It was the summer of 1943 just after graduation from Hawthorne High School that Don Gray decided to enlist in the U. S. Navy.  The United States had been at war since Dec7,1941 when Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Don hoped to join many of his fellow graduates who had already joined up, but he was rejected because of his eye-sight being below par.  He heard about an ophthalmologist in New York City who could help to improve one's vision with eye exercises. Don made contact, and for the next two months he commuted to New York to take the course.
       On Don's eighteenth birthday,Sept.3,1943,he was required to report to the Draft Board, where he passed the physical including his eyesight exam. The Navy, which was his first choice, had filled its quota, so he chose the Marine Corp. and was accepted. He left home at the end of October and traveled by train to Parris  Island, South Carolina along with many other recruits from the area.
       The next ten weeks were spent in Boot Camp where Don shared a barracks with ninety other  trainees, half of them from Georgia and Florida and the other half from New York and New Jersey. The time was spent marching, at rifle practice and training in other marine activities.  He completed the two weeks of training at the rifle range with a marksmanship award.
       One day while standing on the chow line, Don "hooked" his thumb in his pants pocket. The drill instructor came along and whacked it and said," Hand out of pocket; see me after chow," Later he ordered Don to fill the seven pockets of his uniform with sand, sew them up, and report back in two weeks... Near the end of the Boot Camp stint, Don and two others, Chuck Arbano of Long Island and Bernard Mangel of Somerville, N.J., were chosen to attend radar school based upon the results of a test they had taken. Radar was a brand new concept at the time.
       Before starting school, however, they were granted a ten day furlough which coincided with the Christmas season in 1943.A lot had occurred since High School graduation in June of '43 and soon he and twenty-four other marines were headed for Camp LeJeune, N.C. to begin a one year study of radar.They heard lectures given by a top expert from M.I.T. on electrical theory as well as engaging in hands- on activities such as building a radio, and learning to operate the radar machine. As noted above, radar was in its infancy and the maximum range of detection of an incoming plane was about 150 miles. It was during this period that Don's cousin Bette Moore, along with his parents, visited him at Camp LeJeune. See the photo below. Upon completion of their studies, these new radar technicians were needed in the Pacific where the Japanese were actively involved in attacks on U.S. ships and islands in

the area.The group shipped out of Norfolk, Va. on the U.S.S. Nightingale in December of 1944, and passed through the Panama Canal on their way to Pearl Harbor.  The Nightingale was a slow and lumbering troop ship with about one thousand troops aboard, most of them recent high school graduates.  They slept below deck on cots, stacked four cots high, in a very small hot space.  Don and a few others chose to sleep on deck under the life boats, which necessitated their awakening early in the morning to get out of there before the daily swabbing of the decks began. The men were allotted one helmet full of water daily with which to bathe and clean their teeth. Don  remembers the day that water was pumped from a lake while passing through the canal,which was used for a shower,the only one during the entire trip.There were two meals scheduled each day, one at 10 A.M. and the other at 5 P.M.  It was necessary to get on the chow line at 8  A.M. for the morning meal and at 3 P.M. for the evening meal.  The men ate standing up at twenty foot long tables which swayed with the movement of the ship on a rough sea. The "mess hall" was an aptly named dining area.this ship finally reached Hawaii  twenty-one days later.The week spent in Hawai in a tent city on the side of a hill was in stark contrast to the previous twenty-one days aboard ship.A swim at Waikiki Beach was enjoyed by all while

 awaiting the arrival of a British Aircraft Carrier to transport them to Guam, where they spent a week building Quonset Huts on an island that was "secure", but with Japanese troops still in the hills.  At the end of this week, Don and eleven others flew on to Tinian Island which had been secured earlier.  They settled atop a hill at the radar station.  As unbelievable as it might seem, Don met a former basketball team-mate Beno Loughman from Hawthorne High School on the basketball court on Tinian Island. See below :

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