Rudy Cravens was born in Tennessee in February 1918. The Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] did not affect his family very much. His father was the superintendent of a military academy. Cravens joined a National Guard unit to make some money while he was getting his master’s degree in forestry. During this time, the unit was activated because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was sent to Galveston [Annotator’s Note: Galveston, Texas] to take a course in aircraft recognition. He was in an anti-aircraft group. After the attack, they were sent to Washington state to protect the navy yard there. He was stationed there for six to eight months. His best friend had gone into the Air Force and was killed in England. Cravens asked to be transferred into the infantry so he could go overseas. He went to Fort Benning, Georgia for paratrooper training. He joined the 10th Mountain Infantry [Annotator’s Note: 10th Mountain Division] while in Italy.

Rudy Cravens remembers the ship he deployed on had to zig-zag [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] and everyone got seasick. When he got off the ship, he saw two people from home that he knew. [Annotator’s Note: Craven’s wife speaks to the interviewer.] He was in Company A of the 87th Regiment [Annotator’s Note: 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment] as a platoon leader. They went over the mountains using rope ladders. It took a lot of time. They had to dig foxholes to protect themselves from German shelling. There were minefields. The Italians did not do anything. Then they went to Yugoslavia. Every time they ran into them, they would act like they had a military unit. He was in Yugoslavia for about a month and was then sent back to the United States. They had 10 days to get to the West Coast to be shipped out to the Pacific.

Rudy Cravens thinks the war made him grow up. He remembers the night before their first attack. He was happy when he heard the war was over. He did not want to be killed on his last day. [Annotator’s Note: Cravens mentions his brother-in-law’s father.] He thinks the war changed the world.