Ogden Saik was born in September 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He lived with his family in the New Orleans metropolitan area all his prewar life. Saik said he wasn't aware of any effects of the Great Depression because his father, who was a telegrapher during World War 1 and later sold and repaired music machines, always provided what was needed. Kids during that time built some of their own toys and generally occupied themselves in simple ways. Saik worked in the publicity department of Higgins Industries' City Park Plant the summer after he graduated from high school, helping to produce the newsletter and sometimes handing out the shipworkers' wages, with the anticipation of attending Tulane University in the fall. After one semester in college, and at the age of 17, he and three of his close friends enlisted in the Navy and were sent off on the long trip to San Diego, California on a troop train.

The Navy's boot camp in San Diego required that all graduates knew how to swim, and Ogden Saik mentioned that it was no problem for him because his father had taught him, "way back," in Lake Pontchartrain. After training, he was assigned to the radar school at Point Loma, California. It was the last half of the war, and radar was now widely accepted as an effective tool. At first, Saik was trained to be a radar operator and later learned how to repair the equipment. At the end of training he took a train home, and the journey took so long that his mother bought him an airline ticket on a DC-3 [Annotator's Note: Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft, civilian variant of the C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] aircraft for his return. He had never been on an airplane, so it was a very enlightening experience. Almost immediately, Saik was assigned to amphibious training in Little Creek, Virginia. His train trip there included a stop for lunch at a facility in Saint Louis where German prisoners of war were also being fed; and while crossing the Rockies, Saik realized that his train was also carrying wounded soldiers, so the train trip proved very interesting. At the Little Creek Navy base he was among "raw people" and Saik commented that training was rather clumsy. He was assigned to the Landing Ship Medium (LSM) 319 [Annotator's Note: LSM-319], then under construction in Chicago, and traveled to Pier 90 in Chicago to await its completion. When the ship was ready, it was sailed down the Chicago River whose banks were lined with people hanging out of windows to cheer the new ship along. It then proceeded down the Mississippi River with the uninstalled mast and radar antenna lying on the deck so the ship could pass under bridges. The vessel was camouflaged at Corpus Christi, Texas. Then, by way of the Gulf of Mexico and into a horrible hurricane, they got off course and landed on the Yucatan Peninsula. From there they passed through the Panama Canal, headed for New Guinea. Crossing the Equator, Saik went through "that Neptune thing," a sailor's initiation into the Neptune Society.

On landing in Hollandia New Guinea, Ogden Saik was impressed by the dominance of the American Navy. There were ships all over the place. He went ashore and noticed that the native women worked while the men sat around, mostly primping their hair. Saik became the ship's mailman, and went ashore regularly with those duties. He commented that they were using Higgins Boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] to ferry between ships and shore. His ship moved further into the war in the Philippines, and while approaching Leyte he was shaken by the radio messages about the Army's handling and removal of so many wounded. Saik arrived right after the Battle of Leyte Gulf concluded, where much of the Japanese naval fleet was destroyed or deflected. He learned that his brother was working PT boats [Annotator's Note: Patrol Torpedo boats] on nearby Samar Island, and tried to arrange a meeting, but the letter he wrote suggesting they get together didn't reach its destination until after Saik had shipped out. He traveled up the coast of Leyte to Ormac where they delivered supplies and equipment, and the Kamikazes were starting to cause havoc. Saik said they were "diving into the water all over the place," and he was standing at a porthole in the conning tower when a Japanese plane dove into the back of a nearby destroyer where the ashcans [Annotator's Note: slang term for depth charge] were stored and blew them sky high. The ship went down unbelievably fast, Saik said, but some of the crew were saved. Because the enemy was targeting the capital ships, Saik's smaller ship was not in imminent danger. But one night, while approaching Ormac, they sent the wrong code to the beach and luckily the colonel recognized that they were a friendly ship and held fire. In fact, his ship never lost a man throughout the rest of the war.

The LSM-319 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship Medium] on which Ogden Saik served made about six other beachheads all around the Southern Philippines, including Zamboanga, Mindanao, and Cebu City, and were subject to some shore bombardment, but they were mostly harassed by Japanese Betty bombers [Annotator's Note: Mitsubishi G4M medium bomber], and also Kamikaze fighter planes. On one mission where they were the command ship in the convoy, flying the SOPA [Annotator's Note: Senior Officer Present Afloat] flag, meaning the commander was aboard. The commander brought along his own cook, which was his privilege. Under the commander's cook's tutelage, LSM 319's cook progressed, and the whole ship benefitted from the endeavor. The crew also made the ship's potable water in an on-board still. But the still was often broken, and once Saik bathed in the water fountain. In August 1945, the ship was loaded for what Saik assumed would be the invasion of Japan. But then they just waited, with Army and Navy people overfilling the ship. The atomic bombs were dropped, and everyone knew the war was over. The first night after the war ended, some of the older sailors manufactured some very strong liquor that Saik said he was too young to think of trying. He remembers that he didn't even drink the Navy-issued Acme beer, and other sailors would drift over to him hoping to beg his allotment. Regardless, there was a party, and a good time was had by all. While heading back to the United States, Ogden Saik's ship dumped ammunition into the ocean. They stopped in Hawaii, and landed in San Diego on New Year's Eve. From there they proceeded to the fogged-over San Francisco Bay, where Saik's radar skills were required for safe passage. From there, the ship was taken to Astoria, Oregon where it was mothballed, later to be sold to the Royal Australian Navy. Saik took a train to the lakefront airbase in New Orleans and was discharged in early 1946.

Retracing his steps, Ogden Saik recalls that he was in high school and hanging around with the guys in the neighborhood when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was about 14 or 15 at the time, and knew he wasn't going to be required to act immediately. But he knew there was a lot of enemy activity in the waters around the United States, and as the war progressed, he did discuss the situation with his friends. Of the nine guys he knew that went into the armed forces at the same time, only three or four actually saw combat. Saik observed that at the end of the war the size of the military was unbelievable. Two of the fellows he joined with spent the whole war training other people on minesweepers. Many military personnel served as support people, never leaving the United States. Saik noted that Tulane University was a Navy ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] school, all male at the time, and he attended classes with a lot of sailors, so that was an influence on him. On his journey to the Pacific he was too preoccupied with his specialized job as a radar man to worry about what might happen, but there were a couple of times, when Saik was under fire in shark-infested waters, that he thought he might be lost at sea. And once they landed on the wrong beach on Leyte Island, in enemy territory, and had to reload and back off to avert disaster. He mentioned that his ship and its personnel were involved in the re-taking of Corregidor. The vessel towed PT Boats [Annotator's Notes: Patrol Torpedo Boats] with Marines aboard to the landing. Saik remembers that at one time the ship took on Philippine officers who were prisoners and put them to work doing KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police] duty, and Saik felt that the American air of superiority at that time was somewhat unjust.

As a radar man, Ogden Saik was trained to destroy his equipment in the presence of an officer in the event of the ship's demise. He is sure that radar helped the Allied victory. Saik was a faithful correspondent, and wrote to his family and others, and he had a subscription to the V-Mail edition of "Time Magazine" that was delivered to him aboard ship. The young fight the wars, Saik observed, and the young don't really think they are ever going to die. Though he doesn't circulate the fact, he used to duck under the radar table when his ship came under air attack. He admits that he really got scared the first time it happened. But otherwise it never occurred to him that he wouldn't be coming back. He heard stories about what the Army guys had known of the Japanese treachery, but admits that the Americans were doing their share of mischief. Saik said he never "got worked up" about the Japanese or the Germans, although he might have if he had been shot or lost a comrade. War was a job that had to get done. Saik thought that dropping the atomic bombs was significant, and prevented a lot of bloodshed. As far as Saik knew, there was no resistance after the Japanese surrender. He went ashore in Tokyo to collect a souvenir rifle, and found the locals completely submissive. Saik said he harbored no ill will, and just wanted to finish up and go home. He didn't have enough points so he took the regular way out of the Navy. Post traumatic stress was not recognized, nor did it draw any sympathizers at that time. In fact, the war had bettered life for many depression-era individuals. Saik went back to Tulane [Annotator's Note: Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana] and finished his education, and life went on.

Heading out, Ogden Saik said his ship flew the going home flag, like a long pennant, and it was a wonderful sight. He felt World War 2 was a memorable experience, and he was glad he and his brother got back whole. Saik enlisted because he felt he would be drafted, and enlisting ensured him of getting into the Navy with its orderly life. He said he followed orders, and never saw the point of being combative. The war matured him, and although it delayed his life a little, it was normal for the time. Thinking of what the war meant to him, Saik remembered going through The National WWII Museum and being approached by a young person who asked what he thought of fighting in the war; Saik replied, "I wouldn't have missed it." He thinks the air of superiority the war gave America is still prevalent, but dying out. Saik credited President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] and his advisors for their leadership, as wells as the American know-how and "can-do" attitude for the great victory. He thinks The National WWII Museum is an "excellent place," and is sure it can show young people what is possible in America.

Ogden Saik had a few other items he wanted to cover. He said he considered himself a member of the "Poor Man's Navy." USS LSM-319 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship Medium] had no movies, no commissary, no doctor [Annotator's Note: the ship did have a pharmacist's mate who could administer aspirin]; nothing that the big ships had. If they wanted anything, he and his crewmates had to go aboard larger ships or go ashore to get it. Saik also found humorous the fact that when his ship carried C-rations, the cargo did not require a guard, but when it carried cigarettes a small legion was necessary to protect them. He recalled that once they were docked next to a British ship that signaled a "port call" every day. The British Navy had a ration of one drink of the liquor per man per day. The only legitimate alcoholic drink on a U.S. Navy ship was in its medicine cabinet, which the doctor controlled. During a mail run on Guam, Saik learned that the Army guys were running stills and producing their own liquor for sale. He was amazed at the common man's native intelligence and ingenuity, as well as a survival instinct that cannot be defeated. Saik was in the Navy Reserves, but guesses he is discharged by now.