Thomas D. Thompson enlisted [Annotator's Note: in the Navy in early 1943] because he has a fierce love of his country. He was aware of what was going on. He wanted to defend this country. He was doing alright at the Pantex Ordnance Plant [Annotator's Note: now Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas]. He wanted to be a Marine, but they were full. He volunteered for the Navy with 17 other kids and went to war. Some of them survived. He went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] for boot camp. He then went to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] to the Navy Pier for diesel school. He never got above Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class. He had never been further from home than Oklahoma. He had enough knowledge of Chicago and knew of Al Capone [Annotator's Note: Alphonse Gabriel Capone, American gangster]. They had some clashes between Oklahomans and Texans. He fought as a Golden Glove [Annotator's Note: Golden Gloves, annual competition for amateur boxing]. He got along quite well. He was sent to Florida and wanted to go into action. He was sent to catch a new boat, a PTC [Annotator's Note: Motor Boat Submarine Chaser], in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. It was loaded aboard a large tanker and taken to North Africa. His battle station was on the twin .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] and his duty was in the engine room. Whenever they got into action, he was in his gun nest.

Thomas D. Thompson was born in Wichita Falls, Texas in August 1925. There were ten children in his family, and he was number nine. His father was a preacher in the Assemblies of God [Annotator's Note: World Assemblies of God Fellowship] and thought that God was going to provide. He did not accept money for his ministry. The children worked. By today's standards they lived in abject poverty. Being number nine and trying to increase his wealth, when he was ten years old, Thompson made his own shoeshine business in Vernon, Texas. He shined shoes for a nickel. His competitors were black children who also had no shoes and ragged clothes. He did that until he became weary of the poverty. He walked away from home at 16. His mom was an angel. She had dimples and was pretty. She was tolerant. She called him "TD" and told him he was not a bad boy; he was just a good boy doing bad. She was born in Mississippi and his father was born in Tennessee. His dad was in Grand Saline, Texas working in a salt mine when he felt a call to the ministry when he was 20. His mother was drop dead beautiful. They got married. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Thompson was too young to enter service. When he turned 17, he went to Amarillo, Texas, faked his age, and got a job in the Pantex Ordnance Plant [Annotator's Note: now Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas]. He became an assistant to the superintendent and could not wait to enter the service. He persuaded his parents to sign his papers and he entered the Navy in early 1943. He was discharged on 5 February 1948. His brother Paul served in the Air Force and was injured. They were in Italy at the same time but did not meet up. He had brothers-in-law in the service. One of them was in the Lingayen Gulf, Philippines when Thompson was there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Thompson if he remembers what he was doing when the learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor.] He was roller skating. He heard an extra paper call it out. He had no idea where Pearl Harbor was. A guy there who had been in the Navy said that Japan would be blown out of the water in a week and not to worry about.

Thomas D. Thompson was assigned to PTC-21 [Annotator's Note: unable to verify] in Squadron 15 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)]. They had a big base in Bizerte [Annotator's Note: Base 12 in Bizerte, Tunisia] and a big base in Corsica [Annotator's Note: Bastia Harbor in Corsica, France]. They also had a base at Maddalena, Sardinia. Part of their early start was slipping spies into Southern France. They were also assigned to a commando group in the Adriatic Sea around the Dalmatian Islands off of Yugoslavia [Annotator's Note: now Dalmatia (region), Yugoslavia (Croatia)]. Marshall Tito [Annotator's Note: Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman; Former President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] had the Communist partisans. Mihailović [Annotator's Note: Yugoslav Serbian General Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailović] had the Chetniks [Annotator's Note: Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, also called the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland]. They were based there with the 2nd Commando Group [Annotator's Note: No. 2 Commando], British Army. They did some spy missions. On one occasion, they slipped a guy in who walked up to the commandant's house on Brac [Annotator's Note: an island in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia (Croatia)] and knocked on the door. A woman answered. He asked for the commandant who was a few feet away. He emptied his gun into the guy and got out of there. They made an invasion of Albania with the 2nd Commandos [Annotator's Note: Spille, Tirana County, Albania, 28 to 29 July 1944]. It is not talked about much. They lost a lot of commandos. He got wounded while he was busy with his machine guns. He was asked if he wanted a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. He asked what that was. He did not want it. The rockets were fired by a plastic device and a piece of that hit him during the mission. They also did Air-Sea Rescue. The 15th Air Force was flying out of Foggia, Italy and hitting the oil fields of Ploesti [Annotator's Note: Ploesti, Romania]. Every morning the sky was dark with them. Some were hit by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and went down in the Adriatic. They had occasion to pick up some of the pilots. Some of the pilots would land on shore in Yugoslavia. Some would gotten back to American forces, but some would be captured by the Germans.

There were two things about a boat of the type [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat, or PT-Boat] that Thomas D. Thompson was assigned to. It used 100 octane gasoline and they had to carry gasoline or go to shore often. When he went to shore, he always found a woman to be with. He had landed in Oran [Annotator's Note: Oran, Algeria] having no study at all in the Islamic faith. He would wander around in curiosity and got into some mosques sometimes. He traded with Arabs there using cigarettes and dungarees. They could get 20 dollars for a bed sheet. In Europe, they were getting ready to invade Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944]. They had 13 boats there and lost one. They went in and made a fake landing and almost got killed. Commander Bulkley [Annotator's Note: US Navy Captain Robert J. Bulkley, Jr.] took MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] by PT from the Philippines to Australia. Here, he was the commander of the destroyer Endicott [Annotator's Note: the USS Endicott (DD-495)]. They were under heavy fire from the beach [Annotator's Note: at La Ciotat, France, 12 July 1944]. A German destroyer and corvette was coming at them. Thompson heard his skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel] ask if somebody could give them assistance. Thompson then heard Bulkley ask who was giving them trouble. He came out firing and knocked out both German boats. Thompson ran topside when they were picking up prisoners and someone handed him a .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. He was pulling a German kid up who saw the pistol and panicked. Thompson did not have a deep-seated hatred of the Germans. He had twin .50 caliber Browning machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. His job was to shoot them before they shot him. He learned later that the Germans were much more civil than the Japanese.

Thomas D. Thompson was observing a dogfight between a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and a German Messerschmitt [Annotator's Note: fighter aircraft]. They were on an island called Hvar in the Dalmatians [Annotator's Note: Dalmatia, Yugoslavia (Croatia)] in a town called Vis [Annotator's Note: Vis, Croatia]. The Germans would come over every day and drop a 500 pound bomb. The P-51 rolled over and the pilot bailed out. They were going to pick him up. When they pulled up alongside him, he had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and asked if anyone had a match. He was infatuated with their boats. Thompson wanted to take a ride in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. They were drinking wine and he told the pilot he wanted to take a ride. The skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel] would not let him go. He was terribly disappointed. The flight was successful so he could have taken that trip. Most of the time he spent in that part of the world, they were away from American supplies and ran out of food. They scrounged around and could get some flour. They had a lot of wine on a daily basis. They had fearful moments sneaking into the islands to attack the Germans. The boat's 100 octane gasoline was extremely flammable, and any kind of bullet would blow them up. They never were hit. There was a camaraderie and Thompson admired his skipper greatly. They would discuss religion. Thompson was mortally afraid of dying because his father had said that all the things Thompson was doing would send him to hell. His skipper was an atheist and he told Thompson that he was likely an agnostic. He lost his fear of death then. His skipper was named Carl Mark Schaefer [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity]. He named his youngest son Mark in memory of him. They lost contact. The crew would die for each other. They were never put to the test. He said he would take a bullet for his skipper. He admired his bravery.

During the invasion of Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944], Thomas D. Thompson and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)] were operating out of Corsica [Annotator's Note: Bastia Harbor, Corsica, France]. They had bases in Sardinia. They were to pull a diversionary attack before the invasion. The 7th Army took command of going in with the French. They went in to play their scene with smoke cover, recorded sounds, and tin foil that looked like landing boats on German radar. They sucked the Germans out before daylight. They broke radio silence and used lights to repel the invasion. It was near Saint-Tropez [Annotator's Note: Saint-Tropez, France]. Having done that, the 7th Army walked ashore. It was a piece of cake compared to Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They were tired afterwards. He was fearful of the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] that were homed in on them. He asked the skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel] if he could take a swim. As he did, a Messerschmitt [Annotator's Note: German fighter aircraft] came into strafe and Thompson could have shot him down if he had been on the boat. He never was able to shoot down a German airplane. Commander Bulkley [Annotator's Note: US Navy Captain Robert J. Bulkley, Jr.] sunk a corvette [Annotator's Note: small warship] in Cannes [Annotator's Note: Cannes, France]. There was a counterpart to them in the Dalmatian Channel that runs down the coast of Yugoslavia. The Germans used it to run supplies to Greece. The Germans had E-boats [Annotator's Note: Allied designation for German fast attack craft, Schnellboot, or S-Boot] and when they tangled with them, they had way more of everything than they did. They also had some armor. He never shot one. He came back to the United States for Christmas 1944 and got leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were still active, and he wanted to go kill Japs. He was at Pier 92 in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and volunteered to go to the Philippines. He got assigned to a Patrol Craft that is shaped like a destroyer. It was commanded by a lieutenant who put him on the bridge because he knew he had been a machine gunner. Thompson told him his job was in engines, but the lieutenant told him when GQ [Annotator's Note: general quarters, or battle stations] sounds, to get up and keep the Japs off his neck. They tested him. The twin .50s [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] have a tendency to jam. One of his guns jammed and pulled, but it pulled him right onto the sleeve [Annotator's Note: a towed target for gunnery practice]. He did not tell anybody. They said he hit the target really well. That was unusual for a machinist's mate.

Thomas D. Thompson boarded his Patrol Craft in Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] in the Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippines]. The ship had anti-submarine gear and depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: period derogatory term for Japanese] were sneaking in with two man subs [Annotator's Note: Type A Ko-hyoteki midget submarine]. This was late in the war in 1945. They never actually contacted a Jap there. The skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel] ran into a sonobuoy [Annotator's Note: expendable sonar system], and it tore a hole. They were with the 7th Fleet to go invade Japan. They had been told about a million of them would be killed. They were to go in and sweep for mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact] in advance. Their chance of sneaking into the harbor without being discovered was minimal. Thank God Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] dropped that bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. He never encountered any Japanese suicide boats. He got there after MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] landing. He saw one two man sub that another ship intercepted. When the war was over, they were all in the Lingayen Gulf. Everybody fired everything and it looked like the Fourth of July [Annotator's Note: American Independence Day, 4 July annually]. He was assigned to PC-477 [Annotator's Note: USS PC-477] there. His job was in the engine room. At General Quarters [Annotator's Note: battle stations], he was to man the twin .50s [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. They also had 20mm [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and 40s [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon]. The ship has the silhouette of a destroyer and is steel. It has a three inch 50 [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun] that they never used. After the European thing, he was diagnosed with Delayed Battle Fatigue [Annotator's Note: now called post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD]. He was a little crazy and fatalistic. He thought he would not make it in the Pacific. He had mixed feelings and was temperamentally dangerous and combative. Everybody left him alone. He had been a boxer and had been known to knock people out. Some Filipinos tried to rob him once. He and a buddy were in town looking for female companionship. A Merchant Marine was also in line waiting for services. The Filipino boys killed him. Thompson had left his P38 [Annotator's Note: Walther P38, German 9mm semi-automatic pistol] aboard ship. One of the boys hit him with a piece of wood and fractured his skull. They made it back to the ship. He had a distaste for the Filipinos and they for the Americans. They were like the Japanese. The Filipino women were more intimate with the Japanese than with the Americans. They were young, brash and overbearing young Americans who were careless with their habits, so they did not get along. He did meet a Filipino girl who lived in a hut that was not much over his head. She was Catholic and was washing his clothes and performing other services. She wanted to get married because this offended her church. Thompson said they would just get married then. They held hands and he did the marital litany and pronounced them man and wife. It was roguish attitude, but he was not all there at that time.

Thomas D. Thompson met a girl in Florida before he left the country. When he was home on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], she sought him out in west Texas. They had a son as a result of that. In those days, when you got a girl pregnant you married her. He married then and needed to get out. He was discharged in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Pensacola, Florida] on 5 February [Annotator's Note: 5 February 1948]. They moved to Fort Worth [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth, Texas]. He did not have a high school diploma or formal education and no vocation. He started doing repairs on houses and ultimately started his own building business. He attended TCU [Annotator's Note: Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas] at night. The city [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth] gave him some trouble. They told him he had to go to the city council. He decided he would join it instead and ran for a seat. He was defeated and he was humiliated. He wanted to go to Australia, but his wife told him to run again. He was 31 and then got it. He never took money or bribery. He decided to clean Fort Worth up. In 1959, he got fairly well known and was voted President of the Mayor's Council of Texas of Commissioners. He thought he wanted to be president of the United States. At that time he knew Jim Wright [Annotator's Note: James Claude Wright, Jr., American politician], who was later Speaker of the House [Annotator's Note: Speaker of the House of Representatives]. In 1964 he ran for Congress. He told Jim that if he would step out of the 12th Congressional District, he would see him run for Senator. Jim was forced by his bosses. The Democrats offered to buy him out and then sent a guy to his house to kill him. He was humiliatingly defeated by Jim Wright. That was his six years' experience.

Thomas D. Thompson was in the Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippines] aboard a PC [Annotator's Note: Patrol Craft, the USS PC-477] when the Japanese surrendered. He came back on a transport by way of San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. He shipped over [Annotator's Note: slang for reenlisted] for two more years. He wanted to get on the beach and find women and alcohol. He did not want to go back to Vernon [Annotator's Note: Vernon, Texas] as his prospects were dim. He wound up in Galveston [Annotator's Note: Galveston, Texas] and then moved to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He had an ATA, an attack tug, and a YO, a yard oiler and they ran up and down the Mississippi [Annotator's Note: the Mississippi River]. He attended two Mardi Gras' [Annotator's Note: also called Fat Tuesday, carnival celebration]. By this time, his wife was pregnant. Then he had three more children. He was discharged in February 1948 as a Motor Machinist 2nd Class [Annotator's Note: Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class or MoMM2c]. He did not stay again because he was constantly seasick and a had a son now. He took a test at TCU [Annotator's Note: Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas]. He got his high school diploma in the mail because of his test and his war service. He got it in 1953. Thompson used 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] to go to college and he used the stipend. He did not get his degree.

Thomas D. Thompson did not seek any treatment for the issues he was having [Annotator's Note: with post traumatic stress or PTSD]. He has a strong belief in a higher power. He is a recovering alcoholic. He went to AA [Annotator's Note: Alcoholics Anonymous] in June 1974. He sponsors several people and quit cigarettes too. He has had a number of maladies, but he has a positive attitude and seeks his higher power daily. His most memorable experience of World War 2 was the invasion of Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944] where he was quite certain they were going to get killed. Only one time since, he was robbed in his home by a guy with a machine gun. It was a home invasion and the man kicked him and hit him in the head with the machine gun. He told him to get what he wanted and get out of there. That made him mad. He took off in Thompson's car. He is grateful for his service. He knows he performed willingly and was willing to die for his country. He still is. He bleeds red, white, and blue. He was a Democrat when he ran for office but is a right-wing reactionary now. He is not a liberal. He would love to indoctrinate young people to appreciate the country. He has learned so much at the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He thanks God he can still remember most of it. There was a defined interest in World War 2. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] might have wanted to rule the world. The things of the years since, are so different. This country is terribly divided now. He deals daily with recovered or recovering alcoholics in his group. He has a billionaire as well as people who cannot buy their lunch and a lot of uneducated young people. He cannot correct it but can help. He gets a lot of pleasure from that. It was a long time ago but taking a little country boy and showing him the world put his foundation together. He has been rich, and he has been poor. This great beloved country can afford a shoeshine boy to get a tailor made suit. No place in the world offers that. He wishes he could present that idea to the younger generation. If he makes it to 100 years of age, he would like it to be in service to his fellow man. That is where the joy is.