William Ward Crawford was born in 1914 in Akron, Ohio. He was aware of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and his neighbors losing their jobs. He recalled that his family did not do much but just hang around. Crawford went to college in New England. His brothers were in the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] program at a local college in Ohio. His father worked as an electrical engineer with a tire manufacturer. His father haled from North Dakota and moved to Akron because he did not want to be a farmer. [Annotator’s Note: There os a break in the video at 0:03:37.000.] After Crawford graduated from college in 1938, he worked for a chemical company in Pittsburg [Annotator’s Note: Pittsburg, Pennsylvania]. A year later he moved to New York City [Annotator’s Note: New York, New York] when the company moved their offices there. He lived in an apartment with two fellow workmates. In 1940, he became interested in becoming a Navy Officer and went on a cruiser trip at Guantanamo Bay [Annotator’s Note: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba] to see if he liked the Navy. After the trip, Crawford applied and was accepted in Spring 1941. He went into training and received his commission in June 1941. He was put on inactive duty and returned to work at the chemical company. In September 1941, the military began to beef up their programs and Crawford was ordered to active duty and reported to Washington D.C. for clerical and chemical work. A year later, in 1942, he went for further training in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts] and then submarine chaser training in Miami [Annotator’s Note: Miami, Florida] on a small vessel for one year. He enjoyed his training. He was assigned as an ensign to a patrol craft, USS PC-486, and sent to the Aleutians [Annotator’s Note: the Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. He acted as the engineer officer and first lieutenant. Crawford did not know much about the Aleutian Islands and could not find a map of where they were located. He stopped in Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington] for about a month before boarding his vessel and heading to the Aleutians. Crawford is not aware of any zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] or was not escorted during his passage to the Aleutians. It took about three days to get to Dutch Harbor [Annotator’s Note: in Unalaska, Alaska].

[Annotator’s Note: Interviewee pauses and speaks slowly throughout this segment.] William Ward Crawford arrived at Dutch Harbor [Annotator’s Note: in Unalaska, Alaska]. He was an ensign assigned to the USS PC-486 and served on the vessel for one year. The PC-486 escorted fuel tankers and conducted anti-submarine patrol duty off Adak [Annotator’s Note: Adak, Aleutian Islands, Alaska] and Attu [Annotator’s Note: Attu, Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. Crawford recalled that the weather was difficult, and they often had trouble raising the anchor. They used sonar to listen for Japanese submarines nearby. Most of the time, they would find marine life making noises. [Annotator’s Note: People can be heard talking in the background at 0:27:12.000.] While in the Aleutians, Crawford said that his crew did drop three depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] on suspected Japanese submarines a few times. His vessel did have a three inch gun [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun] in case they encountered a Japanese submarine. The living conditions were good, and they had an officers’ quarters at Dutch Harbor. He had a friend that flew a PBY [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] in the Aleutians campaign. Crawford recalled having to deal with personnel that had bad attitudes or those who would get seasick. Many of these sailors were reassigned. Overall, he enjoyed his crew. His vessel received orders to escort a cable layer back to Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington]. He then received orders to go into more training.

[Annotator’s Note: The interviewee pauses and speaks slowly throughout this clip.] William Ward Crawford returned to Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington] after an overseas deployment on the USS PC-486 in the Aleutians [Annotator’s Note: the Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. Crawford commented on the lack of equipment and clothing during the cold conditions in Alaska. After returning to the United States, Crawford was sent to Norfolk [Annotator’s Note: Norfolk, Virginia] for more training. He was then assigned to a destroyer, the USS Lamons (DE-743), in Honolulu [Annotator’s Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. He remained on that vessel until the end of the war. He went to various Pacific islands, including the Mariana Islands, Admiralty Islands, Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, Philippines], and moving closer to Japan. Towards the end of the war, they witnessed kamikaze attacks, but were never attacked themselves. Their missions mostly included escorting damaged vessels. The USS Lamons worked out of Borneo Island and patrolled the coast. Sometimes the ship encountered small private vessels trying to flee the area. During the Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Okinawa, Japan, code named Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945] campaign, his ship went into the harbor, but then were ordered out because a typhoon was coming. After Okinawa, Crawford was granted leave and found a ride back to the United States on a subchaser in September 1945, and arrived in Hawaii. [Annotator’s Note: The video goes black from 1:03:51.000 until 1:03:58.000.]

[Annotator’s Note: The interviewee pauses and speaks slowly throughout this clip.] In September 1945, William Ward Crawford returned to Hawaii and stayed in the Naval Reserve. Crawford was married in 1942 and his wife stayed in Seattle while he was stationed there. When he went overseas, she went back east and had their first child while Crawford was deployed. It was difficult to find transportation back to the East after he returned to the United States. Crawford recalled that most people supported the war, but there were still some people that were against it and there were problems with communists. He remarks about the mistreatment of Japanese-Americans by the government [Annotator’s Note: Executive Order 9066 signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent]. Crawford believes that the war abruptly changed his life because he had just gotten married and when he went overseas, his wife was expecting their first child. He is glad that he did his part. He believes that World War 2 changed the world and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] pushed America into the war. Crawford believes there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.