Spencer Yancey was born in Hunnewell, Missouri in 1910. He is 106 years old. He was born and raised on a farm. He worked on the farm until he went to college. He graduated from high school in 1928. He went to Culver Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, graduating in 1932. He made 800 dollars a year. In his second year, he made 600 dollars. After four years, they made him the superintendent. Then he started working for an insurance company. On 12 June 1941, he was drafted. He went to Leavenworth, Kansas, then to Camp Roberts, California for basic training. He was 28 years old and was transferred into the reserves. He returned home and got married on 26 December. Then he got a letter from Uncle Sam stating that he would be recalled in 30 days. He went to Fort Leonard Wood [Annotator’s Note: Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri]. He applied for OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] and got his commission in September 1942. He was a training officer in the engineering department. In April 1943, they selected him to help open Camp Abbot in Oregon. He was transferred to Fort Lewis in Washington. Yancey was still a training officer. In April 1946, he was transferred to the reserve corps. He returned home and sold livestock medicine. He worked for the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company for 25 years. He was 65 years old when he retired. Then he worked as a salesman for a banking company. He worked for the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] for 13 years and helped the servicemen.

Spencer Yancey kept up with the war overseas. When Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], he was visiting his future wife in Iowa. At the time, he worked in Kansas City [Annotator’s Note: Kansas City, Missouri]. He turned on the radio in his car and heard about Pearl Harbor for the rest of the day. He wondered what would happen to him after that. When he was at Camp Roberts [Annotator’s Note: Camp Roberts, California] in 1941, they heard about Japan buying shiploads of steel. He was drafted on 12 June 1941, before Pearl Harbor. He heard about difficulties with Japan while he was in basic training. He had basic training in the deserts of California. He went to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] and was trained in maps, strategy, and all things officers needed to know. He was a supply officer in the reserve. He had to request the supplies they needed for the whole division of the 314 engineers. He tried to go overseas. His wife was with him and she did not want him to go overseas. The colonel made sure he did not go overseas. They did not have a lot of contact with people on the outside. They had rationing. They could only buy so much gasoline. He lived off-base at Fort Lewis [Annotator’s Note: Fort Lewis, Washington]. His wife was with him all the time. He was promoted to first lieutenant at Fort Leonard Wood [Annotator’s Note: Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri]. He trained replacement troops. Shortly before he was sent back to the reserves he was promoted to major. By the end of his service, he was a lieutenant colonel and had three sergeants working for him. They inspected the company’s training. They had a tough obstacle course. They wanted every man to have tough training.

Spencer Yancey remembers that all of their equipment was pretty basic, and there were not a lot of new improvements. They had the old M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. He heard about the bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. It was hard to imagine how much damage the bombs did. He remembers the soldiers kissing the nurses in New York. He stayed in the reserves. He was a sales manager during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. When the Army was integrated, it was hard for Yancey. Growing up on the farm they had colored people [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States] working for them.

Spencer Yancey was older and he had a wife. He enjoyed the service magazines. He supported them over the years. He supports the museum in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He missed the part about going overseas. He was proud of his service. He taught school. The war changed the economy of the world, especially the United States. He worked with the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration] before the war. There was no work in many of the towns. The CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] built tree yards. He thought the New Deal programs were good. He thinks it is important to teach about World War Two. Yancey and his wife traveled across the United States. He trained men to go overseas.