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Loris Westover Recalls His Military Experiences — Part 2

ATT3058204In this section of the narrative audio Uncle Loris details Navy life in the years before the war leading up to and including the events of December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor.

Loris talks about the condition of his ship and crew that Sunday morning and how they were the first ship out of the harbor.

Though his 4-year enlistment was complete the war changed things for everyone and Loris remained in the Navy.

Go to Part 1 by clicking here
Go to Part 3 by clicking here

Loris Westover Recalls His Military Experiences — Part 1

This is the first of three recordings of Loris Westover recounting his military experience in World War II, inclusive of his experiences at Pearl Harbor.

This recording was made in 2001. Loris is recorded by his brother, Darrell J. Westover. (I am uncertain how this was first recorded. There is some background noise that I attempted to minimize. You can hear Loris and Darrell clearly but the background noise is still evident but improved over the original).

I have some knowledge of Loris’ life story but I am hoping this post gets passed around to his family and invite them to comment or share memories of his life and story as an attachment to these posts. I believe they can better represent his story than I ever could. I did not have the opportunity to get to know Loris but it is a thrill to hear his voice through the stories he tells in these recordings.

In this portion of the recording Loris recounts enlisting at the age of 17 and his experiences and observations at boot camp. He recalls being shipped on an oil tanker from San Diego to Vallejo and assigned to the Indianapolis where he worked scrubbing decks. After a week he was transferred to the Henley.

Special thanks to Marc Westover for providing me with this recording to add to our archives here.

Go to Part 2 by clicking here
Go to Part 3 by clicking here