World War II Veteran
Hersey Dee Taylor
1927 - 2018
Interviewed by:
Sarah Hufnagel and Alyssa Rodriguez
In uniform
Hersey Dee Taylor with Sarah and Alyssa
"If you could describe the war in one word, what would it be? ... Hell!"
~ Hersey Dee Taylor
Name:
Hersey Dee Taylor
Date of Birth / Death:
May 20, 1927 -
June 4, 2018
Branch of Service:
Navy
Dates of Service:
April 1945 - August 1946
Location of Military Service:
Japan
Residence at Time of Interview:
Orleans, MA
Hersey Dee Taylor's Story
Imagine sailing aboard a ship, the waves crashing, a war going on in the back ground; You aren't allowed to speak
with your family, you can only hope the random people in the freight yards mailed your letters to them.
For Heresy Dee Taylor, this was his life. Heresy Dee Taylor, mainly called Dee, served over a year in the Navy
during World War II. He saw the vast devastation after Hiroshima was bombed, and helped out after the fact. Dee
didn't want to be drafted, so he enlisted before his18 birthday. He went to boot camp in New York, and couldn't
graduate with his class. He was radio man.
Radio men use computers as radios and have a special code to send messages. When he first was in training, he didn't know the code; He had to serve the radio men as he trained. Dee spent the majority of him time in class, but when he wasn't in class he did have time to take part in sports with his Navy friends.
Later, in his time in the Navy he was aboard a ship, called the Cascade, which was the first ship to sail into the Sea of Japan. They had pig boat duty, which was when they used long oars to filter out the bombs in the waters. Once, while he was crossing boats, he was carrying a bag of souvenirs and the board he was walking across broke; he either had to fall into the deep waters or drop his sack. So, unfortunately he wasn't able to bring back any souvenirs, just memories. Dee is a very extraordinary man, and he has seen what many people can't even dream of.
