a case. When VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] was celebrated, some of that cache was consumed. The rest went with the announcement of VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 14 August 1945]. The crew had prepared for bartering at Okinawa. They had a case or two of cigarettes, but a problem occurred during the storage period and the cigarettes mildewed. The crew could not sell them to the Navy. Not even the natives on the island wanted the smokes after that. Discipline was laidback in the PT Navy. Uniform requirements were very lax. Once in Panama, Gaffney was in a machine shop and failed to board his PT before its planned departure. His boat left him behind. He tried to board a cruiser for a night’s food and sleep. He was dressed so sloppy, the officer of the deck told him to prove he was in the Navy. Gaffney was told to change into a proper uniform before he would be accepted to stay on the ship. He looked like a pirate trying to board the ship.

James Gaffney’s assessment of the John Wayne World War II movie entitled "They Were Expendable" was that it was mostly realistic with only slight exaggerations. The action took place in the Philippines early in the war. The role John Wayne played was that of the executive officer who would become the commander of the shakedown of Gaffney’s squadron out of Miami [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Robert Kelly]. Robert Montgomery was also a star in the movie. He had been a PT boat commander. Montgomery would have a television show with the executive officer on it. PT Boats were high performance vessels. His Higgins PT was 78 feet by 20 feet while the Elco Boat was 80 feet by 20 feet. There were no personnel safety railings, only lifelines. If a crewman fell overboard, the boat would turn and pick him up. Some men skied behind the boats. The crew purchased a sailboat but that did not work out. It was like the cigarettes they acquired that mildewed before they could use them. At Espiritu [Annotator’s Note: Espiritu Santo], the boat would moor offshore for a week and then go in to base for a week. At base, there was access to electricity. Another squadron shipped out and left the dock to Gaffney’s group. There was a boiler to heat water to wash clothes. The man who fired up the boiler got first use of the hot water. There were two torpedoes kept on board even though two more could have been fitted on the boat racks. Gaffney knew how to operate the racks to fire the torpedo. He explains the process in detail and what had to be done if the process malfunctioned. He tells how the torpedo exploded in a series of three graduated larger explosions. The arming of a torpedo occurred after it traveled 500 yards. The propeller had to turn so many revolutions. The range of the torpedo is roughly 1500 yards as Gaffney recollects. Some torpedoes ran erratic patterns. One even doubled back on the boat before righting itself. It was dangerous business. There is a difference between aircraft and PT Boat torpedoes. President John F. Kennedy commanded PT-109. After his boat was destroyed by the Japanese, he swam out in the morning to locate friendly forces and then swam back. After firing both torpedoes, the boat had to replenish at a tender. If the engine broke down at sea, the motor mechanic had to repair it. At base, there were men to repair the equipment. The boats had very few breakdowns. It only happened on one mission when the boat could only make 20 knots. Top speed was rated at 40 knots, but with a full load of fuel and ammunition, that would have been difficult. Gaffney estimated the boat carried 1500 gallons of fuel not the 3000 gallons that was advertised. The bladder that wrapped around the cockpit on the trip to Cuba had to be used to refuel at sea.

James Gaffney experienced no problems with leaks on his PT Boat. The boat construction was tight enough that it did not leak. The only time there was a problem was when the boat ran aground and had to be pulled off by another boat. It was necessary to be a good seaman and follow the rules of the seaways in order to navigate safely through the narrows. Equipment arrangements on various ships might differ somewhat. There was radar inside a dome that helped navigation. Radio communication using the same wavelength between base and boat or squadron was beneficial. The IFF [Annotator's Note: Identification: Friend or Foe] system emitted a constant signal to indicate if you were a friend or foe. A radar operator was on the boat at all times while underway. Gaffney was not around the cockpit very much except when he stood wheel watch. He also did bow and stern watches. The men rotated two hours on and two off duty. While on wheel watch, Gaffney drove the boat. The men did not get into any trouble when their boat ran aground.

James Gaffney got into trouble in Cartagena [Annotator’s Note: Cartagena, Colombia]. Some of the crew was driven in a non-standard taxi to a remote bar. The boat's skipper and executive officer happened to walk in. They told the men to go back to base because they were out of uniform. They responded to the officers that the cab was returning for them and they would leave when it picked them up. The next morning the crewmen were brought before Captain’s Mast [Annotator’s Note: minor infractions were handled by a non-judicial hearing by the ship or boat skipper referred to as Captain's Mast]. It was the last day in Cartagena and the punishment was restriction to base [Annotator’s Note: Gaffney laughs at the irony of the penalty]. Gaffney compares transit through the Panama Canal as sailing through a big ditch. The vessel passed through a series of locks to go from the different elevations of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The crossing of the equator for the first time involved a ceremony called a "Shellback." There were humorous ceremonial events involved. This occurred for Gaffney when he was on a tanker for the return trip to San Francisco in the United States. PT Boat duty was easy with relaxed discipline. Gaffney preferred it to any other assignment he might have had. It was similar to "McHale’s Navy" [Annotator’s Note: an amusing television show in the 1960s that focused on the antics of a crew on a PT Boat]. PT stands for Patrol Torpedo.

James Gaffney discusses the details of the type of torpedo used on the PT Boat on which he was assigned as a crewman. Details related to the design, aiming, firing, arming and detonation of PT Boat torpedoes are revealed. Included are the operational interfaces between the boat skipper and the crewman who fired the torpedo.

James Gaffney reveals how the PT Boat reacted to rough seas. Included is an explanation of how the bilge pumping system worked and the condition the crew maintained on the bilge of the boat.

James Gaffney felt the Okinawan civilians were glad to see the Americans. They hung around the camp all the time. They wanted food and the Americans had it. One of Gaffney’s friends was invited to the home of a local girl. The friend asked Gaffney to accompany him. While he slept that night, Gaffney heard rats falling from the trees onto the roof of the home. While on the island, the crewmen carried their .45s [Annotator's Note: M1911 .45 caliber pistol] for protection. They ran into a local man who looked like an enemy soldier. He showed no signs of hostility so the Americans left him alone. The Japanese had drafted local men to be in their defensive forces before the Americans landed on the island. Gaffney was skeptical of any contact with Asians. Different service branches of the American military were located at various spots on the island. Trucks would transport local women to and from military work sites. There was a tent that served as the mess tent. The only time a cook boarded the PT boat was when it went out on patrol. The cook would bring sliced bread and luncheon meat aboard and put it out for the men. He did not travel well so he would find a bunk and make himself scarce. The men never cooked onboard the PT.

James Gaffney discusses transition back into civilian life and his home life with two new children following his return from the Navy. He used the GI Bill to further his education as an apprentice machinist. He also discusses the food on Okinawa. He had the opportunity of selling his home brewed liquor for a crate of steaks to his fellow servicemen on the island. Going back to his career development, he reveals his progression through examinations and through the ranks of his work at the Water Board. He talks about the dilemma of running out of the GI Bill financing before receiving pay raises for successfully completing his apprenticeship. Gaffney thrust himself in front of management in order to be promoted to an entry level foreman position with the Board. He had help from his mentor. Further explanation is given about his efforts to progress in his job. The requirements of his job as a superintendent are discussed. He was anxious to retire once he was able to receive 100 percent of his pension. The difficulties of effectively functioning in business while political decisions had to be made are also part of his interview.