WWII Veteran Remembers the Pacific Theater

For Memorial Day, author and veteran shares hope the world will remember the war in the Pacific

Landing barges carry U.S. troops to Leyte Island in October 1944, during the war in the Pacific of World War II. U.S. Coast Guard

When World War II began for the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, D. Ralph Young was hitchhiking with a friend on his way to see a movie in Stanford, Kentucky. The two caught a ride, and a broadcast came over the car’s radio, announcing that the Japanese had launched a surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Young was just 16 at the time, but the following year, his mother signed her permission for him to enlist in the U.S. Navy. When he turned 18 in 1943, he was sent to war.