John Ericson was born in Brooklyn, New York [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] in February 1925. The Whitestone Bridge [Annotator's Note: Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, New York, New York] was built when he was in grade school in 1937. He would ride his bike to watch it being built. The New York World's Fair of 1939 [Annotator's Note: 1939 to 1940 New York World's Fair, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York] was on, and he went in every day. That went into 1940 which was a tough time for a fair due to the war situation in Europe. He remembers the Perisphere had the World of Tomorrow which was about automobiles. It was fascinating to ride, and he did it many times. He also spent time at the General Electric [Annotator's Note: General Electric Company] exhibit with man made lightning. All of the countries had exhibits. His parents were Scandinavian. His mother was Danish, and his father was Swedish, so he spent a lot of times in those buildings. In grade school, his interests were technical and mechanical. His father was a machinist and Ericson worked with him in his basement shop making furniture and boats. He was only ten or 12 years old and ran the power equipment. It was a wonderful childhood experience. He had a younger sister. Getting close to graduation from New Town High School [Annotator's Note: in Queens, New York, New York] had a course for those who wanted to go into engineering. It was a rough session and he had to travel about an hour to get there.

During the summer of 1939, John Ericson's mother wanted to take them to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. She had come over [Annotator's Note: to America] as a 17 year old girl in 1917 and had not been back. Europe was at war then with World War 1. To get into Copenhagen, Denmark, they planned to go back on a Polish boat from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. They went over and lived with his grandmother and uncle. They went to Oslo [Annotator's Note: Oslo, Norway] and over to Bergen, Norway by train in the snow in the middle of July [Annotator's Note: July 1939]. They crossed back to Stockholm [Annotator's Note: Stockholm, Sweden] where they took a canal boat through the Göta Canal to Gothenburg [Annotator's Note: Gothenburg, Sweden]. They stopped at different castles along the way. He saw his father's home in Sweden and slept in his bed. They returned to Denmark and rode bicycles to get around. There would be 200 bicycles lined up at traffic lights. They were booked to come back on a Polish ship leaving 5 September. His mother was getting nervous and booked passage on the MS Batory on 25 August [Annotator's Note: 25 August 1939]. It stopped in Cherbourg, France where passengers were mobbing the boat as they were desperate to leave. The portholes were closed and locked shut as the boat went into blackout. They had lifeboat drills daily. They did not tell them [Annotator's Note: the children] the war had started. They started zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the ocean. He was not scared, and it was kind of thrilling to stand on the aft of the ship watching the wake of the boat. They got across and near Newfoundland [Annotator's Note: Newfoundland, Canada] where they were met by a British destroyer that escorted them in. The next day they were escorted down to New York. It was exciting for him, but not for his parents. His father was at home not knowing anything. [Annotator's Note: Ericson says there were not many cellphones back then and laughs.]

John Ericson went walking in Bowne Park in Flushing [Annotator's Note: Flushing, Queens, New York, New York] with his parents on a Sunday afternoon. When they got home, they heard the horrible situation [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was in high school. During the summer sessions, he would work. He worked in a plant making wooden boxes for the military. He also worked in a machine shop making parts for the war effort. When he was close to 18, he finished high school. He was called in for the draft. Just before that, he went to the Academy of Aeronautics [Annotator's Note: now Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York, New York] for some training as an aircraft mechanic. The Academy was LaGuardia Airport [Annotator's Note: in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York, New York], and it gave him a leg up on getting into the Air Force, which he desired to do. In March, he was drafted and went to Camp Upton [Annotator's Note: now Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York] for orientation. He got his wish and was sent for Air Corps training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri [Annotator's Note: now Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Lemay, Missouri]. He did basic training there. They called it "The Hellhole of the United States." Near the end of that, the commander called him in and asked him if he would like to go to college in the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. That was to his liking, and he went to Lincoln, Nebraska and then back to Rhode Island State College [Annotator's Note: now University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island]. It was a wonderful experience. They lived in Eleanor Roosevelt Hall [Annotator's Note: Roosevelt Hall] and had sheets on their beds. They studied and did a lot of physical training. Saturdays, after a 20 mile run, they were excused for the weekend. That lasted about nine months and the program was ended. They needed bodies in Europe. Ericson had a chance to enlist in the Air Cadet Program and passed the exams. Then that program was closed. All of them ended up in the Airborne Infantry. That meant either gliders or parachutes. He chose the gliders and went to Camp Forrest, Tennessee [Annotator's Note: in Tullahoma, Tennessee] and trained with the 17th Airborne [Annotator's Note: Company B, 2nd Battalion, 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division].

John Ericson went through a training period [Annotator's Note: after being assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division in March 1944]. Guys who had been in the division had just come off maneuvers in the Carolinas [Annotator's Note: Carolina Maneuvers, Army exercises in and around South Carolina and North Carolina in 1941] and were pretty savvy in tactics. Here came these green [Annotator's Note: inexperienced], smart-aleck, college kids. They managed to fit in, but it was a tough transition. In August 1944, they shipped overseas from Boston Harbor [Annotator's Note: in Boston, Massachusetts] to Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England]. They went down to a camp near Swindon, England and trained in gliders. Once in a while they got a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He went into London [Annotator's Note: London, England] on a bicycle hike which was 50 or 60 miles. He saw the horrible situation in London from the bombings. On 17 December [Annotator's Note: 17 December 1944], the Germans started what ended up as the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Ericson and his outfit were in reserve in England. Just before Christmas, the weather socked them in. About 23 December [Annotator's Note: 23 December 1944], they finally got off. The whole Division [Annotator's Note: 17th Airborne Division] was flown to Reims, France. They were trucked up to the Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium] region and from there on, they hiked and marched through. They dug foxholes every night. The ground was frozen so digging made them ask for dynamite. Their lives were at stake, so they managed to dig. Any number of times, they would get down and water would start seeping in. They often lived under extremely cold conditions. The temperature was around ten degrees. He and another guy buddied-up and they had to huddle together to keep warm. They had to stay out of the German shelling.

John Ericson and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 2nd Battalion, 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division] got closer to the real battle zones [Annotator's Note: of the Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. On 6 January [Annotator's Note: 6 January 1945], they were told they were going to attack on 7 January. The night of the 6th, they [Annotator's Note: the American Army] sent a barrage. They were warned they were never going to experience anything like it. All night long the howitzers and big guns fired to keep the Germans down. They were all wearing overcoats and were told to pile them up and strip down to their jackets. Ericson was trained as a sniper and had been carrying a Remington 06 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] with a telescopic sight. The sergeant told him to take the Garand [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] because it has more firepower. He lost his favorite rifle. They went on the attack, and it was snowing hard. They got into hedgerows and then pulled out. A German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] shell landed about 15 feet from him. Shrapnel caught him in the chest and knocked him down. Guys were being hit all over by shrapnel or machine gun fire. The medic came. There was so much screaming and guys yelling for medics. Ericson had a bandage put on and was told to lie down and lie still. It was 11 o'clock on 7 January [Annotator's Note: 7 January 1945]. The Germans had tanks. His group was a light infantry group trying to attack a heavily armed group. They lost so many men that they had to pull back. He saw the guys going back past him and the dead or wounded. Ericson was laying there until around four o'clock in the afternoon. He went in and out of consciousness. He said The Lord's Prayer [Annotator's Note: central prayer of Christianity] hundreds of times to use up his time and hope to pull through. He had experiences then that said for him to die would be easy. He wondered what would happen to him. Then he thought about his parents and that it would kill them if he died. That made him keep going. He heard machine guns and looked down the field. He saw tracer bullets hitting bodies and bouncing off. Suddenly it was like a sledgehammer hitting him the back. A machine gun hit him across the spine. He still had feeling. Around seven o'clock that night, two of his ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] buddies who had retreated came back. They knew he was alive when they retreated. They carried him back to the aid station. They cut his boots off, and his feet were frozen. The nurse called him a "poor kid" and he will never forget those words. They got the shrapnel out and gave it to him. He was put on a railroad car loaded about six high in stretchers. He does not remember anything about getting back to Birmingham, England and the hospital. His frozen feet were extremely painful. He would scream from pain if they were touched. The Red Cross would come around with candy. He took one but did not eat the whole thing and put it next to him on the table. At night he heard a noise on the table. He reached over and a mouse jumped into his bed. In hindsight, it is pretty funny now, but it was not then. It took about a month for him to walk. A lot of guys lost their feet. He was fortunate.

John Ericson spent time in the hospital [Annotator's Note: after being wounded during the Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Orders came through for him to be "ZI'd", or sent to the Zone of Interior, which meant back to the United States. He got on a hospital ship. By this time, the seas had been taken care of so there was not much danger. He went to Tilton Hospital [Annotator's Note: Tilton General Hospital] at Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: in Trenton, New Jersey]. Coming into New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] was the most wonderful sight for the second time [Annotator's Note: Ericson had gotten out of Europe from a vacation in 1939 when the war started]. He left Dix for Camp Upton [Annotator's Note: now Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York] for more recovery. Then he went to Fort Oglethorpe [Annotator's Note: Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia] to another hospital until 2 October 1945 when he was discharged with a disability. He went home. The war was over in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945] when he was in England. As far as he was concerned, he was out of the war and was not to be sent to Japan. When the bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] was dropped, it was the greatest thing in the world as far as they were concerned. Too many guys were on their way from one war zone to another. He had to start planning for his future. Due to the G.I. Bill of Rights, he could go to college. He applied to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York for engineering. While there, he met his future wife who was a Trojan [Annotator's Note: nickname for students in Troy]. They were married in 1948. After school, he took a position with General Electric [Annotator's Note: General Electric Company] in manufacturing engineering. He truly loved it. After ten years in the main plant, the business started falling off. He loved Schenectady [Annotator's Note: Schenectady, New York] and they bought a house. His wife had gotten to know Jane Vonnegut from work. Jane was selling her house, so they went to look at it. Ericson got to meet Jane and her husband Kurt [Annotator's Note: Kurt Vonnegut, American writer]. They bought the home. They spent 13 years there. They had a boat and a canoe and would boat on the Mohawk River. He volunteered at the Fire Department. Things got tight with G.E. [Annotator's Note: General Electric] and he managed to get a position with the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory [Annotator's Note: in Niskayuna, New York]. He worked there during the Cold War [Annotator's Note: Cold War, period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and United States, 1947-1991]. They were building things for nuclear-powered submarines. They were working on making them quiet. He worked on every prototype they made. He retired in 1986. He thoroughly enjoyed his work overall. He guesses that America today does not recognize what they went through in World War 2. He does not think that any war is appreciated or understood by the later generations. But what is being done here [Annotator's Note: at The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana] is a great opportunity to express it, and he appreciates it. He has been in his current house for 53 years. His wife is still with him, and they are well-cared for.