Robert Templet was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in September 1920. At the age of five years old, his family moved to a farm in Lafourche Parish between Raceland and Thibodeaux. He worked in the fields with his father before and after school. The Great Depression resulted in very few available jobs for Templet except in the fields. As a result, after graduating from high school Templet decided to join the Navy. He selected the Navy because he had seen photographs of his father in the Army in trenches. He knew that he wanted to sleep more comfortably onboard a ship. When Templet tried to join the Navy in 1940, he was told that he was underweight. The recruiter told him to eat several bananas and come back for another weigh in. Templet ate the bananas and went back and passed the weight limit requirements. He was sent to the San Diego Training Facility [Annotator's Note: Naval Training Center San Diego] for eight weeks of training. Afterward, he was assigned to the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and sailed to Hawaii. Steaming aboard the was smooth with the ship taking the waves well. It was a hot ship though. The food aboard ship was good and every day included sessions on physical fitness. Upon reaching Pearl Harbor, Templet went into communications training on Ford Island. Every morning, Templet would go to training school where he would learn and practice the use of Morse code. He was trained as a striker. [Annotator's Note: In Navy parlance, a striker is an individual who is training for a particular rating but has not yet achieved it. At this time, Templet was a radioman striker].

Robert Templet was on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands [Annotator's Note: on Sunday, 7 December 1941]. He was near Battleship Row when he first heard the bombs falling. He was walking along a street when he saw a Japanese airplane. It attempted to machine gun him but missed. Templet got a look at the pilot through the open canopy. He had a smile on his face. Templet went to his duty station where he communicated with ships and the few American planes that were in action. He received numerous false reports of Japanese landings and submarine sightings. Templet was at his station from the time of the attack until early afternoon when he was told to assist the sailors who were in the burning water after abandoning their ships. He did so until he was told to return to his radio station. He remained there until near dark when he was relieved. While walking back to his barracks, he spotted a Japanese plane which had been shot down. Marines were guarding it. It appeared that the pilot had been roughed up by the Marines. Templet took a piece of the plane as a souvenir. As he continued on to his barracks, Templet passed through a hallway where he was disturbed to see a line of sailors wrapped in wool blankets lining both sides of the corridor. The following day, Templet assumed his regular communications duties and remained at Pearl Harbor until he was transferred to Maui to set up a new station. There were WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service] in the detachment with him. Duty at Maui included a short stint on a PT boat.

Robert Templet served on the USS Roxanne (AKA-37) after serving on Maui. The Roxanne would bring supplies to the troops on captured islands in the Pacific. Templet was glad that he did not have to bring those supplies while the islands were still being contested. When the war ended, Templet's ship was kept off Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender took place. In January [Annotator's Note: January 1946], the ship was assigned to watch over the destruction of munitions by the Japanese off Sasebo, Japan. While in Japan, Templet picked up some souvenirs. Templet found the Japanese food to be unsanitary and unappealing. After leaving Japan, the Roxanne was sent to Bremerton, Washington to be decommissioned. At that point, Templet was assigned to another ship. His new ship was an ocean going tug. It was dispatched to the Aleutian Islands to help a stranded ship but was called back to Bremerton for transit to Treasure Island off San Diego. Templet stayed in San Diego until he was discharged in August 1946 after six years in the Navy. He was offered a 2,000 dollar bonus to reenlist. That was a lot of money in 1946, but he refused.

Robert Templet took his boot camp training in San Diego. The days started early for him. During his first week in training, he had KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police] duty where he had to peal 50 pounds of onions. He practiced rolling up his clothes to store them in his sea bag, he fired rifles, and he sailed on a sailboat. Templet also learned to swim. Learning to swim was beneficial because when aboard a ship, with calm seas and the ship moored, the sailors were allowed to swim beside the vessel. Templet was in Hawaii for over a year before the Japanese attack. It was a good life. At the time, the beachfront was bounded by farms instead of hotels. There were only three hotels on Waikiki Beach prior to the war. The scene is much changed today compared to that time. Templet enjoyed the papaya fruit in Hawaii. It was good to be a sailor on Oahu in 1940.

Robert Templet believes that there was a lack of preparation for an enemy attack at Pearl Harbor during the weeks before the Japanese air attack. As a result, he saw very little response to the Japanese attack. The USS Nevada (BB-36) got up steam but was hit by a bomb when it passed Templet's radio station. After another bomb hit, the captain of the ship decided to beach his vessel. Since Templet was on Ford Island, he was able to see some of the attack action. He experienced a Japanese strafing attack. There was confusion in the harbor. Templet was told to get to his duty station because the harbor was under attack. Templet saw sailors bobbing in the oil soaked and burning water. It was a tough situation. Templet was issued a gun, but he never had to use it. After the attack, Templet saw the destroyed PBYs [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] on Ford Island. He saw the wrecked vessels in the harbor. Because it had been a Sunday morning attack, many sailors were on liberty. Announcements were made for enlisted men to return to their ships and duty stations. After the attack, liberty was reduced and security was increased around oil and ammunition storage facilities.

Robert Templet was aboard the USS Roxanne (AKA-37) when the Japanese surrendered. During the course of the war, the Roxanne was not a target of Japanese air attack because the enemy sought out larger ships. When the Roxanne delivered supplies to captured islands, the ship traveled in convoys with escorting combat ships. There were occasional submarine scares but the Roxanne was never attacked. Onboard the ship, the crew worked in three shifts. As a radioman, Templet collected news from the United States for the skipper of the ship. This earned him favor with the skipper that resulted in better chow. It was difficult to collect the information because of the amount of static that came through the radio transmissions. It was only later in his Navy career that Templet realized that the static caused hearing loss for him. The messages received about American setbacks after the Pearl Harbor attack made Templet skeptical of the ability of the United States to succeed in the war. It was only after the Americans fought back and recaptured lost islands that he began to feel confident in America's ability to defeat the Japanese.

Robert Templet wanted to attend college after his service, but he married and had children and his plans changed. He spent 50 years in the grocery business. He was raised to work hard and always do a good job. Templet felt it was right for the United States to get involved in the war because Britain may have been defeated and the United States would have been the next target. Pearl Harbor would have been safer if the ships had been at a higher state of war readiness. While on occupation duty in Sasebo, Japan, the civilians appeared like lost people who had been subdued. The Japanese were desperate for money and supplies. There was an active black market for American goods, particularly cigarettes.

Robert Templet feels that the youth of today may not be as interested in World War 2, or even protecting their liberty as he and his generation were. Education today does not stress the details of that war. The end of the war in Europe came in a message that he relayed to the skipper who then announced it to the crew [Annotator's Note: Templet was serving aboard the attack cargo ship USS Roxanne (AKA-37) at the time]. The feeling was jubilant. When news of the pending Japanese surrender came, it was met with cynicism. The word was spread to the ships to stay vigilant. The news of the Japanese acceptance of surrender terms could potentially be a ruse. After the surrender, Templet experienced his first instance of seasickness. It was the only time he was seasick, but he messed up his skipper's toilet. The Roxanne sailed back to the United States for decommissioning. After returning to the United States, Templet was assigned shore duty which included working with the WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service]. They performed secretarial work when Templet worked with them.