Olin Tisdale was born in April 1925 in Bluff Springs, Florida. Although his father had a farm and ran a grocery store and several other businesses, the family had a difficult time during the depression and Tisdale sometimes had to fish for food. Tisdale walked two and a half miles each way to a small crossroads schoolhouse, and worked on the farm when he was not in school. The family had scant information on the developing war because they had no access to radio, television or movies. Tisdale vividly remembers Franklin D. Roosevelt's announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. By that time he was older and had a little radio, and Tisdale heard Roosevelt say, "So help us God." [Annotator's Note: Tisdale cries.] He would like to see that quote on the Washington, D.C. monument. Tisdale was excited when war was declared, because he would soon be old enough to join the military. He had been building model airplanes since the age of ten, and early in the war he was building solid scale models for the Navy. But it was June 1943 before he got to fly.

After high school, Olin Tisdale left home for Birmingham, Alabama, and was working in a boring job when he decided to visit the Navy recruiting station in December 1942. There, they described many positions that he was interested in, but told him nothing about how hard it would be to get something he wanted. Tisdale went to San Diego for boot camp, and was arbitrarily assigned to the hospital corps. Advancing to the corps school at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, California, he progressed to Naval Air Station Alameda for aviation medicine training. There, Tisdale was performing physicals for flight candidates, and assisting the surgeons. He was sent to college for a year, but couldn't master calculus, thus determining that he would go to sea. While waiting for an attack transport ship to be commissioned in January 1945, he undertook a crash course in surgical techniques.

Olin Tisdale's newly launched ship was meant to take a Seabee unit to Iwo Jima to refurbish landing strips. However, some 22,000 Japanese had decided not to give up the island, and when the Seabees arrived, they had no arms, no ammunition, nothing but tools to fix the runways, and couldn't land. The ship went on to Saipan, unloaded the Seabees, took on casualties from Iwo Jima there, and cared for them all the way back to Pearl Harbor. Tisdale wasn't bothered by the work; he understood the nature of war, and had seen everything from traumatic limb amputations to complete fatal body disintegration. While going back to the United States, the infirmary was contained by the limits of the ship and a daily routine of work. During his few free hours in the afternoon, he acted as the ship's barber, and was so good at haircutting he amassed enough money to buy his future wife's engagement ring. He would cajole the Marines, and try to make jokes about Iwo Jima, but said it was tricky, because they really didn't want to talk about their experiences. Battle fatigue and shell shock showed up later. By the time they made landfall, everyone on the surgical team was exhausted. Tisdale headed to the hospital for two months' rest, during which time his records were checked, and he was made available as an aviation medical technician to the Hornet [Annotator's Note: USS Hornet (CV-12)], which was coming back from Okinawa to get its bow repaired. Tisdale did painting and repair work in the sick bay, as well as repairs to battle stations. He took leave to go home, and when back in port, he would go into town after work. When war ended, he was in town celebrating. [Annotator's Note: Tisdale chuckles at the memory.]

Olin Tisdale went back to the Pacific to help train a new fighter squadron on F8Fs [Annotator's Note: Grumann F8F Bearcat fighter aircraft]. Before long, though, they were called back to Pearl Harbor, and their ship [Annotator's Note: USS Hornet (CV-12)] was refitted for Magic Carpet. [Annotator's Note: Operation Magic Carpet was the postwar effort to repatriate American military personnel.] Tisdale's job at this point consisted of general hospital work; not much about it stands out. His recollections have mostly gone, except for an occasional nightmare, the nature of which is confusing and unexplainable. When Tisdale's ship approached the Golden Gate Bridge there was a hold-up because there was no tug to accompany it to the dock. Regardless, the captain steamed ahead and got chewed out by the admiral, but said he'd do the same thing again if 4,000 soldiers were needlessly delayed in reaching home. Tisdale finds it ironic that non-combatants are not recognized as war heroes. He feels he handled all the trauma very well: he didn't crack up and didn't quit flying.

Olin Tisdale wasn't deterred by what he endured during World War 2. After VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], there was a wait before he went back to Birmingham, but he attended college on the G.I. Bill, completed his pharmaceutical training, and attained his commercial pilot's license. The pay he drew for being in the organized reserves helped with his expenses. In November 1954 he was called back to sea as a first class petty officer. Most of his colleagues were new to the armed services. Tisdale was in the South Pacific, working with nuclear weapons, where they were flying patrols in the Taiwan Straits. The United States was there supporting Chiang Kai-shek. Tisdale saw little difference between this posting and World War 2. Both called for high stress flights in marginal areas. He especially enjoyed the last few years of his service, teaching life support systems to student aviators and astronauts at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute.

Olin Tisdale had a brother in the Army and a cousin in the Air Force at the same time he was in the military, but the relatives never discussed their military activities; preferring to talk about hunting and fishing. Tisdale's most memorable experience during World War 2 was when the atomic bomb was dropped. [Annotator's Note: Tisdale pauses.] He is sure thousands of lives were saved, and asserts very few people realize that the air force killed more people burning Tokyo than they did by dropping the atomic bomb. Having been involved in all three wars, Tisdale feels that the United States had no choice in fighting World War 2, that the Korean War was political, and that the Vietnam War was political and politically manipulated. He laments that not much was changed by the latter two. The draft meant he had no choice in joining World War 2, but he had no objection to doing so, because he realized it was a responsibility, and he served proudly. He feels it made a man of him. He enjoyed the career he developed, and decided to stay. But he feels America has forgotten the war and its meaning, and it is important for The National WWII Museum to teach it. He said we have to try to stop history from repeating itself.