Roy Cascio was born in December 1925 in Harvey, Louisiana. His father would find a job somewhere to keep working and give them a good life. His mother was a housewife. They got through the Great Depression because of his father's hard work. He bought a house and rented out part of it. They raised fruits, vegetables, a pig and a cow. He had three brothers and they all worked. Cascio would take the cow to the pasture in the morning and bring it home after school. They moved to Belle Chase in 1936. He also had four sisters. His father bought land for each one of the kids for their futures. Cascio was in school when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii [Annotator's Note: on 7 December 1941]. He only recalls that it was terrible. He learned later on what it really meant. His father and mother came to the United States in 1898 [Annotator's Note: from Italy]. For six to eight months, Cascio had to take his father to the Federal building in New Orleans to check in. Italians were under suspicion. He was cleared eventually. Cascio was drafted three weeks after he turned 18. He did not get along with his principal. The principal was married to a teacher whose father was the head of the draft board. He had only gone through the tenth grade when he was drafted, because his mother held him back from school until he was seven years old. He thinks that is why he was drafted then. He does not mind because it was the greatest thing that ever happened to him and his life has been great ever since.

Roy Cascio's parents were devastated when he was drafted in 1943. He had just turned 18. They were great people and they took it. He reported for his examination. He wanted to be in the Air Force [Annotator's Note: Army Air Forces] as a pilot. He made it in and went to Keesler Air Base in Biloxi [Annotator's Note: then Keesler Army Airfield, now Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi] where he took more tests. He qualified but could not be a pilot and he figured it was because he was Italian. A man there told him to go into Air Corps Supply. That is how he got into it. He then noticed his name was spelled incorrectly, Ross Cashio. It took three or four months to get it corrected. He was at Keesler Field until early April [Annotator's Note: April 1944]. He then went to the Pacific. He had been paying attention to the war. He made it his goal to study the war and how it all happened, and he still does that. There were old regular veterans who took care of him. He was always the youngest of his group. He went to Kern, Utah on his way to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. There was a lot of snow in Kern. He had never seen snow. Someone had a can of coffee with a note from a girl in San Francisco in it. Cascio took the note and when he got to San Francisco, he went and found her. She was surprised someone had found her. He left there for New Guinea. He was on the USS Monticello (AP-61) and not in a convoy. The other men would tease him for being a kid. They played cards. They ate two meals a day. There were around 8,000 troops and 2,000 crew. Being young, this was something new. He was going to see the world. He did not worry about where he was going. They had shore leave in Milne Bay, New Zealand [Annotator's Note: Milne Bay, Papua, New Guinea] before going to New Guinea. He said it rained 25 hours a day.

Roy Cascio was stationed at Port Moresby, New Guinea. The captain of their squadron was Roy Jones. He was in the 27th Air Supply Squadron, 27th Air Depot Group. Cascio happened to be near Jones when the ship was being unloaded. The sergeant was having some problems. Jones asked Cascio if he could do it. He said "yessir". They had to go from Port Moresby to Finschhafen and Jones asked him to drive the truck. They made their rounds on the base and came across a truck having trouble backing a plane into a revetment. Jones then asked Cascio if he could drive that truck. After Cascio backed the plane up, Jones took him from supply to running the motor pool. He had a lot of friends because they all wanted a jeep and he could get them one. They lived in tents there with six men to a tent. They slept in mosquito nets. They would made coffee in the evenings and lie to each other. Some men put a dead python in the entry to the tent which scared him. The rats were a foot and a half long. They took Atabrine [Annotator's Note: trade name for mepacrine, or quinacrine; used to guard against malaria]. He had malaria twice. He did not smoke or drink. They would get beer every Saturday. He would give his to the men. They were in the middle of the jungle. There were small kangaroos [Annotator's Note: tree-kangaroos]. He wanted one as a pet but could never catch one.

Roy Cascio was a dispatcher for the motor pool [Annotator’s Note: for the 27th Air Supply Squadron, 27th Air Depot Group based at Port Moresby, New Guinea]. Aircraft that needed major repairs came into Finschhafen across the island. A lot of planes did not make it in and hit the ocean. They took care of the Flying Tigers [Annotator's Note: First American Volunteer Group or AVG, Chinese Air Force, 1941 to 1942] airplanes. They took care of Richard Bong's [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Richard Ira Bong, American top fighter Ace] P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] there. Minor repairs were done elsewhere. They serviced General MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] plane. He had to pull guard duty at times. The jungle was 150 feet away. Sometimes a native would be staring you in the face. Sometimes he would feel something while he was sleeping, and it would be a native in the tent. That scared the hell out of him. That lingered with him for quite a while when he got home. He was there for 18 months and then was sent to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. Before the plane landed to take them there, the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan [Annotator's Note: Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. While waiting for the plane, Cascio and another man decided to look around the island more. They missed their plane. Everything at the base was gone. He stayed nine days. Some units came by and gave them food. Their plane returned and got them. He stopped at Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] before Okinawa. He landed at Haneda Army Air Base, Tokyo [Annotator's Note: now Haneda Airport].

Roy Cascio only knew the atomic bombs ended the war [Annotator's Note: Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. When he got to Japan, those people were completely defeated and had nothing. He was there six months, arriving one month after the bomb was dropped. There was not one incident the whole time he was there. He thought then that we did not need to drop the bomb, they were already defeated. He was treated very well by the Japanese people. His last big enjoyment was when he did a little conniving. Cascio had a jeep and the supply guy had supplies. They did not need their C-rations. Cascio would trade jeep privileges for the rations. He made friends with a Japanese couple in Tokyo and he would sell them the rations. He was in the latrine once and was talking to the guy next to him. They discovered they had been there the same amount of time and the other man was going home. Cascio went and checked on his status. The next morning, he was on a ship home. He would date college girls there and had a full social life.

Roy Cascio went to Texas on his way home. A pretty girl was sent in the room with you to get you to sign up for longer time. It did not work on him. Before he left Japan, he had amassed a lot of Japanese money which he gave away. When he got to the United States, a man was cashing in a lot of money that he won gambling on the ship. Cascio only had his paycheck. He was not smart enough to bring his money back. He still kicks himself for that. [Annotator's Note: Cascio laughs.] He got a lot of mail overseas. When he had gone in the service, he had a one-month furlough. He went to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] to visit family. His two cousins had written him a long letter with all of the girls signatures on it. [Annotator's Note: Cascio tells a long story about meeting his wife, which is hard to follow.] He feels fortunate that he got drafted. Otherwise, he never would have met his wife.

When Roy Cascio returned home he was nothing like the men who had not gone to war. He put it all behind him and tried to catch up. There were so many things that happened to him that he can only consider himself lucky. It taught him that could happen any time. He thought he was just going to stay on top of it and try to learn a little bit about everything that is going on. He is glad he served but the way the country is now shows him that the young people now have no concept of what happened in World War 2 and the next time is going to be worse. People have to take interest in what is going on. They have a wonderful life since World War 2 because of the people who were in World War 2. That could change any day. One button and one bomb could end it. People do not even know we had a war in the Pacific or who Douglas MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] is. He is talking about men 60 years old. It is important to keep teaching future generations so that we can avoid it. The most popular word in our vocabulary is "me". It is not "us" and not "the country". [Annotator's Note: Cascio asks the interviewer if what he wants to stay can be on the tape.] There is a statue of General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe; 34th President of the United States] and he wants a statue of General MacArthur next to it.