[Annotator's Note: Raymond Urban was working in Santa Ana, California when Marine Fighter Squadron 212 (VMF-212) was formed.] He was a First Sergeant to an extent. He was over the office there, keeping the squadron going. He went overseas with the unit. First was Hawaii for two or three weeks and then Midway Island. His squadron had no airplanes until they were at Midway. They then went to Espiritu Santo [Annotator's Note: Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu] for training. Most of their work was sit and wait. They went to Russell Islands, Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea]. Most of the action was in Bougainville. They had been shelled on Midway by a stray submarine. At Bougainville, he got to shoot his rifle. That was about two weeks of being bombed, shelled, and sniped at. A couple of officers were hit. One kid was killed. He had a good foxhole. One night, there were four of them in there. One of them screamed that something bit him. They cut his pants loose and there was a big, orange centipede about four inches long. He got a shot of morphine and then another. He was still screaming after that. They took him to sick bay. He came back about three or four days later. He had a hole you could fit a fist in due to the rotted flesh.

Raymond Urban was born in September 1920 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. They left there when he was young and moved around Mississippi and back to Louisiana. His father lost his job during the Great Depression. They did not know they were poor. He was in school at Louisiana Tech [Annotator's Note: Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, now Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana] when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was ready to join up. He had to finish his term. He was not doing well in college. He enlisted in January 1942 in the Marine Corps in Alexandria, Louisiana. He went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] for training which was tough. After boot camp, he joined the paratroopers. He needed to do some jumps but had to have surgery and be hospitalized. He went to the training outfit but then was put in a casual platoon with misfits. He wanted out of there and saw a bulletin for aviation mechanics. He went to Norman, Oklahoma for training. He then went to open El Toro Marine Corps base in Santa Ana, California [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro]. They only had one small trainer at the time. A major saw him and told him he wanted to go for a ride. They got to be good friends. He put that plane through everything it could do. He thinks the pilot was sobering up with the oxygen. He needed someone to help in the office and that is how Urban was there when VMF-212 [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 212 (VMF-212)] was formed with Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft].

[Annotator's Note: Raymond Urban was at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea with Marine Fighting Squadron 212 (VMF-12).] It was humid but not too bad. He did not worry about those things too much. He was there and had to do it. They went to Green Island [Annotator's Note: now Nissan Island, Papua New Guinea], which was a small place. The planes were mostly doing strafing runs on shipping. They had rough times and good times. They then went back to Hawaii for a little while. Bougainville was the major one. You hear a lot about Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands], Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], and Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], but Bougainville was the point where they could take care of bombers. They lost a few planes. He was on the runway on a jeep while planes were taking off. One plane got up about 200 feet and the wing fell off. The plane went into the jungle. Urban got to him and helped the pilot get out of the wreckage. The next day, the pilot's eyes were blood red. He had lost his pistol and wanted it. He has forgotten a lot of it. A lot of the stories he has to leave out too. Urban always seemed to be at the right place at the right time.

Raymond Urban was called back for Korea but spent his time at Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] training. He returned to the United States and went to Kinston, North Carolina as NCO [Annotator's Note: Non-commissioned officer] in Charge of airfield operations. He stayed there until January 1946. When the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], he thought it was about time. It was amazing that we were able to do that. He was glad to see the war could be ended. He did not worry about too much. He was discharged and stayed in the Reserves. He went home to Alexandria, Louisiana. He was discharged as a Master Sergeant. He did not go overseas to Korea. He was in a small weapons company and trained soldiers just out of boot camp. He then was in charge of the Motor Supply Warehouse as the war was winding down. He was married and had one child. He taught the recruits mortars, hand grenades, and bazookas. The motor pool duty was good duty with some civilians under him. He was later released to inactive duty in the Reserves. He wishes now he had stayed in and retired. He left after seven years and seven months. He does posse work with the Sheriff's Department on patrols with several retirees. He feels that during World War 2 the country changed by the loss of family. Women went to work. Family life was lost and that was the beginning of its deterioration. We tried to give our kids too much. During the Great Depression, they knew how to cope with a lot. It was necessary for the United States to be in the war. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] made a lot of mistakes, thank goodness. They were developing a plane that could reach the United States and they were working on the atomic bomb. If that had happened, we would have lost the country. It is something to think about. We were fighting all over the world.