Rex James Bates was born in November 1923 in Seattle, Washington. His father served as a drummer in the Navy during World War 1. His parents eloped and moved to Seattle, and Bates was born a few years later. During the Depression years [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his father lost his job and the family home, so the Bates family lived with two other families in a house which is now part of the SeaTac Airport [Annotator’s Note: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport]. His father found a job selling vanilla extract and then was offered a job in Portland [Annotator’s Note: Portland, Oregon] selling salt. When he went to school in Portland, about half his class was Japanese students. After he graduated from high school in 1941, he attended college at the University of Oregon [Annotator’s Note: in Eugene, Oregon] in the engineering department. He was in college when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. His college friend told him a story about how he found two Japanese bodies floating near the beach. He flagged down a state police officer who loaded the bodies in his car, and then told his friend to not say anything. The police officer drove off and his friend never heard anymore about it.

After the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Rex James Bates enlisted in the meteorology program in the Air Force and was sent to the University of Washington [Annotator’s Note: in Seattle, Washington] to take classes for the B-program, and then to the University of Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois] for the A-program. He went through bootcamp at Fort Lewis [Annotator’s Note: Fort Lewis, Washington] for about a month. He used rudimentary instruments by today’s standards. In class, he studied clouds and storms. There was not a lot of previous study of the weather by academics at that time. [Annotator’s Note: phone rings in background 0:20:00.000.] His program gave him a formula to track storms. His first post as a commissioned officer was at McCord Field in Tacoma, Washington. While there, he decided to apply for a transfer to a paratrooper company. He was called in and told by his superior that he was denied the transfer because the government spent a lot of money on his education. In the middle of 1943, he was sent to Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma where he was assigned to the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.

Rex James Bates was assigned to the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma. The squadron was then transferred to Savannah [Annotator’s Note: Savannah, Georgia] for more training. Bates’ squadron was then given orders to head overseas to the Pacific in March 1945. He was on a training mission when he heard that FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died. His destination in the Pacific was Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] where his squadron operated out of for some time. Eventually his squadron was transferred to Iwo Jima [Annotator’s Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. His job was to fly in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] to a particular area to collect weather data which would then be used by various elements of the Allied Armed Forces. During one of many reconnaissance flights, his B-24 ditched into the South Pacific due to two engine malfunctions, and while Bates was severely burned, he aided in the rescue of several of his crew mates. A couple of hours after they bailed out, a plane found them. A hospital ship came and picked Bates and his crew out of the water. He lost one crew member.

Rex James Bates served with the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in the Pacific. His plane crashed and he was severely burned all over his body. A hospital ship picked Bates and his crew up out of the water and brought them to Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] to be treated and recover in a field hospital. The war ended while he was still in the hospital. He recalled when the United State dropped the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], and he was discharged in September 1945. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer pauses interview at 0:50:14.000.]

Rex James Bates served with the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in the Pacific. They were based out of Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and were the first "Typhoon Chasers", the first to fly into the eye of a hurricane. He could not go home right away because he was considered essential to monitor the weather while the military sent troves of men back to the United States. He finally received orders to return to the United States after March 1946. He boarded a ship with a bunch of nurses which headed to Hawaii.

Rex James Bates served with the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in the Pacific. They were based out of Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and were the first "Typhoon Chasers", the first to fly into the eye of a cycle. The pilot would enter a storm system by going underneath the storm and entering the eye. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer pauses interview to adjust at 0:58:01.000.] Bates got along with all the other weathermen in his squadron. He does not know how effective his job was to the war efforts because they never told him. He went up and collected information and they relayed that to his superior officer. Sometimes it was too difficult to explain, so he would have to draw pictures. After he returned from a mission which lasted 22 hours, he was exhausted, but still had to debrief with his superior officers. While he was stationed on Guam, he saw all different types of bomber planes take off from the various islands in the Pacific. The damage done on Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] was just as bad as the damage of the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945].

Rex James Bates served with the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in the Pacific. They were based out of Guam [Annotator’s Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and were the first "Typhoon Chasers", the first to fly into the eye of a cycle. He did not have much down time during the war, but once it was over, he was able to relax a little bit and enjoyed watching movies. A team of major league baseball players came out to the Pacific to perform for the military men. Bates would go to the beach and eat breakfast, then go to headquarters to ask when he could return home. He played cards and went to the library at the nearby town in Guam. When he finally returned to the United States, he disembarked in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California.] [Annotator’s Note: Interviewee asked someone off the camera a question at 1:19:28.000.] Bates was missing in action one time after he had to ditch his plane in the Pacific. After his discharge, Bates returned to school in September 1946 and got a degree in physics. He eventually received a Ph.D. in mathematics. He soon met his future wife when she rented a room from his parents. Bates’ career was dull. He was a research assistant to Eli Shapiro at the investment firm of Stein, Roe & Farnham.

After World War 2, Rex James Bates matured and became a more responsible person. He remarks about his time at the University of Chicago [Annotator’s Note: in Chicago, Illinois] and the people he met through the University. He speaks about the 5th Marine fighter pilot Paul Douglas [Annotator’s Note: USMC Brigadier General Paul Page Douglas]. Bates believes that 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] was a great governmental program which aided many veterans, along with the Marshal Plan [Annotator's Note: American initiative passed in 1948 for foreign aid to Western Europe]. He believes that both men and women should serve the county to some extent. [Annotator’s Note: Phone rings in background at 1:39:14.000.] Bates and his crew were only shot at once during their missions with the 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron during the war in the Pacific. Another time, his crew had to ditch the plane and were rescued by a hospital ship. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer speaks for about three minutes of this segment.] Bates discusses weather predictions in Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington].