Scope and Contents Williams (b. 1926) recalls his childhood in Rigby, Idaho, and describes enlisting in the Navy two days after graduating from high school in May 1944. He was a radio operator on the second Block Island (the first ship of that name had been sunk by a German submarine). He served in Pearl Harbor, Okinawa, Saipan, Guam, Formosa, Leyte, Manila, Ulithi, Borneo, Korea, China, and Panama.