William Harvey grew up in Algiers near New Orleans, Louisiana. His family never went hungry because his father worked two jobs to support his dependants. There was a backyard garden to grow vegetables. Harvey's grandfather also had a cow and chickens. All of that together helped sustain the family. There were eight people in the family with one wage earner. Harvey and his sisters had to go to work when they completed high school. One of his sisters attended college but Harvey and his other sister had to go to work. As a teenager, Harvey worked on the weekends for a radio station in New Orleans. After high school graduation, he went to work for the radio station full time. He later worked for a second radio station in New Orleans. In 1940, with the draft underway, Harvey knew he did not want to go into the Army. He lived close to a naval base, and was exposed to that branch of the service. Additionally, his father had previously served in the Navy. He knew he wanted to join the Navy so he signed up for the Naval Reserve. There were three divisions in his area near New Orleans. Drill would be once a week. The men were issued uniforms and received some small pay for it. Every three months, they would receive about 20 dollars. They lived at home and attended drills on Monday nights.

William Harvey was called to active duty in April 1941. There was the 1st Division, 2nd Division and the 6th Division [Annotator's Note: Naval Reserve divisions] in New Orleans. Harvey was a member of the 1st Division. The 1st and 2nd Divisions were called to active duty and sent to boot camp in San Diego. The men were all from the New Orleans area. The 6th Division was called up later and split up to be sent to various trade schools in the Navy. After boot camp, Harvey was transferred to Naval Air Station Corpus Christie. They began work there in July 1941 to put that station into operation. In October 1941, Harvey and his unit were transferred to a receiving station in Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers, Louisiana] and awaited transfer to another location. Three days after the Japs [Annotator's Note: the term "Jap" used by Harvey was very commonly used during the war as a derisive slang against the Japanese enemy] hit Pearl Harbor, Harvey was transferred to Burrwood, Louisiana on 10 December 1941. There were several section bases operated by the Navy in the Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico] region. There were stations at Galveston, Sabine Pass, Panama City, Mobile, and Burrwood. The bases had barracks for enlisted and officers plus administration buildings, hospitals, and mess halls. They also contained fuel tanks and ammunition dumps. They serviced escort vessels for convoys between Texas and the east coast. The bases were to refresh fuel and ammunition for the support vessels and to serve as advance bases in the event of invasion. The base in Burrwood was commissioned in December 1941. It was commanded by Commander Ashley [Annotator's Note: no given name provided]. He had muster one morning and advised his men to be cautious of German submarines deploying landing parties to sabotage the fuel and ammunition supplies. Since the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor just a short time before, the men felt that it would be a low risk for the Germans to subvert their facilities that quickly. Only four or five months later, there would be five or six German submarines operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, numerous American ships were sunk at will while exiting the Mississippi River. By the end of 1942 or 1943, there had been 60 ships sunk in the Gulf or Mexico. Over 500 people would die as a result. One ship, the Virginia, was torpedoed while awaiting the bar pilots to come onboard. The fires on the tanker kept burning for two or three weeks. A dozen men were rescued from the ship. Ships were sunk throughout the Gulf. The ship fires could be observed from land. There were no flares from offshore oil exploration at the time, so the fires had to be from burning ships. A survivor of one the sinkings who was brought back to Burrwood was "Slim" Macpherson [Annotator's Note: no given name provided]. The survivor was extremely burned. He had to swim through burning oil to escape the mortally wounded, torpedoed vessel where he had been a crewman. He was a Merchant Marine. As Harvey talked with the man, he learned that he knew Macpherson's sister. Her name was Florence and they were from Algiers, as was Harvey. After recovering from his wounds, Macpherson went back to sea and was lost in a subsequent enemy attack on his ship. The survivors from German attacks were observed at Burrwood to drop to their knees and kiss the ground. Taxis would drive from New Orleans to Venice along the Mississippi River to take the survivors back for reassignment to another ship. The Navy would loan tires to the taxi driver but removed the tires after the round trip to Venice. Venice was the end of the road from New Orleans along the Mississippi downriver. Everything was hard to get at the time. Torpedoing and resulting survivors became so numerous that the Navy began sending Greyhound buses down to Venice to pick up the surviving mariners. They returned to Algiers Naval Base. The men would be cleaned up and sent to a hospital.

William Harvey served on a converted yacht named the USS Onyx (PYc-5). Onyx was 125 feet long with two diesel driven screws [Annotator's Note: propellers]. The yacht was made into a patrol vessel. It was rumored to belong to a radio personality named Major Bose prior to conversion. There were two .30 caliber machine guns and two .50 caliber machine guns. Depth charges were aft. There was a small gun that was later changed out for a larger caliber weapon. Two 20mm automatic cannons were also onboard. The bow had a rack with missiles that would explode on contact with a submarine. The coverage against submarines was pretty effective as a result except the boat could not make much speed. There were K guns [Annotator's Note: K guns fired depth charges off the side of the vessel to provide outboard coverage against submarines] on the sides of the vessel also. Dropping depth charges was risky because of the slow speed of the craft. Damage could be done to the Onyx if its getaway was not speedy enough. Onyx would do only ten or 12 knots so one drop resulted in leakage in the vessel that had to be pumped out with small Handy Billy pumps. The Onyx was assigned to submarine patrol duty. It went from Key West halfway to the Panama Canal. In its convoy escort duty, it traveled from Texas to Key West. Other vessels would take over from there. Patrols would last about two weeks in the blue waters of the Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico]. In trying to spot submarines, they had only one sounding where they dropped their depth charges. Subsequently, Harvey learned that the Germans were closer to the coastline. They were patrolling too far offshore to find the enemy submarines. Coastal artillery and searchlights were brought to Burrwood to attempt to find surfaced enemy subs at night. There was no success in that approach. One sunken enemy sub was discovered offshore in recent years as a result of underway pipe being laid nearby. Harvey served with several Coast Guard vessels, the Nike and the Boutwell [Annotator's Note: USCGC Nike (WPC-112) and USCGC Boutwell (designation undetermined)]. There were also wooden hull minesweepers that assisted in the area. One was named the Corlin. Jason Daigle and Earl Manisone were from Algiers and crewmen on the ship. The name of the other sweeper could have been the Osprey. [Annotator's Note: name spellings for the minesweepers and the crewmen could not be confirmed.] At sea, Harvey would be on the bridge. He handled the sonar or the annunciator. The sonar was an object the size of a football. It was of World War 1 vintage. The sailor had to listen for the sound of a submarine. Harvey heard the sound of a submarine and it resulted in depth charges being dropped. Still wearing his headphones when the depth charges exploded, he felt he was in a 50 gallon drum and it was being hit by a sledge hammer. It almost deafened him. The Germans had a good run in the Gulf of Mexico at this time because of the lack of defense on the part of the Allies. There were mainly converted ships trying to withstand the German submarines. There were rumors that some people from Louisiana were furnishing supplies to the u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarines]. It was hard for many people to believe that the submarines could come all the way from Europe and operate in the Gulf without some help. It was subsequently discovered that the enemy subs were so large that they could cruise in the Gulf for a couple of weeks before having to return to resupply. The Germans also used a type submarine which was referred to as a "Sow" which served as a tanker and resupply vessel. There was no truth to rumors about Americans resupplying German u-boats. The rumors were only a lot of talk. The military had to keep quiet about the offshore activities with the enemy submarines. The press did obtain some information about the enemy activities. No cameras or photographs were allowed onboard the Onyx. The men that Harvey served with were very dedicated. They were not only angry that the Germans were striking close to their homeland but also that they did not have the proper equipment to fight against them. For the most part, the Onyx worked on its own. It used signal light, not semaphore, to communicate. Some of the freighters and tankers that were sunk by enemy action were the Virginia, the Aurora, the William McConnahan as well as others. The Onyx would run zig-zag courses several hundred miles offshore on patrol. The ship would also escort new construction out from the river. Most activity was solo but sometimes there would be convoy with 25 to 30 ships. Very impressive were passenger ships covered with military personnel. The masses of men looked like ants on the ship. Harvey wondered if they could make it to Europe without being hit.

William Harvey was stationed on a big island named Burrwood [Annotator's Note: Burrwood, Louisiana]. The United States Engineers [Annotator's Note: US Army Corps of Engineers] had a base there at the time. The naval base was tacked on the south end of the facility. There were enlisted and officer barracks, administration buildings, schools, ammunition dumps, fuel depots, fuel docking facilities, and a water tower to challenge vessels coming up the Mississippi River. There were only two .30 caliber machine guns mounted on a roof top for defense. There was no other defense and the machine guns could not have stopped a submarine from encroaching up the Mississippi River. Eventually, coastal guns and searchlights were installed in the base for defense. When Harvey first arrived at Burrwood, he was assigned to clerical work before he was transferred to the Onyx [Annotator's Note: USS Onyx (PYc-5)] as a chief yeoman. At 120 to 128 feet long, the Onyx was the largest vessel at the base besides the two wooden minesweepers. On occasion, a destroyer would take on fuel on its way to Texas. One in particular was an old World War 1 destroyer, the Bowie [Annotator's Note: likely USS Borie (DD-215)]. As one destroyer entered the river during daytime to reach the base, a German submarine fired a torpedo at it. The sub commander did not realize the rock jetties protected the entry. The torpedo hit the jetty and exploded there. One of the bar pilots had a heart attack as a result. Harvey and his patrol vessel picked up survivors from sunken ships. Some of the u-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine] commanders would help the survivors with water and directions back to land while other enemy officers were real Nazis. There were even lifeboats with bullet holes and nobody onboard. Most injured survivors were hurt from fire or explosions resulting from the German submarine assault. There were little recreational opportunities at Burrwood. Liberty was limited and usually involved going to Venice further up the river. Once the crew was on patrol on the Onyx, there was no liberty. Carrying the sailors back up to Venice in a whaleboat resulted in a welcome break in the action. Harvey stayed at Burrwood for two years and then was transferred to the Eighth Naval District [Annotator's Note: the Eighth Naval District is based in New Orleans].

William Harvey worked in the Commandant's office [Annotator's Note: of the Eighth Naval District headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana] in the commissioning detail. He was responsible for getting all new construction ready for joining the fleet. Test runs had to be completed and supplies loaded onboard. Some of the destroyers were manufactured in Orange, Texas. Submarines were built in Chicago and brought down the Mississippi River on barges because of the water depth restrictions. Once there were two Civil Air Patrol pilots retrieved from the Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico]. They had been hanging on to one of the aircraft's tires after the plane went down due to engine problems. After service in New Orleans, Harvey went to Camp Wallace in Texas for separation. He stayed in the Navy until 1945 and then was discharged in Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers, Louisiana]. Harvey joined the Naval Reserves and when the Korean War broke out, he was called up for active duty. He never had to go to Korea but he served 27 months at that time. He remained in the Navy and retired from the service after 20 years. In retrospect, Harvey considered himself lucky to be a survivor of the Second World War. He had a brother-in-law who was a survivor aboard the Gambier Bay [Annotator's Note: USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)] when it was sunk. A friend was aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) when Jimmy Doolittle made his raid over Tokyo. He was a survivor of the sinking of that carrier later. Upon returning home and seeing the monuments with names of friends killed in action, he realized how fortunate he was. The nation was unified by the effort to complete the war. There were only a few small pockets of dissention. People worked in shipyards and saved grease and materials. People helped one another. Criticism of the administration was minimal. The war successfully ended the rule of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and Tojo [Annotator's Note: Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo]. The only negative to come out of the war was the dissention that resulted. Politicians today cannot work with each other. If they would have been in power when Japan attacked, they may have run up the surrender flag. The National WWII Museum is good in that it helps people today realize how much sacrifice was made by the generation that won the war.