Philip Curran was born in May 1927 on Orrs Island, Maine. He had two brothers and one sister. His father was a mate on a steamer that ran from Portland [Annotator's Note: Portland, Maine] to Orrs Island. His mother worked at home. He would like to be back there. That was his mother's family home. She had five brothers and no sisters. They all lived there. His father met her on one of her runs. They lived in the home of his grandfather after his grandmother died. On several occasions, they would move to Portland for the winters and school. They had to leave the island because of the war. They attend different schools at different times. Very few people did that well, but they did. Before the war began, the United States Navy built a base for its ships within the perimeter of those islands. That cut off the ability for his father's company to go down through there. They moved to Peaks Island [Annotator's Note: Peaks Island, Maine] in January 1940 because of that. As the war advanced, it affected them more. The Army took over places on the islands including Orrs Island and Peaks Island. His grandfather had been retired for some time but went back to work on Peaks Island. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] affected his family in that there was a lot of upheaval on Orrs Island. Curran's father and grandfather often said that his mother had two things wrong with her. One was that she spent money, and he forgets the second. Many years later, Curran was assigned to Brunswick [Annotator's Note: Brunswick, Maine] which is where the island people go to shop. Time after time people would tell him his mother was wonderful and did not know what they would have done if his mother had not given them money. His mother did work after his father died. The company Curran's father worked for was taken over by the Navy. His father and a couple of uncles and cousins all worked for the company. They were put on the runs back and forth. Most of the war, his father was with the Army working. Several uncles came up and got jobs as well. One uncle was picked as the captain in that group with the Army.

Philip Curran and his family talked about the impending war developments all the time. His grandfather was an avid reader. It was all around them and in his house all the time. They would follow the newspapers and the activities in England. It was not a fetish with them, but they talked about it. He is not sure they talked about the United States' involvement but expects they did. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Curran where he was when heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was in school at Portland High School [Annotator's Note: in Portland, Maine], and it was Sunday afternoon. A schoolfriend of his who lived on the island [Annotator's Note: Orrs Island, Maine] had his eyes on a certain girl. The friend engaged Curran to go with him and visit her. They were in a house listening to music on the radio. The news came over the radio. It sobered them up and they were scared to death and went home. They returned to school and went to a room where it was discussed. There were seniors who went in right away. When he heard it, it absolutely brought his spirits down. They really knew it was going to start one way or another. He was only 14 and there was nothing he could do about it. This was a young man's war. The kids went to war as soon as they could. Before he could go, he belonged to the Boy Scouts [Annotator's Note: Boy Scouts of America], and they helped with certain things. He was familiar with the boats and worked on them even though he was not really old enough to. Everybody was busy doing things [Annotator's Note: for the war effort].

Choosing to go in the Navy [Annotator's Note: in 1944] was natural for Philip Curran. He grew up on the water. His brother had joined the Merchant Marines but left them and went into the Navy. They served at Sampson [Annotator's Note: Naval Training Station Sampson in Seneca Lake, New York] at the same time. The Merchant Marines never entered Curran's mind. They worried about his brother because he was on the Murmansk Run [Annotator's Note: shipping route used by the Allies to deliver supplies to the Russian front]. Curran and one of his friends enlisted at the same time. Before the time to go, his friend got the measles [Annotator's Note: highly contagious respiratory disease] and could not go. Curran had never had anything like boot camp before. They worked day and night. His father was very close with him. Curran would go to work with his father often. Before Curran left, his father told him not to drink. He never did himself. He also told him to choose his friends carefully and not to do anything he would not be able to tell his mother about. Curran took that advice somewhat seriously. Curran left on his 17th birthday [Annotator's Note: in May 1944]. That is how it was during the war. There were many people who did not finish school in those days, war or no war. Curran went to Sampson, New York which was huge. He stayed there five weeks and got leave to go home. When he returned, he had already been picked to go into radio school at Sampson. His brother was there being prepared for another school, and they could visit. At first, Curran wanted to get out of radio school. In his mind, he had joined to go to sea and be part of the war. He worked hard it though. It was one of the best things the Navy ever did for him. The school was intended to be a long school. Because of the war it was shortened and when he got there it was five and a half months of hard work. When he finished that, the word was that the assignments would be in the Pacific and that is what happened. When it got to Curran, he was sent to Admiral Barbey's [Annotator's Note: US Navy Vice Admiral Daniel Edward Barbey] staff which pleased him. They were all afraid of being killed the other way. The Admiral was everywhere too though.

Philip Curran was on Admiral Barbey's [Annotator's Note: US Navy Vice Admiral Daniel Edward Barbey] staff and that was an experience. They worked hard there. Ships all over the South Pacific reported to him. Barbey was called in and Curran was put another ship to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. When he was assigned to the staff, it was difficult to find because he was all over the place. After radio school, Curran was given a choice of going immediately to a ship on the West Coast or go home for ten days if he could prove they had enough money to go west themselves. Curran looked for his brother and asked for money so he could go home. After ten days, he had to get to the West Coast on his own. He stayed in California waiting for a ship to take him to Admiral Barbey. The ship left San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] about 7 or 8 January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. He was on the Seacat [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] with other guys from his radio school. They went across the International Date Line [Annotator's Note: internationally accepted boundary between one calendar day and the next] and was put on several ships looking for Barbey. They had gone all the way across to the Philippines. They hit a storm. They finally got up to Barbey at Subic Bay [Annotator's Note: Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines] after 70 days. Curran's job as a radioman entailed talking to other ships. It was so different in those days and for the most part, they did not even know what they were sending. The messages were coded by others for them to send and receive. A lot of things had to be done in the work. They were not permitted to do any work for any other part of the ship. Their shifts changed and were never the same. Even before the war ended, they acted as if it had. By the time it did end, they were back on regular duty and off the code.

Philip Curran does not know what he thought [Annotator's Note: about the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945], but he can say that he thought it was going to blow up everyone. Curran was in the Pacific the entire time. They were down in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. They thought the war was over but found it was not. They picked up some Marines and were ready to go to Korea. Curran was on a ship when he learned the bombs were dropped. Admiral Barbey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Vice Admiral Daniel Edward Barbey] was immediately assigned to go to Korea with some Marines. It was not simple. They hit a typhoon and a ship sank. They went back and got more Marines that they took to China. They stayed there for three months. People were being sent home who had earned it and Curran and not earned it. The Admiral was now to follow the Russians and the Japanese as there was a lot of jockeying of who was now going to take over the world. Curran was still a radioman except he did not have to use code. In those days, a radioman could only be a radioman. They had no liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Korea. They were about a mile offshore. The Admiral took the Japanese surrender there. He had very little time to himself in China. They were all over China and more Japanese surrendered to them. The Admiral was following the Russians and the Chinese. They went to several places in the Yellow Sea [Annotator's Note: sea located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula]. Sometimes they could go ashore but not usually. Curran went up through China for a couple of days. They were working hard. China did not look war torn but when they met them [Annotator's Note: the Chinese] ashore, they were not well-received because they did not know who was going to hurt them next. They were not ready to hug.

Philip Curran was in the Yellow Sea [Annotator's Note: sea located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula] for three months. They went down to Shanghai [Annotator's Note: Shanghai, China] on Thanksgiving [Annotator's Note: 22 November 1945] for three or four days. They met a different kind of Chinese there who were more knowledgeable and likable. More Westernized would be a good way to put it. They left there to go home. It took a long time to go home. Coming home cannot be described. He got 30 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Curran got out in May [Annotator's Note: May 1946]. After he got in his own home, he wanted bacon and eggs. He went into the Reserves, but he does not know why. He did return to high school the next Fall. He graduated with that class. It was easy to adjust to civilian life and he was happy to be home. He used the G.I. Bill [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] to go to college. He probably would not have been able to go to college without it. He majored in business.

Philip Curran volunteered for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He has often asked himself why. He was kind of footloose. He worked hard. When he went in, the Navy took him and put him where they wanted him. The Navy in those days, had four commands in Washington. He was billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily] just outside of Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.]. There is a radio station there that talked with people all over the world. He had a two-year billet. It was a key place for land duty. He got rankled about it but did his work. He told his Chief who told him to go to the main Navy and tell them what he wanted to do. They were building a ship in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] and were tickled that he wanted to go. He was sent to Boston after a year. The ship was the Salem [Annotator's Note: the USS Salem (CA-149) and was already in the water but had not been turned over to the Navy. When the Navy got her, they went down to Guantanamo [Annotator's Note: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 3 January 1951] and Bermuda [Annotator's Note: in March 1951]. He liked that. Before that, when he got there, he lived a short while in Boston while working on the ship. They had a big celebration when they got the ship. He took a girl to the ship, and she was beautiful. It was an all-weather ship. They went everywhere including Spain. They were on the move all the time for about six months. Their home base was in France, and they returned there every Saturday night.

There was a lot more going on in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] for Philip Curran, and it was more natural and American [Annotator's Note: than World War 2]. They just did ordinary things. When they knew the war [Annotator's Note: World War 2] was over, they were happy as they could be. When they went to the Mediterranean [Annotator's Note: 17 April 1951], everything was happy there. He was there about six months. When he got home, he was assigned to a different ship. As soon as the old ship docked, he went to the new one. He stayed on it about three months. He hurt his backbone and had to go to the hospital. It was bad. He was there for five months. By then, he was assigned to another ship that was being put together. He stayed on her almost a year and then went home and went to work for a bank in 1952. He worked for the bank 32 years. After he retired, he was in the legislature and other things. He would go back to the bank three days a month. That lasted about four years.

Philip Curran's most memorable experience of World War 2 was when they hit a typhoon outside of the Yellow Sea [Annotator's Note: sea located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula]. They lost so many ships. As a radioman, he was put way up on the top of the ship and he thought he was never going to get out. He was scared to death. Curran served because it was the thing to do. Some people did not leave school and go but that is what he did. It was time for him to go and he went. His father let him and that would not happen today. The war took him out of one life completely and put him in a different kind of acting. He and his wife have already put their gravestones out and have people working on their funerals. Most importantly, the United States of America will put his name on the gravestone. He thinks the war is important to America today. If was not for the United States, the European war would have gone entirely differently. The world would not be like it is today at all. Curran thinks the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important and should continue to teach the war.