William Leo Spaetgens was born on a farm in Roberts Cove near Crowley, Louisiana in 1922. He had eight siblings but one was lost at birth. There were five boys and two girls on the farm. Times were hard. Each youngster had a job to do on the farm. The home did not have electricity until 1937. Until then, lighting was provided by coal oil lamps. With so much work to do on the farm, Spaetgens missed a lot of school by the time he turned 15 or 16 years of age. The harvesting of the rice crop meant that Spaetgens had to drive a wagon to help with the work in the fields. Spaetgens attended school in Crowley. He went to class until the tenth grade then stopped attending school so that he could help more on the farm. He worked the farm until he joined the Navy on 22 October 1942. Spaetgens decided to leave school because he had to help on the farm, plus he found that he disliked going to school. He had the feeling that he did not learn much in school. Instead, he found more education after he joined the Navy. When he returned from the Navy, he studied hard and received his GED [Annotator's Note: General Education Development tests are given to confirm that the individual has acquired a high school level education]. When Spaetgens worked the family farm, rice was the main crop. Additionally, the family grew some cotton and other produce. Additionally, there were cows, ducks, and chickens that had to be tended. Even though the Depression times were difficult, there was always something to eat. The family heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio at about two o'clock in the evening. The news was horrible. That brought the United States into the war with Germany and Japan. War was declared right away. Spaetgens was 19 years old at the time. The draft had started in 1940. Spaetgens was registered for the draft. He was 1-A [Annotator's Note: Selective Service classification indicating that the individual is fit for military service] and knew he would be going into the service. Spaetgens did not want to go into the Army. Although he could not swim very well, he opted for enlistment in the Navy. Prior to that, he had never been out of the state of Louisiana. That all changed after his induction into the Navy.

William Leo Spaetgens enlisted in the United States Navy [Annotator's Note: on 22 October 1942]. His parents did not interfere since they knew what war was. They knew that their son had to serve. Spaetgens went to the recruiting station in Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana] and enlisted. He said he was ready and was prepared to leave the next day. Spaetgens was sent to New Orleans to be sworn into the Navy. The induction was formalized at the Customs House on Canal Street in New Orleans. The following day, he traveled by train to San Diego for four weeks of boot camp. That was the first time he rode on a train. After boot camp, he was assigned to the Armed Guard on a merchant ship. The ship was the Leslie M. Shaw[Annotator's Note: SS Leslie M. Shaw (MC-0444)] which was a Liberty Ship. After basic training, there was four weeks of gunnery school for the naval armed guards assigned to the merchant ships. The trainees would practice tearing down guns all day and sometimes into the night. Spaetgens completed gunnery school on Christmas Eve 1942 and then went to San Francisco and Treasure Island for assignment to the Shaw. The first time he saw the Shaw, he thought it was out of the world. He had never seen anything like it. He had never even seen the ocean before. His first voyage was under severe conditions. The sea was rolling so badly that part of the deck load was lost. The ship was designed to carry cargo internally in five holds and externally above the holds on hatches. Spaetgens did not know enough about the sea to know that it was not like that all the time. The next day, the seas calmed and the ship struck out for Sydney, Australia. There were no problems on that voyage to Sydney. The armed guard on the ship was from 24 to 30 depending on the amount of guns on the ship and its size. There were 24 or 25 on the Shaw. In addition, there was an ensign in charge of the naval crew. Mr. Core was the ensign in charge of the sailors. He was as good as he could be. The sailors and merchantmen got along well. The only time there were issues would be when the ship would be in port and a couple of the civilians would go ashore and get drunk. There was a Navy armed guard at the gangplank who would not allow the drunken merchant sailors aboard. Other than that, all went well. After the invasion of Sicily, the crew wrote up a commendation letter for the Navy crewmen. The merchantmen indicated that they would like to sail with their Navy armed guard contingent.

William Leo Spaetgens and his Navy crewmates aboard the Liberty Ship SS Leslie M. Shaw (MC-0440) were all new to the sea. Most of his fellow Navy personnel had been farm boys prior to entry into the service. The ship had eight 20mm cannon mounts and a 3"/50 caliber gun. Additionally, the Shaw mounted a 4"/50 caliber gun which would only shoot level and could not be used for antiaircraft fire. The other weapons could fire on attacking aircraft. [Annotator's Note: Spaetgens gestures upward as if aiming at encroaching aircraft.] Spaetgens manned a 20mm gun mount. Gunnery school taught him how to change the firing pin blindfolded. The weapon training was all new to him, but gunners had to be rushed through to assist the merchant marines. The Americans were treated nice in Sydney. The Australians were very nice. The Shaw did not sail in a Pacific convoy. That experience would come later. From Australia, the ship sailed south under the island and then through the Tasmanian Straits. The voyage continued across the Indian Ocean to Aden, Arabia. The ship fueled there and then sailed through the Red Sea. The Shaw passed the Suez Canal and unloaded at Port Taufiq. The Shaw remained in Suez, Egypt until the British troops pushed the Germans out of North Africa. [Annotator's Note: The Germans surrendered in North Africa in May 1943.] At that point, the Shaw sailed to Port Said and then on to Haifa, Palestine where the ship was modified to carry troops. The crew learned that their next assignment involved the invasion of Sicily. It took two weeks in Palestine to convert the ship. During that time, Spaetgens had the opportunity to tour the Holy Land. There were three groups of six sailors each who went to tour the area. Spaetgens saw the Nativity, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Dead Sea. The most memorable site was the Garden of Gethsemane with the Church of All Nations with the rock where Jesus wept the night before He died. Spaetgens asked Jesus to bring him home safe. The sailor knew he was going into an invasion. Spaetgens felt through the years that he remained safe and had a long and healthy life because of his entreaty at that rock.

William Leo Spaetgens and his Navy crewmates aboard the SS Leslie M. Shaw (MC-0440) converted their Liberty Ship to a troop carrier for invasion purposes. The Shaw was destined for the invasion of Sicily which would turn out to be very difficult. In order to convert the Shaw to a troop carrier in anticipation of the Sicilian invasion, bunks were added and provisions made for carrying guns and weapons. British troops were transported from Alexandria, Egypt to Sicily where they disembarked. The Shaw traveled in convoy with a British escort. One ship was torpedoed during the transit. The men of the Shaw saw the ship as it was torpedoed. They knew that it could have happened to them, but they disregarded the danger. That incident was the first action the Shaw witnessed. The convoy continued on despite a ship being torpedoed. The Shaw did not see the hospital ship in their convoy as it was torpedoed. Anytime enemy aircraft appeared overhead, the gun crews were told to keep shooting so that the planes would be kept high above the ships. The Shaw had 14 near misses. The hospital ship was sunk at night despite being lit so that the Red Cross was obvious. It was upsetting to know that a hospital ship was sunk by the enemy. Spaetgens saw a body floating by the ship after the sinking. The body was retrieved after Spaetgens called in his report of the floating fatality. The British troops were unloaded on 10 July 1943. The enemy planes would fly over at night. They would drop flares and guns would erupt from the ships. It was one of the most bombed invasion sites of the war. The Shaw was given credit for downing two enemy aircraft even though it was hard to tell which ship hit the aircraft. Spaetgens was on the 20mm mount with a man from New Orleans called Otis. Otis was frightened. He felt more comfortable down in the magazine loading ammunition into the 20mm magazines. The magazine of the 20mm held 65 rounds. There was a crank on the 20mm gun to act as a trigger for the weapon. The 20mm would fire when the crank was pulled. If the crank was held down, the gun would keep shooting. The Shaw fired all its ammunition and had to borrow more. The guns were in good shape. A problem could occur when a firing pin broke or a barrel overheated. There were spare barrels for the gun. When the barrel heated, it would be removed to place in a container of water. Gloves had to be used to handle the barrel. It was easy to change out the barrel of the 20mm. Spaetgens never had the sensation of danger. Some crewmen, like Otis, did experience danger. Each gun had eight to 12 extra magazines in the gun tub for rapid reloading. The British troops were offloaded onto boats while the Shaw was five miles or so from the beach. The men could see the island of Sicily with its mountains in the distance. Planes would come over the mountains. The Navy gun crew received a unit citation for their outstanding service at Sicily. The Shaw was off Sicily from 10 to 14 July [Annotator's Note: 1943]. From Sicily, the Shaw transported a group of Italian prisoners to Tripoli, Libya where they were removed from the ship. The Navy crew was not allowed to communicate with the Italians while they were aboard the Shaw. The ship then went to Algiers, Algeria and then to Gibraltar and on to New York. The Shaw arrived in New York on 13 September after a nine month journey. After staying a few days at the Brooklyn Armed Guard Center, Spaetgens traveled home by train for leave.

William Leo Spaetgens returned to Treasure Island near San Francisco after his leave at home. At that point, he was assigned for the next 13 months to the oil tanker SS Fort McHenry. [Annotator's Note: The SS Fort McHenry was a T2-SE-A1 liquid cargo carrier.] After 13 months, the gun crew on the Fort McHenry was relieved by another crew in Panama. Spaetgens and the rest of the crew were sent home on a 30 day leave. During the voyages on the Fort McHenry, the ship traveled to American Samoa and Nouméa, New Caledonia and so many other places it would be difficult to name them all. He touched 15 different island groups in the Pacific. He passed through the Panama Canal eight times and the Suez Canal 11 times. The one voyage that provided the most satisfaction to Spaetgens was his trip around the world. Not everyone has done that. Mail was rare for the sailors because their voyages were so lengthy. Spaetgens' brother Lawrence joined the Navy at 17 years old and went through the same boot camp facility at the San Diego Naval Training Station. The Fort McHenry was voyaging from the Panama Canal to New Hebrides Islands at Espiritu Santo. That was the fleet rendezvous location. Consequently, that was a frequent destination for the tanker. On one trip, the captain on the Fort McHenry died. During these voyages, the merchant marines would man the watch in the crow's nest and the Navy crew would observe from the deck level. One night, the ship went dark and was dead in the water. The whistle blew and the Navy gun crew woke up. When the men inquired as to what was happening, they were told that the ship's captain had died. When they observed that all ranking Merchant Mariners apparently were drunk, the Navy gun crew commander took control of the ship. He told the radio operator to maintain radio silence until the ship got underway. The next morning, the men on the ship were told to bury the captain at sea and proceed to Pearl Harbor where the ship would pick up a new captain. While at Pearl Harbor, Spaetgens received a letter from his brother, Lawrence. It was postmarked the day before. A good buddy told Spaetgens that they should search for Lawrence since he was on the island. [Annotator's Note: Spaetgens reveals that his apparent nickname in the crew was Spaghetti.] He was told not to go ashore because the Fort McHenry was about to sail. In leaving the harbor the next day, the rudder of the ship malfunctioned. The ship ran into a coral reef and was nearly beached. A tug came and pulled them off the reef and returned the tanker to Pearl for drydock and repairs. The ship stayed in drydock for 26 or 27 days. During that period, Spaetgens and his buddy used their time to search for Lawrence, and with the aid of a Navy chaplain, they managed to locate his brother. The reunion of the two brothers involved catching up and a fair amount of celebrations at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach. The next day, Lawrence shipped out. Spaetgens did not see him again until after the war. Spaetgens was released from service in January 1946 and Lawrence was discharged in April 1946.

William Leo Spaetgens was pulled out of the Navy Armed Guard in January 1945. Many men were removed from that service because the Japanese were being defeated throughout the Pacific by that time. Spaetgens was sent to Fleet Replacement. He disliked that service because he could not see the fleet. It was dangerous duty, but it was good duty all the same. Instead of waiting to be assigned to another gun crew, he asked for engine room duty. He was made part of the black gang [Annotator's Note: the reference to the "black gang" is a holdover from the days of ships being powered by coal where men in the engine room often came out of the compartment looking black after shoveling coal during their watch]. The black gang got along well. They liked Spaetgens because he always did his work. He stuck with that duty until his discharge. He did make a voyage to Japan after the war. His ship carried United States Marines to Korea where the American military took over from the Japanese after the war. From Korea, Spaetgens voyaged to Sasebo, Japan which was near one of locations where an atomic bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: Sasebo is near Nagasaki, the sight of the second atomic bomb explosion in Japan]. The crewmen on the ship were not allowed off the ship. Nevertheless, they could see the serious destruction of the surrounding area. The ship then returned to San Diego where Spaetgens had dinner in the same mess hall where he had eaten after completion of gunnery school. He was sent to Treasure Island [Annotator's Note: Treasure Island is in San Francisco Bay] and put on the discharge list. He was sent to New Orleans Naval Air Station where he was discharged. Getting back to his family was something special. The Second World War had a front line for the troops unlike the war of today. During the war, many families experienced causalities. Vast numbers of nations took part and many millions of people were killed. It was quite an experience. Writing was difficult during the war, and the parents worried. When the war ended, people went to church and prayed. His family had moved to town when his oldest brother had taken over the farm. When the family was reunited, the feeling was almost unimaginable.

William Leo Spaetgens was changed by World War 2. He hated school with a passion. After making it to the tenth grade, he stopped attending school. While in the Navy, he was placed in the Armed Guard service and later in the engine room crew. That was the best thing that could have happened to him. After he was discharged in January 1946, he worked in a mechanic shop on combines and tractors for 16 dollars per week with pay every two weeks. When the two weeks passed, he was given a raise to 18 dollars per week because he worked so hard. He worked there until 1950 when he decided that he wanted to work other jobs. He performed various odd jobs. He had two younger friends who were also friends with the family. Those two had been in the Merchant Marine. They talked Spaetgens into joining the Merchant Marine. He did so and was assigned to an oil tanker called the SS Bull Run. [Annotator's Note: The SS Bull Run was a T2-SE-A1 liquid cargo carrier.] He served exactly one year in the Merchant Marine during 1950 and 1951. Spaetgens served as an able body seaman. He preferred to be a wiper but he could not. The wiper had the duty to clean the engines. On a voyage to England, one of the firemen jumped ship after arrival. The Chief of the ship told Spaetgens that he would be the fireman. At first, Spaetgens refused, but then he agreed to work the boiler room in lieu of the engine room. When he returned to Port Arthur, Texas, he obtained his fireman, oiler and water tender papers. He passed the requirements easily. After the Bull Run returned to Lake Charles from a voyage to New York, Spaetgens was called back to the ship as an oiler. Spaetgens never found it necessary to use the G.I. Bill because of the red tape involved plus the fact that he had insurance.

William Leo Spaetgens had his life changed by the Second World War. If a person could not work for something or pay for it, he or she did without. That was a fact of life. The war was the largest war ever known. It should not be kept a secret. The Merchant Marine lost many men and ships and that should be told. The young should be educated on the war. Museums are important for teaching young people. Many of the young feel that the war was too long ago to be important. A legacy message for the future generations would be to not worry about something you cannot do anything about. The world will be very changed in the next series of years because the American Dream is gone. Hard times are coming for future generations. It is rough. In looking back at his career after the Bull Run, he worked offshore on a tug boat as an oiler. In May 1955, Spaetgens went to work near Rayne, Louisiana at a gas pumping plant to provide fuel to the north. In 1956, he became a repairman. In 1957, he became an operator. As an operator, one man had the responsibility to run the engine room. The company management had confidence in Spaetgens being able to handle the position due to his past engine room experience in the Navy and Merchant Marine. Spaetgens was married in 1958. His wife was born in 1937. The couple had a good life. They raised two boys who also have a good life.