Randolph Trappey was born in December 1928 in Jeanerette, Louisiana, and grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, where his grandfather, and then his father ran a canning business. As a child he lived on the plant grounds, and he and his three siblings literally grew up in and around the factory. He went to parochial schools, his education being interrupted for a year by a heart condition that required bed rest. Trappey described his young life as being otherwise filled with adventure, and he kept odd jobs around the family business for pocket money. He took every opportunity to work around his father, and came to know the business very well.

During his high school years, Randolph Trappey excelled in his studies at the all-boy, highly disciplined private school he attended. He does not remember if the aggressions by the Germans and the Japanese were discussed in school, but does recall listening to the evening news at home on a Philco radio and his family following what was going on in Germany very closely. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he said he had been expecting something "bad" to happen. His father was called up, but was deferred because he was engaged in food production. Even though he was underage when Pearl Harbor was attacked, Trappey knew that America's entry into World War 2 meant he would have to go into the armed forces. Because he was a good student, he was approached about attending VMI [Annotator's Note: Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia] when he graduated. He had never been away from home, and when he arrived at VMI, Randolph Trappey began his four year college career in what he considered a wonderful place, with an honor system, and where discipline and respect were tantamount. Trappey said it made a difference in his life, and hated the idea of leaving when he graduated.

The war required his father's canning business to step up production, and Randolph Trappey's help was enlisted in the new program. Government officials inventoried the plant, and bought the goods on hand at a fair price. Responding to an expressed need, the Trappeys developed a method of dehydrating and canning diced sweet potatoes for shipment to the troops. Trappey worked in the factory after school each night, helping to generate the five-gallon cans of product and pack them, along with a recipe on how to rehydrate and cook the merchandise. The shipping boxes were stenciled to indicate which theater of war would get the shipment. Trappey said the family business received the "A" award for its contribution to the war effort. [Annotator's Note: the Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to companies whose production facilities achieved "Excellence in Production".] The war years marked the first time in their history that the Trappeys employed black personnel, and Trappey feels the war brought an awareness of the injustice of segregation to the American public. After the war, no one was interested in dehydrated goods, and the production fell flat, but the Trappeys are very proud of their family's contribution during the war years.

One of Randolph Trappey's uncles had German prisoners of war working on his farm, and had a good relationship with them, but Trappey said at the time none of his family was aware of what the Germans were doing to the Jews in Europe. Trappey said he was not mature enough at the time to realize what was really going on, but, he points out, at the same time there were 18 and 19 year olds fighting and giving their lives. He was exposed to newsreels, and had the opinion that of the two theaters of war, he would rather fight on the European front, because he didn't like the idea of fighting in jungles, and he recognized that the cultural aspects of the Europeans were more nearly understandable to a person of European descent. When, in 1944, the family business was awarded for its production excellence the first time, Trappey remembers making ready for the presentation. His father decided to erect a tall flagpole, and make stands for the audience. The ceremony was impressive, with the military presence consisting of enlisted boys from the area. Trappey's family felt very gratified to be recognized. They considered their work, and that of their employees, their contribution to the war effort.

While the family business was providing dehydrated sweet potatoes for the soldiers to eat, Randolph Trappey's family were themselves eating produce from the land as well as seafood and fresh poultry, and he recalls that food was readily available in his farming community. About his work in the factory, Trappey remembers working around the sweet potato dehydrator and the heat from the machinery being very intense. He said did anything for the business that his skills and strength would allow. Looking back, he feels his time in the factory was his personal contribution to the war effort. He went on to college, and finished VMI [Annotator's Note: Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia] as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. By that time, America was involved in the Korean War, and Trappey was sent to New Orleans where he was offered a position in Officer Candidate School. Trappey was already commissioned and serving in the Air Force Reserves in Lafayette, and was ready for active duty, but his father's untimely death meant that he needed to stay home and run the canning plant. Because he was the only one in the family who could manage that side of the business, he feels it was the right decision.

Randolph Trappey knows that the war gave him the opportunity to do what he wanted to. He ended up working in the family business all the rest of his life. His family's contribution was to supply a product that kept the boys alive and working hard overseas. The Trappeys were proud to help out, working directly for the men in the service. Trappey feels the war made America strong, the leader of the world. He believes it important for there to be institutions like The National WWII Museum, because there are people alive today who do not know what was happening during the years of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler], Mussolini [Annotator's Note: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini] and Hirohito [Annotator's Note: Japanese emporer Hirohito]. Today's citizens should know what people went through and how they had to fight to make America a free country. It was a time in Trappey's life that he will never forget. He says it gave him a respect for what the soldiers, men and women, have done and are doing for this country.