James J. Croker
Navy 1944-46 WWII
USS Highlands
I joined the Navy in the spring in 1943, I enlisted in Des Moines, I wasn't drafted. I chose the Navy because I thought I would stay high and dry. I was sent to Camp Farragut, ID for boot training. I stayed there and went to radio school, then I was transferred to San Pedro, CA. We commissioned the USS Highlands (APA-119) in 1944 and stayed on that ship for its entire life, when it was decommissioned in 1946. We sailed to Pearl Harbor in November for training, then in February sailed to Iwo Jima and unloaded troops and supplies. My job aboard ship was Radiomen and ship to shore communications which was utilized as a means to communicate what supplies they needed. We carried survivors from the USS Bismarck and casualties from Marine units to Saipan. In March, 1945, we took troops to Okinawa, for the Invasion of Okinawa. We were off Panay Island when the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, and sailed to Tokyo Bay in September where we landed units of the 1st Cavalry Division on Japanese soil. We sailed through the Panama Canal Zone to Norfolk, VA in January 11,1946. I was discharged after 3 years in Chicago, IL.
In the spring of 1946, I started school at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Utilizing my GI Bill I earned my college degree in liberal arts. I met my wife and we got married in October in 1951. We had three children, six grandchildren, and at the time of writing this we have three great grandchildren.
I went to work for State Farm as an insurance agent and that lasted for 43 years. I retired from the insurance business, when I was exactly 70 years of age. I always promised myself that I would do that, so in November of 1995 I retired.
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