Raymond Day Gimbut was born in 1921 in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. As a child, his mother died and then he moved to Connecticut to live with his aunt. He had seven other siblings. Gimbut remained there until he was four years old when his aunt died from cancer. He returned to Brooklyn, where he started school. Gimbut enjoyed playing football, basketball, baseball, and swimming. While in Connecticut, he swam near Long Island Sound. While walking to see a friend, someone yelled out that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Gimbut had a brother at Pearl Harbor, but he was safe. He was serving in the Army. The attack did not mean much to Gimbut. He decided to enlist in the Navy. Gimbut knew he would be drafted, so he decided to join the service branch he wanted to be in. During his physical, the doctor told him he had four bad teeth and would not be permitted to join. Gimbut went to his dentist and had the teeth pulled then returned to finish his physical. The corpsman [Annotator's Note: naval equivalent of a medic] refused to pass him because of his mouth being full of blood. But the doctor decided to pass him. Gimbut did his basic training at Newport, Rhode Island. They brought him out in boats, he had to learn how to swim and would come out in first place. He slept in a hammock and when he woke up, he had to tie it up. He was sent to machinist school at Great Lakes, Chicago [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois]. Gimbut's training there was about two months long and he graduated as a Machinist's Mate 2nd Class. He was then sent to Christmas Island in California. After a week, he was sent to a port just outside of Hollywood [Annotator's Note: Hollywood, California], where he boarded a Dutch freighter and sailed for Brisbane, Australia. It took a couple of weeks to reach Australia because the ships were moving slow and they took the southern route across the Pacific Ocean. He did not get seasick on the journey, but he did sleep on the deck because of the heat below deck. In Brisbane, Gimbut slept in a race track. The locals were happy to see the Americans. He ate steak and eggs for breakfast. After two weeks, his ship docked in Sydney [Annotator's Note: Sydney, Australia]. Gimbut took a train overnight to get to the city. After a week, Gimbut was told his ship actually went to Brisbane, so he had to travel back to that city.

Raymond Gimbut joined the crew of the Selfridge [Annotator's Note: USS Selfridge (DD-357)]. He thought it was a good sized destroyer that had eight guns and two torpedoes. When he first joined the crew, Gimbut was assigned to the fire room, but he did not get along with the chief. He had been from the old Navy and did not appreciate that Gimbut was given a good rate right out of boot camp. Gimbut did not mind his rate because he had extra money to send home. Eventually, he became friends with a sailor in the engine room, who got Gimbut transferred to the same department. His first stop was to patrol around New Caledonia [Annotator's Note: New Caledonia, France], then to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He would sail down "The Slot" [Annotator's Note: nickname for the New Georgia Sound, Solomon Islands] every night. One night, Gimbut was on the night watch and was told to operate the boat. It was a dark night and he could hardly see. The Americans could hear people talking on the island. Another night, Gimbut's ship ran into a Japanese fleet and lost its bow. They were able to sink a destroyer and from there the Americans saw a turning point. After his ship's bow was blown off, it sailed to a repair ship, then to a dry dock in New Caledonia. Plates were put onto the front of the ship and it was able to sail to California. His ship had to sit outside of Frisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] because there were chains across the Golden Gate Bridge to keep enemy ships from entering. The weather that night was rough. Gimbut was worried the ship would sink. Everyone was sick that night. When the bow was blown off, 52 men were killed, one of them was Gimbut's friend. While Gimbut was shoveling ammunition, the ship was hit by torpedoes. The food onboard was good. Gimbut liked the men on the ship and they treated him well. The Selfridge was involved in the invasion of Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands], then went out and sailed for 32 days in Japanese waters. Special equipment was put on the ship before the Battle of Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945 through 26 March 1945]. The ship was running out of fuel and food, so it met up with the battleship New Jersey [Annotator's Note: USS New Jersey (BB-62)] which gave the smaller vessel food. After Saipan, the Japanese knew they were finished. On Guam, the Japanese had their planes on land and they were all destroyed. Gimbut could hear American pilots telling how many planes they knocked out. That night, the pilots flew out farther than their gas tanks could take them and many did not return to the fleet. The next day, planes went out searching for the lost pilots but did not find any. Gimbut though they were brave guys. A destroyer was named after the five Sullivan brothers that were killed in battle [Annotator's Note: USS The Sullivans (DD-537)]. After that incident, the military did not allow family members to serve together. After serving in the Japanese waters, the fleet came together and decided to invade Iwo Jima. Gimbut was not a part of that invasion. He participated in Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands]. Soda fountains and ice cream were given to the men. After eating all the ice cream, the sailors got diarrhea. Gimbut liked to swim off of Eniwetok. He swam out to a sunken Japanese ship and managed to find a Japanese shell, but gave it away because it was too heavy to carry around.

After Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands], Raymond Gimbut sailed to California, then to the Atlantic Ocean to do convoy duty. He also sailed into the Mediterranean Sea. His ship had to go to Maine to get its orders, then would sail to Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] to pick up the convoy. While testing out sound equipment, Gimbut received orders to pick up a convoy the following day. One day while on deck, Gimbut saw a Coast Guard patrol boat and suddenly it exploded. A German u-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine] shot a torpedo at the destroyer, but the patrol boat was hit instead. Nobody survived the torpedo attack. After picking up a convoy, Gimbut was told the war was over. Suddenly, all the ships turned their lights on during the night. When he returned, the ship [Annotator's Note: USS The Sullivans (DD-537)] docked at Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] to be decommissioned. The ship was built in 1935 and named after a naval aviator. Gimbut served on the ship for four years and would have stayed in the Navy, had the ship not been decommissioned. While in port, Gimbut was told one of his cousins had suffered a stroke and was given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to visit his family. He was given a ride on a Navy plane flying to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. It took 26 hours to make the flight across the country. Gimbut's cousin passed away before he made it home, but arrived for the funeral. After his discharge, Gimbut returned home, met a girl, and got married. He wound up joining the Merchant Marine [Annotator's Note: United States merchant fleet] for three years. He was in charge of the engine room in the cargo ship he sailed in. The Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] could ride out any storm. Originally, the Liberty ships would break in half, but were later fitted with stronger hulls. In the Merchant Marines, Gimbut sailed out of Norfolk and New York. He sailed to Odessa, Russia, and in the Mediterranean. There was a prison near Odessa full of German prisoners. Gimbut watched German prisoners move rocks back and forth in freezing weather. One day, Gimbut was going to go ashore with a British officer, but a Russian soldier threatened him with a bayonet. The Russians would steal American magazines so the Russian civilians would not see how Americans lived. He would see his wife whenever he would return home. He left the Merchant Marines after a few years because he wanted to be with his family. Gimbut used the GI Bill to get his license to be in the Merchant Marine. He thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is great. He enjoyed the Museum's movie, which brought back memories of the war. When the war ended, people could not care less about it, but people today appreciate it more.