Raymond Mabarac was born in January 1922 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He was the second of four sons. His father owned his own business and his mother was a full-time mother. He spent his childhood in Detroit, where he attended Catholic school, and graduated in 1940. Mabarac recalls that the Great Depression was "a tough time." His father's business suffered and the family lost their house, but they made it through, and on the whole Mabarac said he had an "extremely happy" childhood. On 7 December 1941, Mabarac was "just shy of being 20" and was leaving a movie theater when he heard the news of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He remembers Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] saying it was "a day that will live in infamy," and that "the Japanese will pay the price," and declaring war the next day. At the time, Mabarac was working for Briggs Aircraft building airplane wings for B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. He "was fairly good at mechanical things," and became a "jig leader," working with 24 Rosie the Riveters [Annotator's Note: nickname used to identify any female working in a physical role in the defense industry during World War 2], building two wing panels a night. By the fall of 1942, Mabarac had been working for Briggs for well over a year when he decided that he would like to fly. Mabarac enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on 2 November 1942, and was sworn on the ice at the Olympia Stadium, an event that was covered in the newspapers. On 25 January 1943 he got orders to report for basic training in Miami Beach, Florida.

During basic training in Miami Beach [Annotator's Note: Miami Beach, Florida], Raymond Mabarac lived in a hotel for a month, and said it was "pretty nice duty." From there he went to Toledo [Annotator's Note: Toledo, Ohio], for the beginning of his Air Corps training as an aviation cadet, taking classes and completing ten hours of flying. After soloing, he went to Nashville, Tennessee where he was tested, but because there were enough pilots at the time, he couldn't get the position he wanted. He was sent to Fort Jefferson in Missouri [Annotator's Note: Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Lemay, Missouri] where he stayed for a month before getting orders to engineering school in Iowa. From there he went to Kansas State College in Manhattan, Kansas, and was there from September [Annotator's Note: September 1943] until March [Annotator's Note: March 1944]. In March, preparations for the invasion in Europe resulted in his being taken into the infantry at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Mabarac remembers sitting on his bunk and wondering how it had happened that he joined the service to fly, but ended up "a grunt in the infantry with a bunch of draftees." But, Mabarac says, he did what he was told, what he had to do, and ended up in the 97th Division, 333rd Infantry, 2nd Battalion, H Company [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division], a heavy weapons company working with heavy machine guns and mortars in support of rifle companies on the attack. He trained from March until mid-July and remembers his company commander insisting each man learn every weapon. While the rest of the 97th Division went to Europe as replacements, Mabarac's cadre was sent on to San Louis Obispo [Annotator's Note: San Louis Obispo, California] to train for action in the Pacific. Next he went to Camp Callan, California for amphibious training. But in December 1944, the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] caused the Army to amend its plans, and Mabarac's unit was sent to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey for deployment to Europe.

Raymond Mabarac enlisted because he thought he could do more for the country by being in the military. Moreover, all his buddies were going into the service, and he was not satisfied staying safely at home working in an aircraft plant. He felt enlisting was "the right thing to do." Mabarac called Detroit "the Arsenal of Democracy," and describes how the various industries in the area were involved in the defense industry. He notes that the civilian population became as involved in the war effort as the military, saving odds and ends and enduring rationing. He recalls his mother saying she hoped they would never have a gold star in their window, because that would indicate that there was a war death in the household. Mabarac describes how the lady riveters were taught to build airplane wings, and commended their work. He also mentions that the Ford Motor Company hired a force of "small people," like the ones who acted in the movie "The Wizard of Oz," to get into the tight places of the aircraft under construction. Mabarac says everyone cooperated in the war effort, and there was no gender or race discrimination that he could recall.

When Raymond Mabarac went from California to Europe, it was a "surprise move." The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was raging, and the United States "was getting hammered, and lost a lot of people." Their destination was kept a secret, Mabarac said, because there was a lot of spying going on at the time. But when his unit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division] was issued wool uniforms and overcoats they knew they were not going to the Pacific. They got on the USS Monticello (AP-61) in January [Annotator's Note: January 1945] and traveled to Europe in a large convoy. As they approached Europe, Mabarac recalls being more "scared" than at any other time in his life. It was late at night and the soldiers were in their bunks, stacked four-high with only a red light glowing. All the alarm bells started sounding, and the ship's sailors closed all the hatches just before Mabarac heard the depth charges going off. He recalls saying his prayers and thinking it would be horrible "to get wiped out without a chance to get off the ship." Mabarac said anybody who said he wasn't scared was lying. He was fortunate in that he never got seasick in all his maritime travels between the United States, Europe and the Pacific. He says he always chose to sleep on the top bunk because if someone got seasick it "wasn't very pleasant" to be on a lower level. His ship to Europe landed in Le Havre, France and traveled by truck Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] outside of the city, where they lived in tents. He slept on a cot in a tent that was heated by a pot-bellied stove. It was cold at night, and the latrine was outdoors. They did some additional training there before going off to combat about a month and a half later. During that time, he was among about a hundred men from his battalion who operated Red Ball Express [Annotator's Note: one of several American military truck convoy systems that transported supplies from the coast of France to Allied forces advancing across Europe] trucks delivering supplies to the front lines from Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France]. When the division was called to duty, they left France and entered Germany at the boarder town of Aachen [Annotator's Note: Aachen, Germany], and went on to the Ruhr Valley.

After arriving in the Ruhr Valley, they [Annotator's Note: Raymond Mabarac and his fellow soldiers in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division] traveled up the Sieg River and the first towns they took were Siegburg and the steel town of Solingen [Annotator's Note: both in Germany]. On 16 April 1945 they were in Czechoslovakia where they joined Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] 3rd Army and drove "day and night" through Bavaria, chasing the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] troops. By 8 May, the day the war ended in Europe, they were back in Czechoslovakia and Mabarac recalled taking a panzer [Annotator's Note: panzer is the German term for armored and typically refers to tanks] battalion that wanted to surrender a few miles from Pilsen [Annotator's Note: Plzeň, Czechoslovakia; now Plzeň, Czech Republic] on the Elbe River. But the war with Japan was still going on, and Mabarac's division was slated to take part in the invasion of Japan. They made camp on a big field near Bamberg, Germany, living in pup tents and awaiting return to the United States. On 12 June 1945 they went back to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France], boarded the troop ship USAT Brazil. On the ship he once again slept in bunks stacked four high, and usually had two meals a day. Sometimes he stood in line for an hour to get food, and the mess was likely to run out before he reached the serving area. They were among the first troops back, passing the Statue of Liberty as they sailed into New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York], and there was "a lot of fanfare." He went to Camp Shanks, California, then had a ten day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He reported back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and from there shipped out to Fort Lewis, Washington where he prepared to go to Japan. On his way to Japan, the atomic bombs were dropped, so instead of going to Okinawa to jump off for the invasion, the division diverted to the Philippines for two weeks until after the Japanese surrender was signed. Mabarac had sailed from Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington] on the Navy troop ship General Hersey [Annotator's Note: USS General M. L. Hersey (AP-148)] to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], and was camped at a big naval base at Tacloban [Annotator's Note: Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines]. He believes that when they arrived in Japan, they were the first Americans the Japanese civilians had ever seen. They had had enough of the war, Mabarac says; they had lived with rationing and supply shortages, and the Japanese population, on the whole, was happy the war was over. He says they were told they could not take or "liberate" anything from the Japanese, and had to treat them with respect. Mabarac found them very polite, and says that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the threat of another atomic bomb every night made them realize it was the proper thing to do.

Raymond Mabarac first landed at Kumaki Air Force Base in Japan, where he lived in a hangar, and then in tents where he weathered a typhoon. His division [Annotator's Note: Mabarac was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division] was the only occupying force over a 25,000 square mile area. Mabarac was sent up to Nagano, Japan to act as the military police. Then he went to Nagato, on the Japanese Sea, to support F Company [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division], and while he was stationed there, the paper and wood building in which he was living in burned, and he lost all his equipment. In February 1946, Mabarac got orders to return to the United States. He sailed from Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan] on the Admiral Weigel [Annotator's Note: USS General William Weigel (AP-119)] to Long Beach, California. From there he went to Fort Sheridan, Illinois where he was discharged as a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] on 16 February 1946, and finally went home. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Mabarac to review his duties while he served in the 97th Infantry Division.] Mabarac's job was diversified and he was happy about it. He says throughout his life he has tried to be a "Boy Scout," to do what needed to be done, and to do it well.

Recalling 28 March 1945 when he went into Germany, Raymond Mabarac says he was on "recon" [Annotator's Note: reconnaissance] on his first day in combat, assigned to work with the executive officer [Annotator's Note: second in command] of the company [Annotator's Note: Mabarac was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division]. When they were attacking the city of Sieburg [Annotator's Note: Sieburg, Germany], his heavy weapons company was supporting the three rifle companies on the front line. He describes the techniques used when they went into combat. He relates the story of how his progress was delayed at one point, just long enough to avoid a bridge explosion. Mabarac says that luckily, he was never personally on the front line. But he says that at one time, when he and his executive officer were at a crossroads looking at maps, a sniper shot and killed his companion. Mabarac had to help pack up the man's things. It made him realize that he was not "invincible." But he never "gave much thought" to whether or not he would make it home. About a week after entering Germany, the division crossed the Rhine River, but the force was moving so fast, it didn't really have much of an impact on Mabarac. While he was in Germany, he made friends with a family in Dusseldorf, and in Japan, he recalls having quite a bit of interaction with the indigenous population. While he was in Japan, Mabarac had a photography business going on, taking shots of the troops, and made a little money that way. It paid for dinner in a hotel on Sunday nights, when the Army usually fed its men cold cuts, and he remembers meeting Geisha girls who played and sang music and served tables. He said in both areas of the world, he never took the role of a "conqueror"; he always tried to take "the role of a human being."

Raymond Mabarac drove over to look at the concentration camps at Flossenburg [Annotator's Note: Flossenburg, Germany] that were liberated by elements of his 97th Division [Annotator's Note: Mabarac was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division]. He said it was "quite a sight," but he didn't go in. He noted that it was the camp where the prisoners who had attempted the assassination of Hitler were held and killed. He said the sights and smells were "memorable." He had read about the camps, but said it made "quite an impact" to actually see one. He recalls that during the last weeks of the war in Europe, the troops were moving quickly and the Germans were retreating and the civilians were evacuating as town after town was taken. He describes the time when they "captured" a German battalion. They encountered an enemy motorcyclist coming up the road who told them that in the nearby town there were German soldiers who wanted to surrender. Mabarac's unit radioed headquarters about the situation, then Mabarac drove into the town with the motorcyclist on the hood of his jeep, straddling the wire cutting bar that was welded to the front bumper. The German officers and troops were all lined up waiting for the Americans to come in and take them prisoner. The German soldiers, in Mabarac's opinion, were on a par with the American soldiers, and they were as loyal to their country as the Americans were to theirs. Mabarac admired their tenacity and their intelligence, and he gave several illustrations of their "superb" equipment. He also describes how industrious the Germans were in clearing the detritus of battle, and their determination in rebuilding. Mabarac calls the Germans "a good enemy."

When the war in Europe ended and the men of Raymond Mabarac's division [Annotator's Note: Mabarac was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division] were told that they would be continuing their service in the Pacific, they "just did it." They had trained for amphibious action before they went to Europe, and Mabarac says he felt it was their "fate." When the war finally ended, and he was to be part of the occupation, he was there to finish the job. After he left the Army, Mabarac went right back to work at Briggs Aircraft, and after 13 weeks he bought a business. He had no trouble transitioning back into civilian life. Although he did not join the reserves, Mabarac became a member of the National Guard in April 1947 and remained in that service for 35 years. He worked in the motor pool as a mechanic when he began, and progressed through the ranks. He retired in 1982, but is still active with the Michigan National Guard as a volunteer. He is proud of his service.

Among his many memorable experiences in the military, Raymond Mabarac counts his induction into the Air Corps at the start of World War 2, and being awarded a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] in 1947 for his action in Europe. He has also been honored by the Republic of France with the Legion of Merit medal. He says he fought in World War 2 because he believed in it, and felt it was "the right thing to do." He feels that every veteran wrote a blank check to his government, up to and including the price of his life. He says he knew what he was doing when he did it. The war changed his life by exposing him to people from all walks of life and taught him how to get along with them. Today, he is proud of his World War 2 service, and is grateful to the many people who recognize him for it. He thinks he is a better person for his military service, and has always served to the best of his ability. Unfortunately, he says, not many people today know what the veterans of this country have done for it. He feels this country owes a lot to its veterans.