[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman's father worked on the railroad. He had several siblings. Life was a thrill and was enjoyable. His mother died young. They were a normal family. He was in high school and heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] over the PA [Annotator's Note: public address] system. He did not grasp what it meant and did not know where Pearl Harbor was. He enlisted in the service [Annotator's Note: Gorman looks at some notes] on 16 June 1943. He did not care much for the Army so he thought the Navy would be better. He was sent to Farragut, Idaho [Annotator's Note: Farragut Naval Training Station, now Farragut Wildlife Management Area] for boot camp training. He learned to row a boat and jump off a ship as well as regular basic. Gorman had worked as a baker after school making pastries so he went into the Navy as a baker.

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] After boot camp, Ted Gorman went by train from Farragut, Idaho to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. The ship they were to take, left before they got there. He went to Treasure Island [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Treasure Island; an artificial island in San Francisco Bay, California, 1941to 1997] for about three months and then went overseas in August [Annotator's Note: 1943]. He was put to work in the bakery shop right away on the ship. He enjoyed his work and was pretty busy cooking for the men on the ship almost 24 hours a day. He wound up at New Caledonia. They did not cross into the fighting zone and never ran into any conflict. He went from New Caledonia to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides Islands. He continued to work as a baker. He had no battle stations. Cooks did not pull that kind of duty. He was attached to CASU outfits [Annotator's Note: Carrier Aircraft Service Unit], CASU 10 and CASU 40; CASU 10 on Espiritu Santo for seven or eight months. Once Saipan was secured, he went there. He spent a lot of time fishing and hog hunting to pass the time. Take hand grenades to fish. Played ball. He had a buddy out of Saint Louis, Missouri. They ran the movie booth for the camp at night. It was interesting. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of naval construction battalions] would build an airstrip and Gorman's Task Force would set up camp. They went from place to place doing that.

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman encountered Japanese prisoners. After he arrived on Saipan, he was not needed as a baker and was put in charge of the laundry services. They had four wringer washers. Some Japanese had been captured in the hills. One prisoner worked for Gorman. He started smiling when he was brought in to work and his teeth were very shiny. Gorman learned that his teeth were made of metal. He had never seen such a thing in his life. [Annotator's Note: Gorman laughs.] He was a good helper. On Saipan, there was big hill with caves. It was not all secured yet. The 27th Army Division [Annotator's Note: 27th Infantry Division] was up there at night using flame throwers. He could hear them talking over loudspeakers trying to get them [Annotator's Note: The Japanese] out of there. Every once in a while, he would see a flash of fire. It was something else. The men lived in hospital tents. Everybody was scared to death that someone would slip in on them. In a tent next to Gorman was a guy who got a hold of some pork and beans. Sometime during the night, the can exploded. [Annotator's Note: Gorman laughs.] Two cans had blown up and it sounded like a gun going off. Once everything was secured [Annotator's Note: on Saipan], Gorman went back into baking and cooking. He stayed there until he went aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). He does not recall the date. He was on Saipan when the bomber left Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands] to drop the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945].

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman and the other American troops on Saipan did not hear about the atomic bomb until after it had been dropped. They did not even know the bomb was over there [Annotator's Note: across the bay from them on the island of Saipan]. He had a Japanese prisoner working for him. He was just a human being like the rest of them. He did not care for the war either, but he was there. They treated him nice and he did not try anything. He was just a boy scared to death like the rest of them. They got along great. They would show him what he needed to do. They were told that if they had to speak to him, speak slowly. It was quite an ordeal, but they communicated. They had guards posted all the time. Gorman thought the Japanese soldiers were brutal. There was a cliff on one end of the island. It was 80 feet high and dropped right down into coral rock. He did not see it, but the Japanese ran the Americans off that cliff. It made him wonder why a country was so brutal.

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman was sent to Hawaii where he boarded the USS Lexington (CV-16) as a baker. He had no battle station on the ship. His job was to feed the 2,200 men on the ship. Life on a carrier was something else. Close quarters, but he got used to it. He never knew much of what went on topside. He was restricted from the flight deck. His living quarters were small with bunks, kind of tight, below the flight and hangar decks. The bakery was below that level on the fourth deck. He never got to see the whole ship. He wants to go down to Corpus Christi [Annotator's Note: Corpus Christi, Texas] and go aboard it again. He is a volunteer fireman in his home county. One of the firemen went to see it and told him it was great. He baked 2,200 loaves of bread a week and that takes up a lot of time. They worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off. He just ate, slept, and worked.

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman learned the Japanese had surrendered over the PA [Annotator's Note: public address] system. They were out at sea and were in a Task Force that went to Japan for the surrender. He had a friend named Bill Hall. [Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out multiple times.] At their church, he would say he was on the lead ship and Gorman was on the second ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Lexington (CV-16)]. Gorman was out in the bay for the signing of the treaty. He could not see anything. Gorman did go up topside but all they could see was water. They could exercise and play ball. They did not see the aircraft flyover. They brought the ship back to Seattle, Washington. They were docked in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] one morning and Gorman went to bake biscuits. He was putting a pan in the oven, when pain hit him in the appendix. He was taken to the dispensary and then sent to a hospital and operated on. He stayed there for about a month. He then got back on ship and went to Seattle. He was discharged there in April 1947.

[Annotator's Note: The video cuts in and out and is hard to hear at times. Questions and answers are often unintelligible or incomplete.] Ted Gorman enjoyed his time in the service. He was a young kid and thought it was something real big. He was ready to get out when it was over with. He did not want a career of it. He had only gotten leave when he left boot camp. He got two weeks off before going to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. On Saipan, his brother was in the Navy and came to spend the day together. He knew he was done on the voyage back. Gorman wound up as a cook and a baker, so he did a lot of cooking on the trip. In Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington], he was put on a smaller ship as the only cook and baker for 22 men. That is where he spent the rest of his time. On this ship, he cooked what they ordered instead of the other way around. Gorman feels that his service time taught him a lot. He learned to respect people, to understand life and to not take it for granted. It woke him up a little bit and it is hard to explain what that did to him. He cannot answer what positives there were for the United States from the war. He feels that The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. He went to DC to the memorial [Annotator's Note: World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.] and it was something to see. He really appreciates it.