[Annotator's Note: This clip begins with the interviewer and Leon Schafer in conversation.] Leon Schafer was born in Raleigh [Annotator's Note: Raleigh, North Carolina] in 1922. His family was poor. It was a wonderful life because he grew up not knowing anything different. He was in the Scouts [Annotator's Note: Boy Scouts of America] at 11 and they camped out every weekend. In 1937, he went to the first Jamboree in Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.; 30 June to 9 July 1937]. He was the Patrol Leader. Some of the kids turned out to be prominent attorneys and one a congressman. The only time Schafer was away from Raleigh was for college and military service from 1939 to 1946. He has only lived in two places in Raleigh; on the same block since 1946. When he came home, Schafer really wanted to go to medical school. His father had him on his business payroll, so he never had a chance. When his father retired, Schafer went into the life insurance business. When Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] came about, he was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was at a movie and it was interrupted for the news. Everybody got gung-ho. The following 3 October [Annotator's Note: 3 October 1942] he went to join the Navy. He had gotten his draft notice for the Army already. He was only 20 so his mother had to give permission. The Navy allowed him to finish college. The day after he graduated, he was ordered to midshipmen's school at Columbia University [Annotator's Note: Columbia University in New York, New York]. On 24 November 1943, he was commissioned in the morning and got married that evening in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. He does not even remember his wedding; things were going so fast. The next day was Thanksgiving and he went to his wife's parents for dinner. They left that night by train for Raleigh because he had orders to pick up a ship in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. When he reported, his ship had just left for Mobile, Alabama.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer went to Mobile, Alabama to board his assigned ship - the Landing Ship, Tank USS LST-502.] Schafer stayed on that ship until he was relieved from it in the Pacific. At that time, LSTs had three inch guns [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun] on the stern deck. They were poorly mounted, and they would pull loose from the deck when fired. In Mobile, they were removed and replaced with twin-mount 40mm turrets [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon]. They had 20mm guns [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] too. They carried six boats that could be loaded with troops. They went up to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and then were sent to the Charleston Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: Boston Navy Yard, later Boston Naval Shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts]. Because it was winter, they had to go the long way to Boston. They went to Quonset Point, Rhode Island and picked up cargo of creosote logs [Annotator's Note: wood treated with coal tar oil as a preservative] used to make docks in invasions. It stunk up the ship. They then went to Halifax, Novia Scotia to join a convoy to Londonderry, Ireland. They ended up in Plymouth, England. It took ten days to two weeks to cross. They had plane escorts for all but a couple of days. Canadian corvettes [Annotator's Note: small warship] went across with them. German submarines were a constant presence. The sea was so rough that it was difficult for torpedoes to have any effect. The waves 40 feet high. At night, they just followed in the wake, 400 yards behind the ship in front of them. The difficulty was exposure [Annotator's Note: to the elements]. If the ship sank, you would only last a few seconds due to the cold water. The spray would freeze on the ship. They wore layers of socks, oil-skinned and fleece-lined coat, and a parka life jacket. They could hardly move. On the conn [Annotator's Note: conning tower; elevated platform for viewing the ship's movement] of the LST you are exposed to the elements. Plymouth was a large, deep harbor. They had their first bombing raid there. The Germans came over every night like clockwork. Schafer hurt his hip going to general quarters when bombs threw him up against the hatch. He was 22 and it did not bother him. [Annotator's Note: The interview is stopped to reposition and close the window blinds.] He forgot it but it showed up about 50 years later when it caused a nerve to be inflamed.

In England, Leon Schafer went through a series of training periods. The ship's [Annotator's Note: USS LST-502] crew had to be trained to go to general quarters and fire the guns. They went out by themselves. An Army plane would drag a target for them to shoot at. They shot the plane down. [Annotator's Note: Schafer laughs.] They were no longer permitted to fire their guns. They had to rescue the pilot of the plane. They never told him they were the ones who shot his tail off. Later, they were training Army units to load the LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. On 27 April 1944, they loaded some to take them back to England. There were 12 LSTs in their group. They traveled three abreast and there were six in front of Schafer's LST [Annotator's Note: USS LST-502]. They made a feint to Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] to make the Germans think that was where the invasion of Europe was going to take place. German E-boats [Annotator's Note: Allied designation for German Schnellboot, or S-Boot] attacked them. English motor-torpedo boats [Annotator's Note: MTB] were escorting the LSTs. The Germans sank two LSTs [Annotator's Note: USS LST-507 and USS LST-531] and badly wrecked another. A tremendous number of Army personnel were thrown overboard and drowned. That was a Saturday night. They spent all day Sunday picking up bodies and rescuing survivors. They took them to Portsmouth, England. This was not reported until 40 years later when it was exposed. At the time, they did not want the Germans to know that 760 people were killed. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer says it was Operation Tiger. Exercise Tiger was a rehearsal for the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France. This attack is called Battle of Lyme Bay, 28 April 1944.] One of the small boat officers went berserk as a result of picking up the bodies. He had to be left in the hospital in Portsmouth.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was taking part in Operation Tiger, or Exercise Tiger, April 1944, preparing for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France]. They were constantly undergoing some sort of training. Their skipper [Annotator's Note: ship captain or commander; US Navy Lieutenant J. T. Lytle] was the only regular Navy aboard the ship and was very gung-ho [Annotator's Note: eager to fight]. The rest were just civilians hijacked into the service. The skipper was king of the ship and he was a tough taskmaster. Schafer was learning to be Communications Officer. They carried the Group Commander, Commander Sonnegren [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. He hijacked Schafer to be his navigator. Schafer does not know how he got them anyplace. He was prone to seasickness and in bad waters he was in bad shape. He never missed a watch though. They went on alert for the Normandy invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. [Annotator's Note: Schafer begins to read from his diary.] On 2 June in Weymouth, England, they began loading. Their load was the type to come in last to service the campaign. They had two Army officers with each unit; 1st Army Division [Annotator's Note: 1st Infantry Division]. They took them into the landing in Normandy. They were waiting in the harbor. They had a letter from Admiral Kirk [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral Alan Goodrich Kirk; senior naval commander, Normandy landings] telling them they were hitting the French coast and to expect heavy fighting. At that time, no letters could go home. Nothing left England. They had pontoon rhino ferries [Annotator's Note: nickname for barges constructed of pontoons] to help carry men into the beachhead. They also had a dirigible on a cable [Annotator's Note: barrage baloon] above the ship. On 3 June, they were briefed that they were to hit Cherbourg, France. On 4 June, the rain was heavy and persistent. On 5 June, the Army and Navy officers were briefed on the big day, and they left Weymouth Harbor for the objective 22 hours away. They had watches of four hours on and four hours off. He still had his ship duties too and they did not have a chance to sleep. The crew was worn out. That watch was discontinued after 16 hours. At 11:50 that night, 1,400 C-46s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft] flew overhead with paratroopers. They were protected by British PT-boats [Annotator's Note: Patrol Torpedo Boat] and American P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft].

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was aboard USS LST-502 for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] What was amazing was the number of ships and planes that participated. There were three World War 1 type battleships: USS Texas (BB-35), USS Nevada (BB-36), and USS Arkansas (BB-33), heavy cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40) with them. 52 destroyers were guarding the English Channel from u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarine]. Mine sweepers were all over the place. Before six-thirty [Annotator's Note: in the morning], they cut loose their Rhino Ferries [Annotator's Note: nickname for barges constructed of pontoons]. The 1st Division [Annotator's Note: 1st Infantry Division] loaded on them and headed for the beach. They were in the second part of the first wave. The first LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] that went ashore were ones that had participated in the invasions of Italy and Sicily. Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France], where they landed, was divided into two sections: Easy Red and Dog White. Further east was Utah Beach. LST-502's destination was Easy Red which was the hardest beach to land on. "Saving Private Ryan"'s [Annotator's Note: 1998 American war film set during the Invasion of Normandy] landing was on Dog White. As bad as that was, Schafer's was worse. They encountered high hills that had to be scaled by the Rangers [Annotator's Note: generally, US Army Rangers; specifically, 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions]. The 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] were peppering them like mad. There was no way to get their heavy equipment onto the beach. They milled around the harbor. At nightfall, they were behind the Texas as a secure place. Every time the battleship fired its guns, it would move, and they had to move their ship. They experienced some beautiful firing from some of the destroyers. There was an ammunition dump just over the horizon, supplying the German forces. They watched the display of fireworks as the destroyer blew it up. It had been a whole day of noise and experiences. It was exuberating, but scary.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was aboard USS LST-502 for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] USS LST-502 carried an Army and Navy surgical team. Before their troops hit the beach, they were taking aboard casualties. Doctors were working all over the place and had no place to put the patients. The afternoon of the 7 June, they hit the beach and discharged their cargo. LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] had to wait for the tide. The tide there is very high; 12 to 15 feet. They would go in at high tide and drop the stern anchor. The tide would go out and leave them high and dry. The 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] were still firing at them, so they could not go topside. No Navy personnel could go ashore as the beaches were mined. When they opened the bow doors and put the ramp down, they hit exploded a mine. They got rid of their tanks and started taking in casualties. Between German and American casualties, they had around 400. The Germans and Americans were exchanging photographs and cigarettes. Just a few hours before, they had been fighting. Some of the troops really had taken about as much punishment as they could. He witnessed some German prisoners coming down and the Americans killed them right there before they reached the beach. They buried 3,000 American troops on the top of the hill on the second or third day. That is where the cemetery is now. USS LST-502 then joined a convoy to go back to get another load of equipment and troops [Annotator's Note: from England]. At night, a Corvette [Annotator's Note: small warship] cut across the bow of their ship and they went into emergency reverse. They stripped the gears in one of their motors and never could get much speed out of it from then on. There were two convoys merging and the Corvette wanted to stop them. They did. [Annotator's Note: Schafer laughs.]

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was aboard USS LST-502 for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] They got back to England and loaded up. The next day they made their second trip to the beach [Annotator's Note: 8 June; Omaha Beach, Normandy]. It was a pretty day. Schafer was on the wings of the ship off duty as they approached the beach. USS LST-496 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] was going in and hit a 750 pound sea mine. Schafer saw daylight under the LST; the detonation was so great. He could not believe what he was looking at. She was loaded with tanks that had already been unshackled to hit the beach, as well as Army personnel. They stopped and sent their small boats over. Canadian corvettes [Annotator's Note: small warship] tied lines to her to keep her from capsizing. LST-502 took on the casualties. Some of the people were thrown against the overhead and were stuck to the ceiling. Schafer was helping the casualties aboard ship. His job was to take their guns and hand grenades away from them. One sergeant came up cussing. In every casualty there is some humor if you find it. The sergeant said he had waited three days to use the toilet, he finally went, and then they hit the mine. He had a piece of wood rammed into his thigh just as he was getting ready to sit down. It was eight or ten inches long and he had still not been to the toilet. A corpsman immediately froze the area and pulled it out. He got it sewed up. One cook had a meat cleaver take his lower jaw off. He eventually died from swallowing his own blood. That story of the 496 was never told until many years later.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was aboard USS LST-502 after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.] They returned to England [Annotator's Note: on 8 June 1944] and it was raining like mad. Schafer was officer of the deck. An Army medical unit said they had orders to take their ship to England. The men had been sitting in the rain for 48 hours. A Colonel was in charge of the unit and he wanted the captain's quarters. Schafer told him he had to go into what was available. One man went in the bunk above Schafer. They talked and he found out the man was married to a woman Schafer had known in college. Many years later the man moved to Raleigh [Annotator's Note: Raleigh, North Carolina; Schafer's hometown] and they saw each other. Schafer made eight trips to the beaches [Annotator's Note: Normandy beaches] in total; four to Omaha and four to Utah. After the eighth, they were told they were going to the Mediterranean [Annotator's Note: Mediterranean Sea]. They had an ammunition ship that they kept in the convoy during the day, and far astern at night. They were carrying British tanks that could float [Annotator's Note: DD, or Duplex Drive, tanks]. They discharged them at Leghorn, Italy and two of them sank as they left the ship. They then went ashore to discharge the rest of them. At sea, they just drove off the ramp. Then they went straight down. He does not know how the crews got out. They went into Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy] to resupply the ship. They then started training those troops there for the invasion of Southern France; the second part of Operation Overlord [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, France, 15 August to 14 September 1944].

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was assigned to the Tank Landing Ship, USS LST-502 for the invasion of Europe.] Because of their experience, LST-502 led the invasion of Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, France, 15 August to 14 September 1944] at Saint-Raphaël. They had a Scouts and Raiders boat [Annotator's Note: Amphibious Scouts and Raiders joint maritime commando units] with twin-mount .50s [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on it. The Germans had a machine gun on the top of a building that prevented entry to the harbor. One of the small boat coxswains [Annotator's Note: person in charge of a boat], Gomez [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity], was let out of the brig [Annotator's Note: military prison aboard a Naval vessel or base; slang for jail] just before the invasion. He manned the Scout boat. Schafer watched through binoculars. Gomez fired at the two Germans with the gun, hitting one. The other started running. Gomez hit him in the midsection and the top part of the German's body fell off. For just a moment, the bottom part was still running. It was an eerie sight. The invasion forces then went in unimpeded. Gomez was put back in the brig. He lived a life of royalty in the brig because he was popular aboard ship. He was getting regular meals. The skipper [Annotator's Note: ship captain or commander] only knew about it much later on. Schafer does not know why he was in the brig but he knows it was not his first time. The crew loved him. They had to take their tanks into another area. The maps were not the best in the world. LST-502 hit a sandbar and could not go to the beach. USS LST-282 went in their place. There was a German plane above. They were ordered to fire at it. They thought they hit it. A rocket came down, hit the pennant on their ship, and went into LST-282 and it exploded [Annotator's Note: 15 August 1944]. Guns and ammunition were going off like fireworks. Schafer was ducking while being given orders he had to pass on. Casualties started coming aboard. After the war, Schafer belonged to an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] association of North and South Carolina. They printed a news article. One of the men wrote of his experiences aboard the 282. Schafer wrote to him. He was one of the men they took back. They unloaded their tanks and could not get off the sandbar. They finally got off and made a number of supply trips into the beach after that, from Oran, Africa to the beach. They carried French Moroccan troops and a French contingent of nurses. All of the officers had to give up their quarters to house the nurses. They went to general quarters one night and there were men with nurses in the gun turrets. The French Moroccan troops were carried during Ramadan [Annotator's Note: month of fasting for Muslims]. They did not eat during the day. They carried their own live chickens and cooked them at night. There were a lot of problems carrying them, but they made it.

Leon Schafer and the crew [Annotator's Note: of the USS LST-502] got orders home in November 1944. They could not wait to get home. They left about 1 December. They had to return equipment from Corsica [Annotator's Note: Corsica, France] and Sardinia [Annotator's Note: Sardinia, Italy]. The boys went ashore in Corsica and had confrontation with the local authorities after getting drunk and tearing up the place. They were accused of shooting someone in a bar. City officials came to see the captain. They could not point out who did it. The skipper [Annotator's Note: ship captain or commander] said he would take care of it. As soon as they left, they pulled up anchor and got out of there. They convoyed and went to Norfolk, Virginia. There was a terrible storm there for three days. They got ashore and had orders to go to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. They got fresh oranges and milk. Schafer called his wife. On the way, the ship was sent to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston Naval Shipyard; formerly Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston Navy Yard, now a National Park, Boston, Massachusetts] to dry dock. They had been the first American ship to go into Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles Fos Port, or Great Seaport of Marseilles, in Marseilles, France]. They had gotten holes in their ship there. It was snowing when they came into Boston Harbor. He had not seen his wife in a year. He jumped off the ship and went to the hotel where she was. The next day, the skipper gave him hell for leaving the ship first. They moved the ship into dry dock. Half of the crew was given 30 days' leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Schafer got to do that. He reported back to his ship January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. The half of the crew went on 30 days leave. There was nothing to do because the ship was being refitted with new gear, like IFF [Annotator's Note: Identification, friend or foe] gear to identify planes without having to see them. They then went to Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] to load ammunition [Annotator's Note: in February 1945].

While in Boston, [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] Leon Schafer was ordered to have his seasickness evaluated. They went to the Panama Canal Zone and proceeded to Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands] by themselves. They were at sea for 30 days. On Schafer's watch, the doctors had an emergency appendectomy [Annotator's Note: perform a surgical removal of an appendix]. Schafer had to keep the ship from rocking for three and a half hours. The doctor was training the corpsmen. Nobody could eat or smoke during that time. They got back underway and he received a message that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died on 12 April [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. He got his orders from Boston while at Eniwetok. He left the ship and flew back to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] for further evaluation. At Pearl, he had to report to CINPAC [Annotator's Note: Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet; US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr.] and was told to go to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] in the Port Director's office. He was put on the night shift. He had nothing to do because no ships were moving at night. The humidity was so bad, the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] would make them a footlocker with a light in it to keep their shoes from mildewing. They would charge a bottle of whiskey for that. Schafer stayed until August [Annotator's Note: August 1945] when he was to report to CINPAC. He visited a friend and ran into Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] and Halsey [Annotator's Note: Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey]. He stepped all over Halsey's shoes. They were laughing, but he was scared to death. He got his orders back to Pearl Harbor for reassignment. He knew something was wrong because he was going back in Nimitz's private plane. There were six of them and Henry Fonda [Annotator's Note: US Navy Quartermaster 3rd Class Henry Jaynes Fonda; American actor], who was going to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.]. All seven of them went into the officer's club and started drinking. Henry Fonda was so drunk they had to carry him onto the plane. The flight to Pearl Harbor from Guam is 20 hours on a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo aircraft] with two stops at Eniwetok and Wake Island. Eniwetok is nothing but an island with a landing strip and Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. They got food and got back on. They got to Pearl in the evening and flares were going off. The pilot radioed to see what was happening and was told the Japanese had surrendered because a bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] had been dropped. Schafer threw his cigarettes in the air to celebrate and he has not smoked since. He stayed in Pearl in a WAC [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] officers' quarters in a house with three WACs. The WACs were gone all day. Schafer had a jeep to use.

Leon Schafer reported to CINPAC [Annotator's Note: Commander-in-Chief Pacific; US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr.] and got orders to be attached to the 5th Marine Division for the landing in Japan with the seventh wave. Casualties were anticipated to be between 60 and 70 percent. There were to be two Task Forces, one under the command of Admiral Spruance [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance] and one under Admiral Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey]. Everything was changed and the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] was created. Navy personnel coming from the United States were sent right back. Points were awarded for service, months at sea, and campaigns. Schafer had 47 points. You could go home at 41, but they said he was essential. He was a Lieutenant (j.g.) [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant (junior grade) or O-2] and did not know how he was essential to anything. His orders were to go to Japan to the Port Director's office in Shimonoseki, on the far western side of Japan between Honshu and Kyushu. It had been mined so heavily that the harbor could not be used for ten years. His orders were then changed to Kagoshima [Annotator's Note: Kagoshima, Japan] as the Assistant Port Director in charge of communications. He went to the USS Missouri (BB-63) and got his orders. He took a PBM Mariner [Annotator's Note: Martin PBM Mariner flying boat] to Kagoshima. On the way down, they flew over Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] and Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan] at 2,000 feet. They did not know about radiation. They wanted to see the devastation. Hiroshima looked like North Carolina red mud. You could see where the streets had been. Over Nagasaki there were different things on the ground. At Hiroshima, there was nothing; walls had disintegrated. They landed in the harbor at Kagoshima. He thought they were sinking when they hit the water. The pilot was laughing. Schafer got out with his wet gear. Two Army officers met him. The three of them were the only Americans in that town of one million people that they had just been fighting. The B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] would drop any leftover bombs from other missions on Kagoshima, the last stop before the sea. In the business district, only a high school and city hall remained. They lived in what had been the mayor's house with interpreters, housekeepers, and other staff. He slept on the floor with his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. He lived there eight days and then a Marine Corps battalion came in.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer was on occupation duty in Kagoshima, Japan after the war ended.] The invasion [Annotator's Note: Operation Downfall, the proposed invasion of Japan] was to take place seven miles into Kagoshima. Aerial photography showed the area to be solid ground, but it was salt grass and mud. No wonder the anticipated casualty percentage was so high. You would not be able to get heavy equipment in there. There was a cave that had a monster of a rail gun. It could come out of the cave, fire, and go back. They had 110 kamikaze torpedo boats with 500 pounds of TNT [Annotator's Note: flammable toxic compound; high explosive] in the bow and Chrysler [Annotator's Note: Chrysler Corporation] marine engines. One of the jobs given to Schafer was to see those boats destroyed. They took them out to sea and chopped holes in them to sink them. They kept one for the Army. There was electronic equipment in the cave and the Marines took it. Schafer did repatriation work. They had no communications capacity until an LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] came in. The Army had food. They had ketchup and the Japanese made soup with it. They had C-rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food]. Nobody could take a bath until the three Americans did. They had a tub on one floor with a fire on the floor below to heat the water. The housekeeper would rinse them off. It was quite an experience. They set up a radio station eventually. Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese were coming into the harbor. Their guns and equipment would be taken and then they would be sent to their countries. They all looked alike, so he could not tell the difference. Interpreters did the screening. They had a warehouse full of guns and ammunition. Admiral Spruance [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance] made an inspection tour on 8 December [Annotator's Note: 8 December 1945]. He asked Schafer how long he had been on that tour of duty. On 10 December, Schafer got orders to go home for his discharge. He had to get someone to relieve him of his secret codes and sign for him to leave. One of the Japanese interpreters brought him a ceremonial sword to take home.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Schafer received his discharge orders on 10 December 1945 while on occupation duty in Kagoshima, Japan.] A Marine Corps officer was also being discharged. They got a private train car they had to themselves. People were hanging out the windows on the rest of the train. Their car had the only toilet. Passengers kept asking permission to go to the toilet. Eventually they roped off half the car for them to do so. They ended up in Yokosuka [Annotator's Note: Yokosuka, Japan] and Schafer reported to the USS Missouri (BB-63). He sat in a small boat in the water while the orders were signed. He did not want to fly home. He had been in a plane six times across the Pacific. He got on a United Fruit Lines ship. It was an old ship that had a soda fountain, ice cream, fresh fruit. He had a regular passenger's cabin. He got to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] the day after Christmas [Annotator's Note: 26 December 1945]. The ship was to remain there to load with butter to return to the United States. Schafer knew someone in the Port Director's office who put him on the USS Saratoga (CV-3) that night. They were so far below deck that they could hear fish hit the ship. They had between seven and eight thousand passengers and four thousand crew aboard. They ate by rank, two meals per day. They went into San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] on 3 January [Annotator's Note: 3 January 1946]. He reported in and got his orders and transportation ticket to go to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] and then to Camp Sheldon, Virginia for discharge. He called his wife. He went with five other officers to a hotel and got drunk. He was in San Francisco for 50 hours and he was drunk for 48 of them from relief. He took a train to Oakland [Annotator's Note: Oakland, California] and then through the Royal Gorge [Annotator's Note: Royal Gorge Canyon, Colorado] on the way to Chicago. It was ten below zero and they were wrapped in blankets. They had brought whiskey aboard. The trip took three days. He missed his connection, so he got on another train and sat on his duffel bag without a ticket. He did not have much money but got a ticket to Raleigh [Annotator's Note: Raleigh, North Carolina]. He walked from Richmond, Virginia to Raleigh on the train because he was so fidgety. He was met by his wife and parents and went to his parent's house. He drove his father's car to Camp Sheldon. The ensign told him he was overdue and was told there was not enough time to discharge him. Schafer told him to get started. His last task was a conference where they tried to talk him into remaining in the service. He got his back pay, got in the car, and did not stop for anything until he got home. In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Schafer wrote to volunteer his services. James Forrestal [Annotator's Note: James Vincent Forrestal; Secretary of the Navy; first United States Secretary of Defense] turned him down. His wife nearly killed him when she found out. They had two children then.

Leon Schafer is certain the war affected his life afterwards. Number one, he never left his wife. When he got home, he said the furthest he would ever go again was the distance he could throw an anchor. He adhered to that until the day she died; 63 and a half years of marriage. It left a lasting impression and was an experience he would not trade for anything, but he would not go through it again if "all Hell broke loose". He also has an appreciation of what he went through. He saw people die. The experiences were wonderful. The fact that he made it through is an even greater wonder. Of the 12 ships that left the United States [Annotator's Note of his LST flotilla], only five came home. The only thing they did not bring home was the jeep they commandeered during Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Someone left a jeep in front of their LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank], some men grabbed it, took it apart, and hid it on the ship. They later put it back together and painted false Navy numbers on it. They kept it on the ship from then on. On their way home from Europe, they got orders about contraband and the skipper [Annotator's Note: ship captain or commander] was afraid of it being found out. It is somewhere out in the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean]. There is absolutely no question in his mind that the United States should have been in World War 2, especially as he is a Jewish person. He felt it necessary. He has been back to Europe on three occasions. It was a very emotional experience. [Annotator's Note: Schafer gets emotional.] The last time he went, he went with a French friend whose father was the mayor of Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. The friend was just a youngster when his father had to leave. When Paris was liberated and the Americans marched down the Champs des Elysees [Annotator's Note: Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France], he was with his father. He had never been to Normandy, so Schafer and his wife took him there. At the beach, there was a plaque showing where the different beaches were [Annotator's Note: Schafer gets emotional.] There were some Americans there and Schafer heard a woman asked where Omaha Beach was. Schafer's wife told her to ask him. He pointed it out and said you are looking at it. They were astonished that somebody who participated was there.

Leon Schafer has been to Europe a number of times since 68 [Annotator's Note: 1968] when all of his family went. His oldest son spent his junior year at the University of Göttingen in Germany [Annotator's Note: Göttingen, Germany]. They went to different places. He and his wife went back several times. They went to two concentration camps. One outside of Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany; likely the Dachau concentration camp] and to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oświe̜cim (Oswiecim), Poland]. Some of his family were cremated in the ovens in Auschwitz. [Annotator's Note: Schafer gets emotional.] He did not realize until a few years ago. Was the war necessary? There is no question. It took the United States out of the depths of the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression]. We have grown ever since. It served as the greatest impetus that this country has ever given its youth with the G.I. Bill of Rights. It sent people to college. It created the Greatest Generation. From that one act, economically has paid for itself, like the CCC camps [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps], 100 times over. Schafer has not been to the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He thinks it is important, just like the memorial in Washington [Annotator's Note: World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C.] is important. The American people too quickly forget the contribution these people made. He never participated in the G.I. Bill in any way. It may have been a mistake, but he thinks it is important that the World War 2 memorials all have a very prominent place, lest we forget what was done. There is no substitute for the archives they are creating for the public. He has a great-granddaughter just two months old. She would have no way of knowing as he will not be alive when she would be old enough to comprehend it. He has his uniforms still. He was married in one. The only thing he regrets not having is his visor cap. His oldest son wore his khaki blouse out. He has his medals, a copy of the ship's log. Not every day is in detail. There are some. He likes to see his entries in his handwriting. He has the maps he was given and things from Japan. It is important that historians down the years to come will have a source of information. He is a charter member of the organization [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum] as well as the memorial in Washington. The only thing he objects to is being constantly sought after to contribute again and again. It is time for them to be honored by other people's contributions. We cannot forget. There are too many people lying in the cemetery in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. These are the people who should be honored. The fact that people like Schafer took them to the beaches is not important. The fact that they gave their lives is important. There is no way we should allow it to be forgotten.