Thomas A. Tizzard Jr. was born in July 1924 in Echo, Louisiana. His family owned a farm and in 1938 they moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. This was a big difference between New Orleans and Echo. Tizzard's father worked for Public Service and drove a bus and a cab. Tizzard went to school in Orleans Parish which was fine. A lot of kids did not make it in school very well. His family then moved to Metarie, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: a suburb of New Orleans]. He was there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He does not recall what he was doing at the time. In March 1942 he was told that Higgins [Annotator's Note: Higgins Industries, New Orleans, Louisiana] was hiring. He and a friend went and were hired. They worked there until the end of June [Annotator's Note: June 1942]. The draft started and he turned 18 in July. He was already thinking of the Navy, so he volunteered on 12 October 1942. He went back on 14 October and boarded a train to San Diego, California, where he went to boot camp for four weeks. He then left for Treasure Island [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Treasure Island; an artificial island in San Francisco Bay, California, 1941-1997] in San Francisco, California. He did not know how to swim. The drill instructor said that if they could not swim, they would have to come back to the pool every day until they could. Tizzard swapped dog tags with another guy and had him swim in his place and that worked. From San Francisco he took a passenger ship, the SS Lurline, to Pearl Harbor, Camp Andrews. An officer asked for ten volunteers for hazardous duty. They were taken to an ammunition depot and their job was to take the ammunition to the ships coming in to the port. They were there for a couple of weeks and then were loaded onto an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and were taken to Nouméa, New Caledonia, in the South Pacific.

Thomas Tizzard was assigned to the USS Helena (CL-50) and sent to Nouméa, New Caledonia. A person had told him the engine room was the fastest way to promotion so that is where he asked to be assigned. Every once in a while, they needed someone to go work in the mess with the cooks. He was given this duty on 1 July 1943. They spent 5 July bombarding several islands. On 6 July, they went into Kula Gulf [Annotator's Note: Battle of Kula Gulf, 6 July 1943, Kolombangara, Solomon Islands] around midnight and starting attack a Japanese convoy. They were hit. One torpedo blew the bow off and another broke the ship in half. This was around two in the morning. Two men came to him and stayed with him because he could not swim. They had no lifeboats so hung onto a cargo net. After a while they could see the outline of a ship approaching. An officer had a flashlight and signaled. Luckily, it was an American destroyer. They got on board and they had to leave to not be hit themselves. Tizzard was then transferred to a cruiser. One destroyer was already carrying 400 men and there was not enough room for them all. Then they were taken to Espiritu Santo and left with the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of a US naval construction battalion] around 8 July. Tizzard volunteered to drive a vehicle to take the work parties around the island. At other times he was tasked with washing and ironing the officer's clothes. They stayed until 4 or 5 September 1943, when a task force came in. He was then put on the USS Denver (CL-58).

Thomas Tizzard was on the USS Helena (CL-50) when it was hit by torpedoes ans sunk on 6 July 1943 [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Kula Gulf]. He did not know they had been hit until someone came through and told them to abandon ship. Whenever the ship was firing her guns, the whole thing shook and rattled, so they did not experience anything different when hit. If that person had not told them to get out, they likely would have gone down with the ship. He walked out to the guard cables and the water was about even with the deck. Tizzard got in the water with his Mae West [Annotator's Note: nickname for inflatable life preserver] on. He could not swim and just paddled off. The ship was sinking at an angle. The bow turned upright and floated until an airplane was sent the next day to put a hole in it to sink it. Some sailors made it to nearby islands. On one island there was an Australian Coastwatcher [Annotator's Note: Coastwatchers, also known as Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service, or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau; early warning network of Allied military intelligence operatives] who came across some survivors and got them rescued. Later in his life he read an article that said someone found a dog tag sticking out of the sand and they found the remains of a sailor there. One of Tizzard's friends was killed in the attack on the Helena.

Thomas Tizzard was assigned to the USS Denver (CL-58) and was interviewed by an officer asking what his previous jobs on the now-sunk USS Helena (CL-50) had been. He told the officer and then added that he was not going back into the engine room. He was then put in an antiaircraft battery. He was on 20mm antiaircraft gun until the Denver was torpedoed [Annotator's Note: while covering the landings at Cape Torokina, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea on 13 November 1943]. When the ship was hit, a big wall of water washed over him. He wrapped himself around the 20mm gun to keep from going overboard. The ship rolled over and they were holding onto anything they could. The captain said to remain at battle stations and then he flooded the other side of the ship to roll it back upright. They had one engine still operating. The Navy sent one PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] to provide air cover. Soon a tug arrived to tow them to Espiritu Santo to a floating dry dock. It took three days to get the ship out of the water and to remove the dead bodies. The ship was patched and then awaited orders to go back to the United States. The Admiral ordered the captain to stay in port until there were enough life preservers for all of the sailors. There were life preservers there in a warehouse, but the captain was told they could not have any of them. They requested some trucks to get lumber for the repairs and the captain then had one truck go get the life preservers. They cut the lock off the warehouse. The officer in charge of the island came out and asked the captain what he knew of it, he said he did not know anything. They returned to San Francisco Bay and the ship was refurbished at Mare Island Naval Yard [Annotator's Note: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California]. When they got back on board, Tizzard was assigned to a twin 40mm gun mount. On the way out, they bombarded Iwo Jima as they passed by.

Thomas Tizzard was on the USS Denver (CL-58) at Bougainville, covering the landing troops. They would bombard the islands first and then they stayed offshore to cover. The Japanese came in to bomb the troop ships that night. The Denver and her sister ships were light cruisers which could not shoot as far or as heavily as the Japanese heavy cruisers did. The USS Denver was chosen to be a decoy ship. The Japanese started shooting flare shells and then started getting close. Tizzard then got scared. One shell hit the smokestack and one went into the bow but did not explode. The ship made a smoke screen and by then the rest of the force engaged the Japanese forces. Kamikazes came on another day in the same area, about 50 to 55 of them. The Foote [Annotator's Note: USS Foote (DD-511)] was damaged by them. The Denver had one kamikaze coming in on the starboard [Annotator's Note: right] side of the ship, but it missed. Tizzard went all through the Philippines, to Manila and Corregidor. They once got word that a Japanese battleship was coming into Surigao Strait. They went up and when the force got close, they opened fire and sunk the battleship. The next morning, they went to look for crippled Japanese ships were able to sink a Japanese destroyer. Tizzard said they tried to shoot the kamikazes down before they could reach the ship. They were frightening. The Denver was operating with some aircraft carriers and the kamikazes would fly over it to try and hit the carriers. He watched some ships get hit. They were pretty bad as the explosions were large. A lot of the ships had wooden decks and those caught fire easily.

Thomas Tizzard was aboard the USS Denver (CL-58) when it went into dry dock to be repaired after being torpedoed. The sailors were taken off the ship and they stayed in the barracks at Mare Island [Annotator's Note: Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California]. They were put on work duties, such as fire watch. Tizzard and two friends would grab trash and carry it out so they could get into the yard and have some entertainment. After repairs, the ship went to San Diego, California, where the captain had a party for the starboard watch while there. Tizzard snuck off ship to join them. They were headed back to the ship after the party, and had to check in with the officers to get back on ship. Before they could make it to bed, reveille sounded, and they had to report for duty. Off of one island, they took some bodies on board to transport to another location. At another island they took a Japanese prisoner aboard for a while. After they had been hit by the torpedo, bodies of sailors were tangled up in the metal and they had to leave them there until they got the ship to dry dock. Tizzard went down and tried to help get the bodies out but they could not reach them.

The USS Denver (CL-58) was at Okinawa, Japan at the end of the war to protect the hospital ships. Thomas Tizzard received his discharge in Wakayama, Japan. A typhoon hit while there. He was in a tent with three others and they were holding the tent pole, but it was sinking into the ground. They left and headed towards some buildings when an Okinawan man took them into his house with his family. The next morning they saw that the building they were headed to had collapsed during the storm. A lot of men drowned that night. While anchored at Okinawa, he was on searchlight duty, which is the worst duty because any enemy would shoot the searchlights out before doing anything else. Shortly after going on duty, every gun on the island started shooting. Tizzard thought an air raid was coming but it was actually the military troops shooting off their weapons in celebration. That is how he heard that the Japanese had surrendered. He was very happy. They then escorted the hospital ships to pick up freed prisoners of war then left for San Francisco. Once there, he got liberty but was told to be back at nine o'clock. He decided to just stay out the entire night instead.

Thomas Tizzard decided to separate having survived two ships being torpedoed. He had had enough combat. Once on Guam, they had a battleship with them. The guns were so powerful that some of the shells actually skidded across the island. His ship, the USS Denver (CL-58), was at one island when an ammunition ship came in. The crew of the Denver was going to get ammunition from it when that ship exploded. [Annotator's Note: There is a long pause to wait for a clock to stop making noise.] Tizzard had volunteered for fire and rescue and he was sent out to the ship, but nothing was left. They could not find any bodies. He had been told to never volunteer for anything, but he felt that was bad advice. He volunteered for everything and that is why so much happened to him.

When assigned to the USS Helena (CL-50) in March 1942, Thomas Tizzard was given leave in Sydney, Australia for R&R [Annotator's Note: military slang for rest and recuperation]. Some of the officers had some cases of Australian ale on the ship and they put it in the brig for safekeeping. That night the ale started disappearing. Tizzard and some sailors, would pull the case over to the bars of the cell, open the bottles and pour it into cups. They would then push the cases back. The officers never figured out what happened. He went on shore leave and met some girls. They were supposed to meet these girls later, but they were not there. They went over to a beach and found the girls there with different soldiers. The girls went out with them instead and they had fun. They kept up correspondence and one sailor was going to marry one of them. The Helena was hit by a torpedo and sunk, so he did not make it back to Australia or the girls again.

After he was discharged, Thomas Tizzard looked for a job. He worked in New Orleans, Louisiana as a conductor on a streetcar for a few years. The work was spotty though, so he went to work for the electrical power distribution center working as driver. He had made it to office worker when the company started downsizing, so he took an early retirement on 1 January 1986. His first Mardi Gras after coming back from the war was pretty wild. Tizzard did not use the G.I. Bill. He did apply to school, but his application was rejected, and he never tried again. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about his job with Higgins Industries before the war]. Tizzard started off as a laborer at Higgins and then did some framework with the carpenters. He never worked on the Higgins boats, but he liked watching them being built and tested, both PT boats [Annotator's Note: Patrol Torpedo boat] and landing boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP]. It was mostly white men doing the work. He never had any problem adjusting to civilian life. He credits going to work right away with helping with that. Tizzard only recalls one instance where he dreamed that he was on a dock at night and could hear a boat coming. Someone on the boat asked if he was Thomas Tizzard and said the captain had come to take him back on the ship. [Annotator's Note: Tizzard gets emotional.] That was the only time. Nothing before that dream and nothing since. It was recent to this interview and he did not even tell his wife. [Annotator's Note: Tizzard remains choked-up.] He says that he does not want to go to the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] because he could not take it. He has seven children, and everything has worked out fine.

Thomas Tizzard says that his most memorable experience of World War 2 is hard to pin down. It could be the first time enemy shells were hitting in the wake behind the ship, the USS Helena (CL-50) sinking, or kamikazes. If he thought harder about it he knows there would be more. He had decided to serve because he knew he would be drafted. By enlisting, he had more control over where he would end up and he wanted the Navy, despite not knowing how to swim. If he would have stayed at Higgins [Annotator's Note: Higgins Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana], he realizes he might not ever have even been drafted since they were building the boats for the war. The war changed his life a lot. Some of the men off the ships kept in touch with him pretty regularly. He is proud of having fought for his country and he gave the country a lot of his scared time. He was so scared at times his kneecaps were shaking. He feels that a lot of the countries that he helped no longer appreciate it and are beating us financially and in military strength. The National WWII Museum in New Orleans has to let the world know what happened.

Thomas Tizzard was stationed on ships in the South Pacific. Supplies came from Australia and once could not contact the supply ship. The ship would use Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] to ferry the supplies back and forth. The sailors would then hand-carry the boxes into the holds, but a lot of stuff would not make it that far. Other sailors would grab it and then they would all get together and share it. Native peoples would come out to the ships in canoes and barter goods. Tizzard got some bayonet souvenirs that way. He really liked the native peoples on most of the islands. Some Coastwatchers [Annotator's Note: also known as Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service, or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau; early warning network of Allied military intelligence operatives] would hide shipwrecked sailors or downed pilots with the local populations who were not fond of the Japanese. There were a lot of little stories. The USS Denver (CL-58) was painted in black and white camouflage and another ship's captain radioed that the Denver reflected moonlight at night, making it very vulnerable to attack. The captain decided to repaint the ship while underway and they painted the whole ship while cruising at sea. [Annotator's Note: Tizzard tries to think of more stories. The interviewer asks if he wants to stop. He says yes. The tape cuts then comes back.] When they would go to mess and eat bread, they would have to pick the bugs out of it. When they were running short of supplies once, they only had onion sandwiches. Often, the general alarm would sound just went they sat down to eat. They just grabbed their bread and put whatever else was there and made a sandwich. On one ship, Tizzard and his gun crew emptied out an ammo case and used it to make wine out of raisins. They would also have homemade coffee pots and heating plates at the guns. On night duty, they would unplug the gun sight to plug in the coffee maker. They worked out their shifts to be eight hours long instead of the regular four hours so people could get better sleep. When on leave, they would eat all kinds of food whenever they came across it.