Robert Oplinger was born in August 1925 and grew up in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. He enjoyed his life. He remembers the Great Depression as being a time without any particular hardship. Most families were in the same condition as his. They did have one of the first telephones in Jeannette. That was because his father worked for the Bell Telephone Company. He remained with the telephone company until he retired. Oplinger was the oldest of the five siblings. He was the only World War 2 veteran in the family. His mother worked for a short time but mainly took care of the home and children. He heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio. He had no idea where the place was located. He felt it was a terrible thing they did and wanted to do something about it. He entered the service at 18 years of age. He wanted to meet the enemy "head on."

Robert Oplinger joined the Navy, went through boot camp, and then was trained as a member of an underwater demolition team. He became a frogman. He was part of a 100 man team divided into four platoons. It was tough training but Oplinger had childhood experience in many of the rigors such as climbing and swimming. After several training facilities, he was sent to Fort Pierce, Florida for the frogman training. He knew that it would be dangerous in training and combat. He thought they were trying to kill him at Fort Pierce. "Hell Week" at the end was particularly rough. Even worse was "So Solly Day" afterward. It was very realistic with live grenades and explosives. They rode LCVPs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel, or Higgins Boats] late at night without any prior sleep. The ride was rough and extremely cold. The boats turned offshore and the men were told to go overboard. When they got close to shore, the beach exploded. The men hesitated but could not take cover in the shallow water. When the explosions ceased, they proceeded inland across a swamp. They had to assail a guard tower without the sentry seeing them. Oplinger made it without being seen. There were snakes, spiders, and sand fleas. After safely making it to the tower, he ran to the beach to get the vermin off of him. The men trained with multiple explosives and weapons. Oplinger was a good marksman. Oplinger's preferred weapon was the .30 caliber semi-automatic carbine. He eventually brought three Japanese rifles home with him.

Robert Oplinger and the underwater demolition teams had to blow up enemy beach obstacles and coral reef obstructions prior to the landing of Marine invasion forces. Iwo Jima and Okinawa had to be cleared of obstacles before the assault waves. Explosives were used to blow the barriers. Each man had an area to clear out. The explosives would be in a chain tied together by a primer cord. It generated a simultaneous ignition. The frogmen had "shorts" [Annotator's Note: friendly offshore naval bombardment] and "incoming" [Annotator's Note: enemy firing on them] to worry about, but their job was to get the job done ahead of the soon to arrive landing forces. Getting the obstructions cleared ahead of the landing troops was a lesson learned in Europe. The frogmen also did reconnaissance ahead of the landings to identify anything underwater that prevented safe entrance of the troops. Each man could do the job of any other man but each was given a specific task to accomplish prior to swimming back out to safety. When Oplinger completed his training at Fort Pierce, he was a Petty Officer 3rd Class. At that point, he had already been assigned to Underwater Demolition Team 21 [Annotator's Note: UDT-21].

Robert Oplinger left Fort Pierce, Florida training [Annotator's Note: as a member of Underwater Demolition Team 21 (UDT-21)] to be deployed in the Pacific. He sailed multiple ships and went to Hawaii for advanced training then went to Midway, Guam, the Philippines and Okinawa. Okinawa was frightening. The kamikaze suicide planes went after the American ships and sunk quite a few. Oplinger's group of ships had 198 kamikaze alerts. One suicide plane missed his ship and hit the adjacent destroyer. Sailors were in the water and Oplinger's buddy and others jumped overboard to rescue them. There was chaos. Every airplane overhead was thought to be kamikazes. The advanced training at Hawaii had been realistic and included sharks. They were told not to worry about the sharks. When they followed Oplinger, he thought he was in trouble, but when they did not attack him, the next time he saw sharks, he did not worry at all about them hurting him. He got used to it. While in Hawaii, there was not much celebration. Maybe a few drinks were available, but that was it. Stiff drinks were available when the divers had to enter the cold water. Ship-out from Hawaii was Valentine Day 1945 onboard the Bunch which had been converted to carry frogmen. [Annotator's Note: The USS Bunch (DE-694) was converted into a high speed transport vessel and redesignated (APD-79).]. Being in the 1st Platoon of UDT-21 meant they were always first. They had a good leader and the men always did their job. Oplinger spent time in different places in the Pacific like Eniwetok, the Philippines and Guam. He had five bronze stars for action at Iwo Jima, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Leyte. Oplinger does not remember all the places.

Robert Oplinger participated in several battles before Okinawa. It took three months for the United States for defeat the Japanese on Okinawa. Ernie Pyle was killed there. The kamikaze planes attacked the American fleet before the assault. It generated fear in everyone. Oplinger would react to a plane overhead even after he was discharged. It took awhile after the war for him to get over the effect of the kamikazes. Prior to the assault, the UDT [Annotator's Note: Underwater Demolition Team] men worked on blowing up obstacles offshore the islands. They also went ashore and sunk Japanese submarines and suicide boats. A huge Japanese battleship was sent to disrupt the invasion. It was sunk by dive bombers. Suicide boats came close to the American ships. Oplinger felt the Japanese were monsters after Pearl Harbor and their subsequent treatment of captives. He hated them. While the frogmen worked on the obstacles before the invasion, the US Navy ships were bombarding the enemy island. There was a huge amount of firepower, but the enemy was all underground. There was little damage to them. Oplinger went to the island next to Okinawa called Ie Shima. He and other UDT frogmen destroyed quite a bit of Japanese infrastructure there. Oplinger never had to directly confront the enemy during the war. He never wanted to swim with the weight of a .45 caliber pistol. The last big assault for Oplinger was at Kume Shima. They got out of the water and erected a "Welcome Marines" sign to taunt the assault troops about to land.

Robert Oplinger never had issues other than sunburn from being in the water during his time as a frogman. Some of the UDT [Annotator's Note: Underwater Demolition Team] swimmers had been in the water so much, they suffered medical problems. Deep water compression or explosive effects on ears could be a problem. On 1 July 1945, the Bunch [Annotator's Note: USS Bunch (APD-79)] and UDT-21 left Okinawa for the United States. He was able to have two weeks leave in the United States but had to return to the Pacific. There were some great celebrations while in California. He heard about the atomic bombs during that time. He knew the enemy would have to surrender or they would be wiped out. The Japanese military was still reluctant to do so. Oplinger and his UD Team went to Japan and swam into Tokyo Bay where there were extensive fortifications. Despite people being there, the frogmen walked right through the group. Some Japanese officers were marching along and the Americans got in front of them and stopped them. The first enemy officer gave up his sword to the frogmen. The UD Team radioed back that all was safe to come ashore. The commander of the fort surrendered his sword to the unit. It was exhilarating to have the war end. That was why Oplinger had joined the Navy. They next went to Yokosuka Bay and disarmed Japanese ships and armaments there. He picked up some souvenirs at the time to bring home. The enemy was ordered to sink their suicide boats and midgets submarines. When granted liberty, Oplinger stayed away from the geisha houses. While traveling homeward, he felt satisfaction the job was completed and well done. He remained in the Navy until May 1946 when he was discharged at Bainbridge, Maryland with the rank of Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class (MoMM2c).

Robert Oplinger did not want to stay in the Navy after the war. He would regret that later. He did stay in the reserves for a couple hitches. At that point, the war was over and he had a good job. It was time to move on. His only problem in transitioning from the Navy to civilian life was due to the kamikaze attacks. He maintained that fear for awhile after getting home. He took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study diesel engineering. He got a good job in quality control in his hometown. He stayed with it for 42 years. He had a heart attack just prior to his retirement. [Annotator's Note: Some tape distortion occurs at this point.] Oplinger had nightmares at this time. He woke himself up and realized the war was over. It did not go away fast.

Robert Oplinger remembers receiving the first Japanese sword of surrender on the home islands as being his most memorable event of the war. He also was nearby as Japan surrendered on the battleship Missouri [Annotator's Note: USS Missouri (BB-63)]. UDT-21 team turned into SEAL team 4. Oplinger was glad to be part of the elite group. He wishes he would have stayed in the Navy, but he was anxious to return home. It was a good homecoming. He was awarded five bronze stars and a combat demolition badge. Oplinger is uncertain of that title, but it was something similar. Pearl Harbor was the main reason Oplinger decided to fight in the war. It was a "dastardly event" that he could not get over. The Japanese deserved what they got including the atomic bomb. Oplinger is proud of his service during the war. People recognize him for his service if he wears his veteran's hat. He likes that. Thank goodness the war is over but there are big problems today like North Korea. Teaching World War 2 history is very important for young people today. Oplinger has passed information about the war to his grandson. The young man did well in World War 2 history at school as a result. He has only talked to schools a few times.