William O’Brien was born in Dubuque, Iowa in June 1918. His real father passed away when he was four months old. His mother was a nurse. His mother remarried. His stepfather was a truck driver. O’Brien went to school in Earlville, Iowa. He played baseball. He graduated high school and then went to Luther College [Annotator’s Note: in Decorah, Iowa]. He joined the Navy in August 1937. The Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] did not affect them too much. His stepfather lost a little money when the banks closed. He had a good childhood. He did a lot of swimming and played baseball. He liked to be clean and in the Navy, he could stay clean. He was on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Burlington, Iowa when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was on his way to a new cruiser they were building in Philadelphia [Annotator’s Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. He was sent to a motor torpedo base in Rhode Island [Annotator’s Note: Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center (MTBSTC) in Melville, Rhode Island]. He was told to pick up potatoes in his dress blues. He was a second class gunner. He went through training in Melville for signaling, boat handling, and .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. When he graduated from PT school [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat], they put him on an old PT boat [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat]. Then he went to Jacksonville, Florida. They brought the boats up to Melville and they got aboard there. O’Brien’s skipper was John Fitzgerald Kennedy [Annotator’s Note: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, future 35th President of the United States]. They took off and picked up supplies. Kennedy gave O’Brien his leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Kennedy was transferred to the Pacific and O’Brien asked to go with him.

William O’Brien remembers when the skipper left. They did training on the Pacific side of the canal [Annotator's Note: the Panama Canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in between North and South America]. He was assigned to Squadron 17 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 17 (MTBRon 17)] on a Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. He stayed with them until the war was over. He was transferred to Squadron 17 in the fall of 1943. After boot camp, he was aboard the USS Idaho [Annotator’s Note: USS Idaho (BB-42)]. He was a deck seaman for a couple of months. He wanted to be a gunner. He put in a request and two days later he was a gunner. He was aboard that ship for four years. In the spring of 1940, they were sent to Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. They were known as the Pineapple Fleet. They were stationed there until March 1941 and then went to the East Coast. The Idaho went to Newport [Annotator’s Note: Newport, Rhode Island]. O’Brien played baseball. They had hammocks. O’Brien’s hammock was over a five inch gun. He was a hot shellman, meaning he had to catch the shells and get them out of the way of the crew. They had good chow. He was a mess cook.

William O’Brien and fellow sailors played cards or slept when they were not working. He had to take classes to get a rating. O’Brien became a third class gunner and then a second class gunner. The admiral aboard ship knew his name. O’Brien ran into the admiral and knocked him down. He liked Admiral Wainwright [Annotator’s Note: Rear Admiral John D. Wainwright].

William O’Brien remembers serving at the Panama Canal [Annotator's Note: a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in between North and South America]. They would go on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to the little country above Panama. He was on boat 237. He was a chief gunner’s mate. There were gunner’s mates on each boat. When they got to the Philippines, they were attacked by kamikazes [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers]. O’Brien was scared when they got there. He was sitting on the bow and they would fly right at them. They had to be a good shot. They got six planes during the time he was aboard. They worked up the coast of New Guinea. They stayed there until Leyte Gulf [Annotator’s Note: The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II; 23 to 26 October 1944; Leyte Gulf, the Philippines]. They recovered a pilot and his crew on Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau]. When the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] came over, they bombed them with everything they had. Some bombs had knives and forks in them, which they called junk bombs. During the invasion, they had 16 suicide attacks on the first day. They took on survivors from the LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. They took some Army guys to an island to set up a base.

William O’Brien was the second officer to the skipper. They had a cook, a quartermaster, three machinist mates, three gunner’s mates, and one radio operator. They were on a Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: a Higgins-built Motor torpedo, or patrol torpedo, boat]. The torpedoes were carried in a rack. All they had to do was roll them off. Sometimes the torpedoes would get hung up in the tube and sometimes they would come back to the boat. They made two torpedo runs on destroyers. [Annotator’s Note: O’Brien describes a torpedo run.] The crews were more close-knit on the smaller boats than on the big ships. When he had recruitment duty, he met Elvis Presley [Annotator’s Note: Elvis Aaron Presley, or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor] and tried to get him into the Navy.

William O’Brien remembers that they ate well on the battleship. They had a small refrigerator. They checked all the guns. They made sure they were working well. The cook would make stew. There was a small galley. They made four or five runs before Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines]. They recovered a radioman and two other men off an island. The invasion of Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, the Philippines] was the most dangerous in his Navy career. They experienced a lot of suicide planes [Annotator’s Note: kamikazes, or Japanese suicide bombers]. They had the LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] camouflaged. They got credit for six planes. Suicide planes come straight at them. He was up on the bow with his gun on the Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: a Higgins-built motor torpedo, or patrol torpedo, boat]. He had 50 shots and prayed he hit the planes. He was in the Navy for 30 years. When the war ended, he was in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. They celebrated when they heard the war was over.

William O’Brien was on duty in the Philippines. They kept their equipment ready. The ammunition was ready to go on the guns. At night, he stayed on the beach in an old Japanese shack. When the war moved on, they would play volleyball and touch football. Usually, they would sleep in their free time. He flew back to Pearl [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], and then he was supposed to take the ship back to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California], but a guy with a plane came out and asked him where his gear was. They flew into the Air Force base and then went to the receiving station. The guards they had there were left over from the Civil War. O’Brien retired in 1968. He was not wounded. He came through the war in good shape. He went on recruiting duty in Mississippi after he got married. Then he went back out. Then he was on recruiting duty in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He thinks the museum is important and should be a landmark.