John McCarthy was born in December 1918 in Seattle, Washington. He lived on a little farm and he attended Highline High School [Annotator's Note: in Burien, Washington]. He joined the Coast Guard and never returned to Seattle to live. He joined the Coast Guard because he was 18 or 19 years old, the Coast Guard had ships and a base in Seattle, and he always liked the water. Back then they trained onboard ship. He was a seaman and deckhand on the ship. Ship life was fun. They got three meals a day and a routine. They got up at six in the morning. He was on the USS Northland [Annotator’s Note: USCGC Northland (WPG-49) that made an annual cruise to the Arctic Ocean. He spent the summer up there. He went through Alaska and the Bering Sea. It was peacetime and the Northland took a lot of supplies to the Natives and made official visits with the Eskimos [Annotator's Note: indigenous people of northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and eastern Siberia; now considered a derogatory term].

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks John McCarthy what he remembers about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] McCarthy was in San Juan, Puerto Rico then on small boats, a harbor boat. He heard about the attack on the radio. There was no television then. He was just a kid. Shortly after that, he was put on the USCGC Unalga (WPG-53), an older Coast Guard cutter. They were not equipped for wartime. They had no armament. They went to Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida] to the shipyard to get equipped with guns. Several years later, he was on a Canadian-built corvette [Annotator's Note: small warship]. When the war started, the German subs [Annotator's Note: submarines, or u-boats] had a free shot at the American ships because they were not in convoys. They started forming convoys and those needed escort vessels. These vessels were about 250 feet long. About five of them escorted convoys. He was on the USS Intensity (PG-93) then. They dropped depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] a lot. The corvettes were wartime built and were equipped for war. They had two five inch guns [Annotator's Note: five inch 38 caliber naval gun] and smaller guns. Their main thing was depth charges for fighting the submarines. The American Navy got a group of them. While he was in the Coast Guard, they were part of the Navy. McCarthy was in New York unassigned. [Annotator's Note: He repeats the convoy arrangement.] They were escorting convoys from New York to Cuba, to Guantanamo Bay [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba].

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks John McCarthy to describe rescuing a Merchant Marine who had fallen off his ship.] A convoy took up a big part of the ocean. They had five escort vessels with one in the front, one on each front quarter, and two on the rear quarters. This was right after World War 2 started and the German subs [Annotator's Note: submarines, or u-boats] were sinking ships like crazy. [Annotator's Note: He repeats some of the story.] McCarthy’s ship [Annotator's Note: USS Intensity (PG-93)] was in the rear quarter. A sailor fell overboard. The chance of finding somebody in the ocean is very slim. They got a message to go back and see if they could find him. They broke away and started looking about where he would be. They found him. They put all available hands to line the ships to have more eyes to see. He does not recall if he had a life jacket or not. They picked him up and rejoined the convoy. He stayed on board until they reached San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks John McCarthy if they ever forced any German submarines, or u-boats, to surface when attacking them.] You never did know [Annotator's Note: if they hit one]. They had a young ensign making his first trip with them. When they dropped depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum], they dropped them at different depths. The shallow ones would make huge bubbles on the ocean like something blowing up. This young ensign thought a submarine was surfacing and they got a good laugh out of that. They had sonar gear to detect the submarine. They would go after them. They did not encounter bad weather in the Caribbean necessarily but between New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and San Juan [Annotator’s Note: San Juan, Puerto Rico] it could get rough. He was never worried about not making it, as they had rugged ships. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks McCarthy if he was going to be part of any invasion of Japan.] He was back on the escort vessel. When the war in the Atlantic ended, all the German subs were either captured or gave up. His ship had no more duty then, so they went to Charleston, South Carolina [Annotator's Note: US Coast Guard Base Charleston] to be decommissioned. McCarthy was sent to Oakland, California to the Coast Guard base [Annotator's Note: Coast Guard Base Alameda, also called Coast Guard Island, Oakland Estuary, California]. He boarded the USS Joseph T. Dickman (APA-13) there to go to the Philippines. It was a big ship. The war was still on. They went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] first then went into the Southern Pacific [Annotator's Note: Pacific Ocean]. About that time the war ended. They took troops back to the United States, flying was not that common then. The first trip back was to Seattle, Washington. There is a big Army base there, Fort Lewis [Annotator's Note: now part of Joint Base Lewis-McCord, near Tacoma, Washington]. They went back and got another load of four or five hundred people. They brought them to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California].

John McCarthy was on a regular enlistment and not a draftee, so he did not automatically get out when the war was over. He was a Chief Boatswain's Mate. He was sent back to his home base of Charleston [Annotator's Note: US Coast Guard Base Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina] from Oakland [Annotator's Note: Coast Guard Base Alameda, also called Coast Guard Island, Oakland Estuary, California]. There was not much demand and the ships were all being decommissioned. They offered everybody a discharge. Because he had a good job, he turned it down. They put pressure on them to get out, so he took the discharge. He got married and had a house then. He went to Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida] which was his wife's home. He had been born and raised in Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington]. Her parents were there and his were gone. He liked Jacksonville. He bought a car and during that summer he would drive down to Jacksonville. He has lived there ever since. He did not use the G.I. Bill as he did not have any reason to. He had been in the military for eight years and did not know anything about civilian life. His wife's mother lived near them. He had to find a job and he had never had one. He had joined the Coast Guard as a kid. McCarthy asked his in-laws where to look for a job. They recommended Southern Bell [Annotator's Note: Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company] or the City of Jacksonville. Southern Bell was only about ten blocks from where he lived. He went into this big garage where their offices were. He was told to go see a Mr. Thurman [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] and he interviewed with him. Thurman asked him when he could work and told him to come back on the next Monday. That was easy. When he started, he was introduced to a worker who was a cable splicer and McCarthy was assigned to be his extra. He had only been at work for ten minutes, and they asked if he was ready for a cup of coffee. They went to a coffee place and the men were there drinking coffee. They went to their work location. McCarthy did not know what to do but helped as best he could. [Annotator's Note: He explains how they ran cable for telephones and the story of that day in detail.] He worked for them for 40 years. McCarthy has no idea if people know why the war was fought. He says he probably knew at the time. He was in the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean] because the Germans were sinking ships.