Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe was born in Ocean Springs, Mississippi in July 1923. He grew up in a big antebellum home which his grandfather had built, but it was foreclosed on and sold at auction when he was 12 years old during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. He had one older sister. O'Keefe bought the house back 48 years later. After the house was sold, the family moved to Biloxi [Annotator's Note: Biloxi, Mississippi]. His father had a funeral home business. O'Keefe attended Sacred Heart Academy and played sports. It was a happy time. On 7 December 1941, he was playing football and heard that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They all knew they were at war. Everyone wanted to get into the service. O'Keefe was attending Soule College [Annotator's Note: Soule Business College] on Jackson Avenue in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] when he decided to enlist in the Navy as an aviation cadet. He was not called for several months. His father had served in the Marine Corps in World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. Due to a perforated ear drum, he was put on KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police]. His father was happy for his son to serve. O'Keefe was finally called to duty in July 1942. He graduated and got his wings in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida] when he was 19 years old and was commissioned a first lieutenant.

Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe found training intense. After preflight school at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, he was sent to Dallas Naval Air Station [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Dallas; located between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas]. He had eight flying hours on a Piper Cub [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft]. Others were flying the "Yellow Peril" [Annotator's Note: Naval Aircraft Factory N3N training biplane]. O'Keefe's records had been mixed up with a much more experienced pilot. When on a training flight, the instructor thought he had flown at least 35 hours and told him to take the plane up alone. It only came up later when O'Keefe was in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida], and he learned about the mix-up. Getting his wings was a big day. He opted for the Marine Corps and was happy to do so. After getting his wings, he went home for two weeks and was then ordered to go to San Diego, California where he was assigned to a transport squadron in Miramar [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California], which they hated. They wanted to get into the war. O'Keefe knew a woman in California who was dating a Marine Corps aviator hero of Guadalcanal named Galer [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Brigadier General Robert Edward Galer; Medal of Honor recipient]. O'Keefe expressed to Galer that they wanted to get into the war. Galer called a meeting and they were transferred to El Toro, California [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in El Toro, California] and got into fighter training which was very exciting. They were flying F4F Wildcats [Annotator's Note: Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft]. He had a training accident while landing, but was able to get out of the plane. This was Thanksgiving week of 1944. He was back flying two days later. The F4F [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] was the best fighter plane of World War 2. They were tickled to get to fly them. He was eventually assigned to VMF-323 [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323)], called the "Death Rattlers".

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe joined VMF-323 [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323), called the "Death Rattlers"] in El Centro [Annotator's Note: El Centro, California] and was then sent to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California]. They trained there for several months and were then sent overseas. O'Keefe had gotten married in March 1944. They were deployed in June or July, first sent to Hawaii and then on to Espiritu Santo [Annotator's Note: Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu] on a carrier. O'Keefe was a section leader. A man named Lieutenant Baker was killed when being catapulted off the carrier. O'Keefe was the next to be catapulted and was scared to death. He got off successfully as did the rest of the squadron. They served on a few carriers, including the Long Island [Annotator's Note: USS Long Island (CVE-1)]. O'Keefe was not a lawyer, but was assigned to defend a fellow Marine who had stolen a pistol and won the case, arguing he stole it for self-defense. O'Keefe was later approached to represent a man who had been running a brothel, but he refused. [Annotator's Note: O'Keefe laughs.]

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe was there [Annotator's Note: on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu] for two or three months before shipping out to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. They catapulted off the carrier on Easter Sunday morning of 1945. The ship's crew made them a cake before taking off. They landed at Kadena airfield on Okinawa. The weather was terrible. The next day 24 planes took off. The commander had to return due to plane trouble, and O'Keefe was put in command. He was scared to death. They lost one pilot. They did not see a lot of action, but did close air support for the Marines on the ground. They also did picket duty. Their executive officer shot down six Japanese kamikazes, and O'Keefe shot down five, and another pilot shot down five. Time magazine published a story on them. O'Keefe became an ace [Annotator's Note: a pilot with five or more confirmed victories in air to air combat]. It was a high adrenaline day. After doing picket duty for an hour, enemy planes arrived in sporadic numbers, and they attacked. It was general melee, everyone fell out of formation. O'Keefe shot down one plane. He was then behind and above a formation of six planes, and began firing, downing another plane. It was exciting. At this point, he had shot down three planes, and later hit two more. At least some of them were Vals [Annotator's Note: Aichi D3A Type 99 Val dive bomber] and Kates [Annotator's Note: Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo aircraft] which were no competition for a Corsair [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft]. O'Keefe's plane was armed with six machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun], four of which were completely empty by the time he landed. They did not see anymore planes, and headed back for Okinawa. He was made an ace that day. There was a lot of publicity, and they liked the attention. It brought fame to their squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323), known as the "Death Rattlers"]. O'Keefe became close with their mess officer, a man from Bunkie, Louisiana. They heard a rumor about a Japanese landing force and went to look for them, but happily did not find them. It turned out to be false information.

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe took part in close air support of Marine ground troops, primarily on the southern part of Okinawa [Annotator's Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. Their planes [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] were equipped to fire rockets, napalm, and machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun]. They lost their executive officer doing close air support. The Japanese would sometimes cover their tanks with hay so as to hide them from the air. O'Keefe's unit [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 323 (VMF-323), known as the "Death Rattlers"] would hit those, as well as trying to hit cave systems. He never received any ground fire. He liked the power of the Corsair. It was a big plane with gull wings. It was a fine airplane. However, it was difficult to see over the hood while zig-zagging during taxiing. After the war, a squadron mate of O'Keefe's was killed by a propeller because the pilot did not see the man on the ground from the plane. General Axtell [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant General George C. Axtell, an ace and commanding officer of Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323)] was a strict disciplinarian. He made sure everything worked properly, and was strict on pilots as well as mechanics and radiomen. O'Keefe was married while at El Toro [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in El Toro, California] and asked for time off, but Axtell made him fly the morning and evening of his wedding day.

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe's unit [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323), known as the "Death Rattlers"] had a lot of camaraderie because they were together for so long. The pilots all got into the squadron at the same time, from different backgrounds. They shared experiences at El Centro [Annotator’s Note: El Centro, California] and El Toro [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in El Toro, California], Hawaii, Espiritu Santo [Annotator's Note: Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu] and all the way though Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They became a close-knit group. O'Keefe's relationship with his crew chief was good. They did not fly the same planes all the time, so there was a bit of a disconnect between the crew chief and the aviator. O'Keefe was not flying the plane he usually flew when he shot those five planes down [Annotator's Note: O'Keefe became an ace during the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan], which was a disappointment to his crew chief. The squadron anticipated being involved in the invasion of Japan proper [Annotator's Note: codenamed Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese Home Islands was rendered unnecessary following the Japanese surrender]. Towards the end of the war, O'Keefe asked the Marine Corps to assign him to New York because he wanted to go into the Ferry Command to see more of the country. He had a wife and six-month old baby at the time. He ended up being assigned to Columbus, Ohio, picking up planes from the Goodyear plant there, test flying them, and ferrying them to San Diego, a two-day trip. He was flying when he heard that the Japanese surrendered [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. He sent his commandant a telegram requesting immediate discharge so he could go back to school at Loyola University of New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana].

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Keefe left Okinawa [Annotator's Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan] in early June 1945 to return to the United States. Things were slowing down at that point, the Japanese did not have any more planes to send at them. His squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 323 (VMF-323), called the “Death Rattlers”] did not all keep in touch after the war. They had their first reunion 19 years after the war, with the only six men that could be located. They continued to meet every year after that. The squadron had ten to 12 aces, only three remain alive [Annotator's Note: at the time of interview]. O'Keefe tries not to be prejudiced against the Japanese, but there is a little resentment. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in the background.] The country needs young men to fight wars. It has always been that way. America lost some of her dignity when we dropped the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. We can never criticize another country for killing children and old men and women when we have killed more than any other nation ever did when we dropped those bombs. It was a terrible happening for the world in general. World War 2 is the only war we have actually won. O'Keefe did not talk or think about the war once he got home, until his unit had its first reunion.