Milton Rackham was born in Riggs, Idaho in April 1925 and grew up in nearby Rigby. [Annotator’s Note: Internet connection was lost and the interviewer could not hear the interviewee.] In his teenage years, he worked as a ranch hand for a local rancher and often drove cattle and sheep on long drives when he was not in school. He was one of seven children with three brothers and three sisters. The family did not suffer greatly during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and the family mostly always had work. Rackham became aware of the militarization of Nazi Germany and Japan in the late 1930s when his father told him that, should a war break out, he would have no choice but to serve. This scared a young Rackham greatly. He was in school when the news of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] reached him. In five days, over a third of all the boys in his class had enlisted in the military. Though not quite 18 yet, Rackham tried to enlist in the Navy without his mother’s permission, but the man in the enlistment office, his former Boy Scout [Annotator’s Note: The Boy Scouts of America; youth organization in the United States] master, would not allow it. Rackham returned home seeking permission and was met with resistance from his mother. He managed to convince her by pointing out that we would be drafted eventually and would rather have some say in the branch he would serve in. Rackham wanted to join the Navy because he had a cousin who had been aboard ship in peacetime. Upon his enlistment, he was given a deferment [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] to finish high school.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] In the summer of 1942, Milton Rackham was sent to boot camp at Farragut, Idaho where he recalls many of the new recruits crying on the first night as they missed their families. However, because of the many nights spent on the cattle trail, Rackham was not bothered by being away from his family. While completing the camp obstacle course under live fire, a man behind Rackham was accidentally shot and killed. This was his first bad memory from his time in the service. As the basic training period came to an end, Rackham learned that he was being considered for service aboard a submarine because of his small stature. Not wanting to see the war from beneath the surface of the sea, he volunteered for service aboard a PT-boat [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat]. When boot camp ended, he was sent to PT-boat school where he learned to become an engine mechanic. [Annotator’s Note: Rackham talks about the boat’s specifications, including its speed and the horsepower of its three engines.]

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] After two or three weeks training along the West Coast, Milton Rackham and the crew of USS PT-81 were sent north to the Aleutian Islands [Annotator’s Note: Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. As an engineer aboard the boat, he spent most of his time below deck ensuring that the engines were working as the skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel or aviation unit] commanded. While he heard the firing of the boat’s machine guns, he thought mostly of keeping everyone safe by keeping the engines running. While off the coast of Attu [Annotator’s Note: Attu, Alaska], Rackham left the warmth of the engine room and went above deck where he lost his footing and fell into the cold waters of the North Pacific. By the time the boat circled back to get him, he was so cold he could not grab hold of the life rope and had to be rescued by a member of the crew. This was not the last time he would fall from the deck of PT-81. Most of the time spent in the Aleutians was not in combat, but serving to carry dead bodies to ships so they could be brought back to the United States. He went ashore to pick up men who had frozen to death in the subzero temperatures. One man left his barracks, choosing not to hold onto the rope leading through the blinding snow to the mess hall and was found dead several days later 500 feet away from the mess hall door. Rackham felt more like a body carrier than an engine mechanic in the Aleutians. There was so much death. After the islands were secured in the fall of 1943, the crew of PT-81 went back to the United States to be fitted with new, larger guns.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] From there, Milton Rackham and the crew of USS PT-81 boarded a merchant ship with three other PT [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat] crews bound for the South Pacific. When there were enemy planes in the area, the crews of each boat were called to man their guns from the deck of the merchant ship. A typical patrol involved riding alongside larger ships, particularly supply ships, to protect them from Japanese aircraft. Once in Leyte Gulf [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, Gulf, the Philippines], Rackham estimates that the crew of PT-81 held off over 100 enemy aircraft, though they did badly damage 9 of 11 American supply ships. Taps was played each night on base to honor the men who had died that day. After having lost so many friends in combat, the song continues to make him emotional today. In spite of all the death he witnessed, he continued to suppress the fear he felt and kept fighting. He realized it was either “them or us.” On one patrol, his skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel or aviation unit] took the boat around a blind point just off the coast of an island and directly into a nest of Japanese warships. They were fired on before they knew what was happening, and as the skipper took a sharp turn to get out of harm’s way, Rackham and two other crew members were thrown overboard. They remained in the water for three days before they were rescued. One of the men in the water with him began to hallucinate, seeing visions of his father. The man could not be consoled and eventually disappeared beneath the waves. He and the other man were spotted by a plane who sent several PT boats out to pick them up. They had floated 105 miles from the spot they had been thrown over. Upon returning to base, Rackham enjoyed a hearty meal of beef stew, a meal he still thinks about when eating today. After having a near death experience such as this, the knowledge of what the Japanese were doing to them forced him to keep going. He could not quit on his family, and though he thought of himself, he mostly thought of keeping those he cared for safe.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] Milton Rackham and the crew of USS PT-81 were a close-knit group and relied heavily on each other for support. He was almost court martialed once. His final patrol came on 1 January 1945. He was on watch in the early morning hours when he heard approaching planes and alerted the crew. In the sky just over the horizon appeared four enemy aircraft. Three escorts and the fourth loaded with a large bomb strapped to its belly. The crew successfully downed the three escort planes, but the fourth plane, although its pilot was shot dead, continued to barrel for the loaded ammunition ship nearby. The plane crashed into the ammunition and exploded. Not wanting to leave the scene before they searched for survivors, the crew of PT-81 witnessed the ammunition explode and disappear beneath the surface in mere seconds. As shrapnel began to rain down from the sky, all 18 crew members were badly injured or killed. Rackham’s best friend with whom he planned to move around the country after the war died on the deck next to him. Two months before this, the crew was called on to complete a secret mission to rescue prisoners from a Japanese POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. Rackham’s skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel or aviation unit] had the men cover the boat’s hull number in the day without telling them why. As they left base that night, he briefed them on the mission deep into enemy territory. Marines had arrived before the PT crew and killed the Japanese captors on the island. The scene is something Rackham will never forget. The prisoners, mostly women, were barely clothed and in terrible physical condition. The sailors carried each prisoner back to the PT and took them to safety. Rackham is glad to have saved them from the camp after he learned they were all planning to commit suicide that same night.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] Following the ammunition ship explosion, Milton Rackham was hospitalized for 14 months to recuperate from his wounds. On VJ Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], he was hospitalized in the Philippines and felt a feeling of gratitude when he heard the news. He was sent back to the United States just three months before he was discharged in November 1946. He was told by doctors that his recovery would be a continuing process and would be very painful. He decided he would not let this stop him and continued to work hard to remain physically able. Though the physical wounds were painful, the mental wounds were worse [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed]. Rackham was a “basket case” upon his return home. He had plenty of hate inside of him and often heard people wondering why he was sent home in such poor condition. After 18 months at home, Rackham turned to religion to help heal the mental wounds. He still feels some of the emotional scars and continues to have nightmares. Because he was in such bad shape when he returned home, he did not initially take advantage of his G.I. bill benefits [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. He did use the G.I. bill to attend college once he had healed, however.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone off camera helping the interviewee with answering questions throughout the segment.] Milton Rackham’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he was wounded when an ammunition ship exploded. He fought in World War 2 to save America and protect his family. The war greatly affected his life and he learned how to better take care of himself. He hopes that his service keeps America from going into another world war. He fears that Americans do not care about the country’s experience in World War 2. He knows that if Germany and Japan had won the war, Americans would be spekaing German and Japanese. Rackham believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations so that they understand what Americans went through.