Robert Savage was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana in December 1924. He grew up in a duplex owned by his grandmother and her sister, who were immigrants from Germany. The family was forced to move following the 1937 flood [Annotator's Note: in January 1937]. After the flood, his father got a job working for a local distillery. This was a great job and helped his father support the family of eight. Savage and his brothers would walk through "the bottoms" on their way to school. They would always arrive muddy and would be sent home by the nuns to get cleaned up. After news of the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] reached Lawrenceburg, Savage and all of the boys in his class were anxious to enlist. He graduated from high school in 1942. Because of a scar on his lung, Savage was rejected from entering the military twice. His mother took him to a doctor who informed him that there was nothing wrong with his lungs - the scar had been from an illness during his infancy. Savage returned to the recruitment center with the doctor's letter and was finally allowed into the Navy. Savage was in school when he heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack, after school everyone went to a local diner to eat and talk about what the war would mean. Savage excited, burned up, and taken aback by the news of the attack. He chose to join the Navy because his uncle was in the Navy. Savage reported to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois] for his basic training. A group of boys from Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan] made life difficult for all the others in training. Once, during a bed inspection, the inspector discovered something under Savage's sheets and Savage was forced to dig a hole and fill it back up. To this day, Savage suspects the Detroit boys were responsible for this. To pass basic training, Savage was to swim 50 yards across a pool. As he could not swim, Savage was hesitant to get in the water and was eventually thrown in. He struggled across the pool by grabbing on to the side only to be pushed off by an instructor. He finally made it across the pool. Savage was sent to the University of Wisconsin [Annotator's Note: in Madison, Wisconsin] to learn Morse Code [Annotator's Note: a method of telecommunication encoding characters in a system of dots and dashes] and to type 35 words per minute to be a radioman. Savage then got orders to report to Norfolk, Virginia to board the recently commissioned USS Springfield (CL-66). Following a shakedown cruise [Annotator's Note: a cruise to evaluate the performance of a naval vessel and its crew] off the Florida coast, the ship returned to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] where it began its final preparations for overseas service. Savage was given a two week leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and he returned home to visit his family. While trying to board the train home, Savage discovered he was missing his billfold and his leave papers, without which he would not be able to board. He called a taxi company and found that someone had found his leave papers and money.

Robert Savage was assigned as the radio man on the USS Springfield (CL-66), which received orders to escort a heavy cruiser carrying President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] overseas to Malta. They traveled in a convoy, and he never saw the president. After dropping the President off, the convoy turned around and made way for the Panama Canal. In the Atlantic, Savage felt the ship shudder and thought they had been hit by a German torpedo, but they had hit a whale. After passing through the Panama Canal, the ship continued to Hawaii. Savage left Hawaii and the ship joined Task Force 58 [ Annotator's Note: The Fast Carrier Task Force, assigned to the 5th Fleet]. Throughout his time at sea, Savage spent 90 percent of his time below deck in the radio shack. His duty consisted of retrieving and typing out coded messages which were then sent to be decoded. He never knew what was going on deck. One time while the ship was under attack from Japanese kamikazes [Annotator's Note: Japanese Special Attack Units, also called shimbu-tai, who flew suicide missions in aircraft], a message came through to Savage from a nearby battleship that told the Springfield to stop hitting it with machine gun fire or they would turn the 16-inch gun on them [Annotator's Note: 16-inch, 50 caliber naval gun]. Because the entire crew of the Springfield was young sailors, mistakes like this happened often. The closest call during battle came when the machine gunners opened fire on a kamikaze and downed it only 40 feet from the bow of the ship. When the cruiser was not protecting carriers in the task force, they were bombarding the Okinawan [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] and Japanese coasts. After many days in combat, the Springfield was sent to the Philippines for rest. While in the harbor, Savage saw a smaller aircraft carrier sunk nearby. He had a friend onboard the ship, who made it off of the carrier wounded, but alive. After time the Philippines, the Springfield continued to bombard the Japanese home islands to the north. After the Japanese surrender, Savage went ashore in Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japanese] to buy souvenirs to send home to his family. The Springfield spent weeks sailing along the Chinese coast. Many of the sailors contracted dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines] and sent to a hospital in China. The doctor who attended to him recognized a scar from an appendectomy as the work of a Dr. Shanks [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] back home in Indiana. Many years after the war, Savage had the opportunity to meet Dr. Shanks' son and tell him the story.

While overseas, Robert Savage was aware of Japanese propaganda that was being broadcast. Savage says Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English-speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] reported that the USS Springfield (CL-66) had been sunk. He was aware of the inaccuracy of much of the propaganda but did learn of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) through a Tokyo Rose broadcast. For the surrender, everyone celebrated, and if there had been whiskey present, everyone would have been drunk. A fellow sailor named Francis O'Neal [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] got permission to return to the United States to attend the funeral of a family remember. When O'Neal returned to the Springfield, he told stories of his time at home. While home, a feast was given for O'Neal and O'Neal asked someone to "pass the fuckin' potatoes." He says everyone looked at him, shocked by the language he had used. O'Neal excused himself and never returned to the feast. Savage had mixed feelings when the war ended. He was relieved it was over, but unready to leave his duty aboard ship. On the way home, the Springfield picked up hundreds of additional soldiers, forcing those aboard ship to sleep in shifts. Upon his arrival home, Savage was offered a promotion in return for his reenlistment. It was tempting, but he had to get home to see his family and ultimately did not join. He was discharged at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois]. When he got home, he was greeted by his mother. It was a joyous and emotional occasion. [Annotator's Note: Savage becomes emotional.] Savage took advantage of 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] and took electronics courses in Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio]. He eventually opened a radio repair shop and joined the Naval Reserves. He served with Administrative Command at Great Lakes during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953].

Robert Savage's most memorable experience of the war was seeing the treaty signed [Annotator's Note: Japanese Instrument of Surrender, written formal agreement of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, 2 September 1945] aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) from the deck of the USS Springfield (CL-66). Savage fought in World War 2 because someone had to. If not for the war, Savage would not have the wife and family he has today and would not have gone to school and learned electronics which allowed him a successful career. Prior to World War 2, he did not know what he wanted to do with his life. He knew he did not want to do hard work. He does not like it when people think he won the war. There were more people that were involved in the war. Being in World War 2 gave him an opportunity to join the Navy Reserves and he served with Administrative Command at Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois] during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He married his wife while he was stationed at the Great Lakes and received a long leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Savage does not know what World War 2 means to America today. When a lot of people see his World War 2 hat, they will thank him for his service. Most people do not pay attention. He was shocked when a young man paid for his donuts one day because Savage was wearing his hat. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because the war opened the doors to America. It was a major world event and made a lot of changes.