William Cassady was born in June 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family moved to New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] when he was three years old. At 12 years old his family moved back to Philadelphia. He grew up during the depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. It was rough during the depression. They went by bus to Philadelphia. It took three days to get there. Philadelphia was the third-largest city at that time. School was a disruptive period for them because they were constantly moving. His father was trying to pick up work wherever he could. He went to three Catholic schools and one public school during this period. He joined the CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] in order to drop out of school in 1941. The CCC was a depression-born project to put young people to work. They built a CCC camp when Pearl Harbor happened [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They had the weekends off. He hitchhiked home to Philadelphia for the weekend. Cassady did not know where Pearl Harbor was. He heard on the radio that the Japanese had attacked. He did not want to be in the Army. He enlisted in the Navy. He went to Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois] in Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois]. His father was in the military during World War 1.

William Cassady went to Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois] by train. Then he went on to Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois] for Naval training which lasted six weeks. He learned drills and went in for rowing boats. They started at about four o’clock in the morning and went until 6 in the evening. When they arrived, they had to take all their clothes off and put them in a box to be mailed back home. Then they had a physical. Cassady took a test and was made a radio operator. He learned how to take code. He flunked out of the class because he heard the right note but would hit the wrong key. He was transferred to a small corvette. He was then shifted to the amphibious force in Norfolk, Virginia. He was assigned to a ship, the USS Frederick Funston (APA-89), in New Jersey. Cassady was a signalman on his boat. He was on the LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat].

William Cassady was assigned to the ship [Annotator’s Note: USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)] in 1943. They went into combat during the Italian Campaign. They left Virginia with an Army division on board for the invasion of Sicily [Annotator’s Note: the Allied invasion of Sicily, Italy, code named Operation Husky; 9 July to 17 August 1943]. They took troops to North Africa, and to Naples [Annotator’s Note: Naples, Italy] in 1943. They picked up members of the 82nd Airborne Division and took them to Ireland. They were preparing for D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Some of their men were asked to volunteer for D-Day. Then they went to Glasgow, Scotland before returning to the United States and shipping out to the Pacific. They missed D-Day at Normandy, but they made a total of seven invasions. It took two weeks for them to get from Virginia to North Africa. They were there for six months. They were training troops to make landings. They took them to Sicily and then they went back to North Africa. They usually had troops on board for about a month. Cassady got seasick one time. Sicily was a lightly defended operation. There were a lot of casualties. They were attacked by German aircraft. At the same time, American paratroopers were making a landing. The ships were firing at everyone and as a result, some of the American paratroopers were getting shot at. They had troops ready to hit the beach and it kept getting postponed. Cassady got all the men he delivered into battle onto the beach. Cassady was on the tiller which looked like a giant lug wrench. It fits on top of the rudder. It took three days to unload the ship with 28 boats. They lost a lot of boats. They did not experience any enemy fire. Some of their men got hit on other beaches. They missed Normandy because they were on their way to Saipan.

William Cassady [Annotator’s Note: serving aboard the USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)] remembers German intelligence was ahead on everything [Annotator’s Note: he is referring to his mission at Salerno, Italy]. They knew when they were going to attack and how they were going to do it. The Italians were telling the troops that the Germans were getting ready for them. The beach landing was not the issue. Their objective was Salerno which is south of Naples [Annotator’s Note: Naples, Italy]. In the Pacific, there was no stalling before the missions. They picked up 400 troops from Hawaii to take to Salerno. On their last trip to Naples, they picked up the 82nd Airborne Division and took them to Ireland. There was a hurricane and the ships got scattered at sea. Then they went to Glasgow, Scotland. The British were pretty aggressive. They looked at the Americans like they were tenderfoots. They stayed in Scotland for a month and then went back to the United States. They went to Rhode Island and picked up 2,500 Seabees [Annotator's Note: Members of US naval construction battalions]. Then they operated out of Hawaii before movingto the Philippines. After that, they went to Iwo Jima [Annotator’s Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. Their ship broke down when they were on the way to Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They had a broken turbine.

William Cassady [Annotator’s Note: serving aboard the USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)] remembers the ship behind them got hit but his ship did not. They were sitting ducks in Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, Philippines]. One of the LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] recruited the Filipinos to unload the ship. The Japanese infiltrated and stole some supplies. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were good jungle fighters. They were taking some Seabees [Annotator's Note: Members of US naval construction battalions] to Honolulu [Annotator’s Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. They were part of the invasion of Saipan. When they got to Hawaii, they could see the sunken ships from the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941].

William Cassady remembers Saipan [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Saipan, Mariana Islands; 15 June to 9 July 1944] was surrounded by a large reef. There were only certain places they could get through with the boats. They used the LVTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as Amtrack or alligator]. They were transferring troops from the ships to the LVTs. The LVTs were gasoline engines. They came under mortar fire when they reached the beach. They left some of their boats there. The Japanese aircraft were shot down. The carrier forces were between the Japanese aircraft and Cassady’s boat. After Saipan, they went back to Hawaii to pick up Army troops for the invasion of Guam. Cassady was considered a reserve during the invasion. There was one man who was court-martialed for water skiing during an invasion. The Japanese were going to use Guam as a staging area. They covered 72,000 miles at sea during the war.

William Cassady [Annotator’s Note: serving aboard the USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)] had crew's quarters while they were on the ship. This was better than what the troops had. They had bunks nine high in the holding area. The crew's quarters were nice. There were nine men in a compartment. The bunks were three high. Their ship had an ice cream machine. They ate powdered eggs and powdered potatoes. After the Philippines, they went to Ulithi [Annotator’s Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands] to pick up Marines. It was the 3rd Marine Division and they were going to Iwo Jima [Annotator’s Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. They dropped off replacement troops after the initial assault [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945]. Their skipper’s son was in the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima, and he was severely wounded. Cassady’s LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] was sent up to pick up the skipper’s son. The young man was missing both legs, and an arm, and had a hole in the side of his head. He came aboard and spoke to his dad, the skipper, and then died aboard the ship. They took him ashore the next day to be buried. The skipper could not be there when they buried his son. As Cassady was going back to the ship from the burial, they got word that they had to go back to Guam. Cassady was not wounded, but he was involved in a couple of accidents. One time one of the boats took in a lot of water. [Annotator’s Note: Cassady shows a picture of his boat and explains his position.]

William Cassady’s ship [Annotator’s Note: the USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)] did not have a lot of contact with the Japanese Navy. They dealt more with the Japanese Army and Air Force. At Luzon [Annotator’s Note: Luzon, Philippines] there was a fierce battle against the Japanese fleet. There were not enough boats. [Annotator’s Note: Cassady shows a picture of a ship.] The LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] was made to carry the tank gliders.

William Cassady’s last mission was Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan]. At Iwo Jima, they picked up the skipper’s fatally wounded son in a whaleboat. After that, they went back to the Philippines and picked up troops to go to Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. On the way to Okinawa, their ship broke down. The troops were picked up by another ship. Then they went to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] for repairs. Cassady did not want to stay in the Navy. He was lost after he got out of the Navy. He went to aircraft mechanic school in Philadelphia [Annotator’s Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. He went to Milwaukee [Annotator’s Note: Milwaukee, Wisconsin] and got a job with an airline.

William Cassady thinks people should study the war because it will show how the United States got where they are now. He helped build a boat and restore another one for the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He thinks having the museum is important because high school kids think the United States fought on the same side as the Germans. Cassady was a Petty Officer Third Class. He was a coxswain [Annotator’s Note: A person who usually steers a ship's boat and has charge of its crew]. He joined the Army National Guard after the war.