WWII

Joseph Ray Cox Jr. enlisted in the Navy on August 27, 1943, two days after his 18th birthday.  He listed his occupation as musician.   His role in the Navy was as an electrician's mate, second class, and he was part of the Pacific theater.  He shipped out on the ship, USS LCI, (G) 69.  LCI stood for Landing Craft Infantry, the G stood for gun. These were technically called crafts, since they were smaller than 200 feet in length. The LCI (G) transported guns, rather than troops.  “ They were reconstructed removing their ramps, and installing additional armament that included 40mm guns, 20mm guns, and 50 cal. machine guns. Some were additionally armed with 3-inch 50 cal. guns, and MK rocket launchers. The size of the crews typically increased from 23 men and 3 officers, to around 45-50 men and 4-5 officers.”  [1]  The USS LCI (G) 69 happened to be part of one of the worst natural disasters the United States Navy has ever experienced.  

After the war had officially ended in August of 1945, several troops were still stationed in Japan to help with the “demobilization” [2] process.   In October, a typhoon hit that devastated the Navy ships that were there.  Over the radio, a broadcast came through, “A typhoon that had previously been on a northwesterly course that would take it 150 miles west of Okinawa had suddenly veered off that path, headed north towards Okinawa, where it was predicted to make landfall the next day.”  [3] Although October 8 1945 started out sunny, very soon the storm hit.  By the next day, wind gusts were being clocked at seventy miles per hour.  Those that were most at risk were the ships docked in Bruckner Bay.  J. Ray Cox was on one of those ships.  This storm, which was named Typhoon Louise eventually blew away the anemometer with the last reading at 135 miles per hour.  Estimates are that wind speed reached 150 miles per hour, with waves up to thirty five feet high.  Massive Navy ships were dragged about the harbor, crashing into each other, as if they were no bigger than a toy ship in a bathtub.   Their anchors were helpless against these gale force winds.  A total of twelve ships were sunk and lost, over two hundred were grounded, and at least thirty two were severely damaged. “Personnel casualties were 36 killed, 47 missing, and 100 seriously injured.” [4]

After surviving the Typhoon, J. Ray Cox was discharged in May of 1946.  Many of his experiences during World War II shaped his political philosophies.  He told his children that he was appalled by the treatment of African American soldiers during his time in the Navy, and that shaped his views on civil rights.  He felt that no one should be treated that way.  He himself was able to attend college because of the GI Bill, and he realized the importance and long lasting positive effects an outreach program could have on the lives of families.  

When Cox enlisted in the Navy, he was given an aptitude test.  The clerk who tested him said his scores were off the charts, and he could do anything he wanted.  This was the first time Cox had even considered what he wanted to do.  This was a "moment," for him, in his life.  He was only 18 years old, so he probably hadn't thought much about his potential. But he took that counsel to heart.  This experience stayed with him for the rest of his life, as he pursued a career that he never thought possible. 

 Cox’s time serving in the Navy impacted him for the rest of his life.  He gained confidence that he could accomplish difficult things.  He developed leadership skills, integrity and compassion.  He truly realized his potential.  He met people from all walks of life that he never would have met in a small town in Utah.  It shaped his views of Civil Rights. He visited parts of the world he never would have seen and realized that people are good and hard working no matter where they are from.   He was pushed physically and mentally.  He was able to continue to develop his love of music and entertainment.  He met his future wife.  The G. I. Bill allowed him to get a higher education and become a lawyer.  The years from 1943 to 1946 were monumental for him.  

Personal Oral History:  From Katherine Cox Green, as described on April 12 2016

Grandpa Cox went into the Navy the minute he graduated from high school in 1943. He said the wisdom among the guys in high school was that the Navy was much cleaner than the army. The ships were kept spotless, of course: “ship shape,” and the ocean is cleaner than the ground. In basic training the sergeant asked if anyone could type. He needed somebody to do some clerical stuff. My dad was a pretty good typist, so he raised his hand, not realizing this was a big mistake. He was called out of line and sent to the office. When he got back to the barracks the other guys had soaked his white dress uniform in mud and returned it to his locker in a heap. They had stripped and soaked his bunk. He said he knew better than to say anything to anybody. He stayed up half the night getting his uniform and sheets clean enough for inspection, and slept on the floor. They did this every day for over a week, and finally began to admire him, apparently, for not getting them into trouble. He said that on the day that he returned and they had not trashed his stuff, he wept he was so relieved. He had been brave up until it ended. 

I believe it was my dad's experience of his Navy years that convinced him that he was a leader.  He literally "raised his hand" when his sergeant asked for a typist.  No one else dared to break ranks.  He regretted it, but he surmounted the hazing, became an electrician, and was soon entertaining the officers at Farragut.

His division shipped out to Farragut Naval base for training, on the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille in the Coeur d'Alene mountains in Kootenai county. The closest town is a tiny place called Athol, which kids in my classes love to pronounce with their tongues so that the “th” would sound like an “s.” We were very sophisticated. When Grandma Cox was in high school there was a giant Officer's Club at the Farragut Naval base, which the girls liked to visit to dance with the sailors. Grandma was a very accomplished dancer and already singing professionally by the time she was a senior in high school, and she sang at the Officers Club fairly often. One night, Grandpa Cox's band was playing. He was the director of the Naval Base dance band, and played baritone sax. One of his friends had heard Grandma singing another time, and told him he should let her sing a tune with the band. My dad thought, "Oh great, some lame high school girl who can barely carry a tune.”  Of course the minute Grandma opened her mouth, he said "she knocked me out.”  It was a love song, and Grandma thought it would be cute to pretend to be flirting with Grandpa. She wrapped one of his curls around her finger as she crooned the song. Poor Grandpa was a goner.  He asked her out right away and she said she would have to be in early because she had Church in the morning. He said,  “What religion are you?”  she said Mormon, and he said enthusiastically, “Oh so am I!” He was from Utah, and his mom was a practicing Mormon, but he was about as far from being a Mormon as you can get without becoming a goat-worshiper or something.  But if Mom was Mormon, then by gosh so was he.  They were in love within days, and my dad asked her parent's permission to marry her.  She was only 18 years old, and he was only 19.  My grandpa Fritz, my mom's dad, said they would grant permission, but they would ask my dad to wait until the war was over so my mom would not risk becoming a widow, and if there were a child, the baby would not be fatherless.  My dad agreed and spent the next year desperately missing my mom.  She spent the year embroidering a beautiful tablecloth which I still had in Arizona. 

When my dad was a little kid, they were poor because of the great depression, but for 25 cents you could swim in the public swimming pool. Every week there was a contest to see who could stay underwater the longest (that was before the days of liability apparently). My dad always won because the prize was free entrance to the pool for the following week. He was very determined, and he taught himself to hold his breath longer than any other kid in town. This bit of background came in handy when my dad’s ship nearly capsized during a typhoon. Ships were going down all around them, with frantic cries for help coming over the short wave from all directions. When dad's ship was swamped by a huge wave, a lot of the sailors abandoned, without life jackets or floats. They panicked. Dad wrapped his arms and legs around one of the cannons attached to the deck, and held his breath. He eventually passed out but when he came to, he was still clinging to the cannon and obviously, still alive. Many of his shipmates drowned in the storm, but dad's ship righted itself and stayed afloat. 

His division occupied an island in the South Pacific for a very long wait, and it rained every day until the ground was so swampy they had to close all the service tents. That meant there were no mess hall  (where the sailors would normally have eaten their meals) and no medic tent or latrine. The men stayed in their own tents and tried to keep the floors dry by mopping them constantly and hanging the soaked rags from inside the tent poles where they never dried because the air was so damp. One guy would wade to the mess tent every day and bring back crackers and cheese and other stuff that didn't have to be cooked or refrigerated. One morning my dad woke up feeling a little tickle, and there was an enormous tarantula curled up on his tummy, trying to stay dry and possibly interested in a couple of stray cracker crumbs. Dad freaked and pummeled the poor creature to smithereens.  He said he sort of went crazy and just kept whacking at the poor thing after it was barely more than a slight stain on the floor. He said everybody was a little bit crazy by the time the rain had stopped. He said he had always wanted to take my mom back to that Island someday, because he had spent every waking second there longing to be with her. 

My dad said the sailors were able to watch the natives of the island, from a distance. They were a village of farmers, and he said every morning the minute that it was light enough to see where you were stepping, a long line of men, women, and children in cone-shaped hats walked to the fields together.   Every night as the sun was setting the line snaked back to the village. He said this never varied, 7 days a week. He said he felt a great admiration for the discipline and persistence of these people; but it made him hugely thankful for his opportunities to live a much more varied and adventurous life, which he definitely did. He sailed back to mom when the war ended in 1945 and married her in 1946. 

Dad said it was always hot in his bunk, and the men had four hours on and four hours off duty day and night, so it was imperative to get right to sleep when you were off duty. He said all the men slept stripped to their trunks, because their uniforms had to be pressed (you couldn't report to duty in a rumpled uniform), and because of the heat.  Dad figured out that the metal vent that passed over his head was thin enough that he could cut it, eventually, with a combination of gally utensils and grooming tools; so he cut a little square out of the vent, and angled the flap toward his bunk.  He had his own little breeze.  I'm amazed that this was never discovered, or at least never punished.  There were other occasions when it seemed that the discipline was irrationally harsh.

[1] “LCI Facts – USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association.” n.d. USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association. Accessed April 9, 2025. http://usslci.org/facts/.

[2] “Riding Out the Storm.” 2022. International Historical Research Associates. https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/tag/typhoon-louise/.

[3] “Riding Out the Storm.” 2022. International Historical Research Associates. https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/tag/typhoon-louise/.

[4] “Photos of the Damage Left By Typhoon Louise Okinawa 1945.” 2009. Rememberingokinawa.com. https://www.rememberingokinawa.com/page/1945_typhoon_louise_damage.

Bibliography

Cox Green, Katherine L. 2016. Dad's experience in World War II, Oral History.

“LCI Facts – USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association.” n.d. USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association. Accessed April 9, 2025. http://usslci.org/facts/.

“Photos of the Damage Left By Typhoon Louise Okinawa 1945.” 2009. Rememberingokinawa.com. https://www.rememberingokinawa.com/page/1945_typhoon_louise_damage.

“Riding Out the Storm.” 2022. International Historical Research Associates. https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/tag/typhoon-louise/.