By Tom Connolly
On September 2, 1945, the Allied nations (the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dominion of New Zealand) and the Empire of Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, officially ending World War II.
The Fence Post had a chance to sit down with World War II U.S. Navy Veteran Ruben Carlos (age 99), of La Mirada, as he shared some of his memories of World War II.
Mr. Carlos was born in Los Angeles in 1925 and the family moved to the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, near the historic U.S. Route 66, when he was six years old. With the U.S. fully immersed in World War II, on his 18th birthday Ruben enlisted into the US Navy.
“I was going to go into the Army, but my cousin, Frank, who was a Marine, convinced me to go into the Navy instead,” said Carlos, who turns 100 years old in September. “I still think he may have saved my life by recommending that I go into the Navy.”
After receiving training as a gunnery operator, Carlos was assigned as a Seaman First Class and joined the crew on the USS Curtiss (AV-4) and spent much of his service in the Pacific. He spent three and one-half years in the military and is a proud veteran. He was discharged from the service in the spring of 1947.
“I felt obligated to serve my country in the military; our country was at war, and I was proud to be a part of the Navy,” said Carlos. “The military taught me discipline and leadership skills that I’ve used my whole life. I remember in boot camp being placed in charge of my squadron. We were conducting marching drills and a few of the guys were out of formation. A superior of mine told me to get my squadron in order. He told me if I can’t do the job, he’ll get somebody else who will. I told him, ‘If you think you can do it better than me, then you do it’. Later that day, when we got back to the barracks, he made me do ‘duck walks’ as punishment until my legs were burning. I learned my lesson never to talk back to a superior again.”
From 1943 through 1945, Carlos served on the USS Curtiss, named for Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21st, 1878 – July 23rd, 1930) an American Naval Aviator pioneer that designed the Curtiss A1 (the first airplane used by the US Navy) and the Curtiss NC-4 (the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean). The USS Curtiss operated throughout the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Tarawa, Wake Island, Saipan, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Okinawa, as a seaplane tender, flagship, repair, and supply ship for destroyers.
In 1945, aboard ship (he later found out Curtiss was enroute to Okinawa), Carlos recalled being notified that President
Roosevelt had died. “A lot of times, they didn’t tell us where our ship was going, you just went where they sent you,” Carlos noted.
On June 21,1945 while aboard the Curtiss near Okinawa, Carlos survived a terrifying Japanese attack.
“Our ship was hit by a Japanese Zero Kamikaze, and we lost 35 men,” said Carlos. “I was on deck about 50 feet away from where the plane crashed into the midship area and then its bomb detonated on the third deck. The plane was flying very low over the water, and I could see it was going to crash into us. It was chaotic on the ship, and I was amazed at what just happened, but as I recall, I wasn’t really scared. The crew conducted immediate damage control and kept the ship afloat. Our ship was moving when it was struck. The USS Iowa and other ships were nearby when we were hit. Our ship was towed to Honolulu for temporary repairs and then we sailed back to San Pedro, California and then eventually to Mare Island Navy Yard near San Francisco for an
overhaul.” Carlos noted that he was in San Pedro, California for ship repairs when the Atom Bomb was
dropped and the end of the war was announced.
Carlos said that one of the scariest parts of his military service was when his ship traveled through a typhoon in the south Pacific. “That was scary; I couldn’t help to think that we might sink,” he said.
“We had huge waves crashing over the deck. I remember seeing wave after wave pounding our ship, that’s
something you never forget. Our ship rode so high on top of the swells. We had such rough seas that the cooks couldn’t cook. We ate sandwiches. I’m proud to say, the whole time I was in the service, I never got sick.”
Ruben recalled a time when he was on watch in the Crow’s Nest of the ship and he spotted a mine in the water that was close by. He called the bridge and shortly thereafter, a destroyer that was in the area blew up the mine. “That was an incredible explosion,” he recalled. Eventually, the Curtiss and crew sailed through the Panama Canal enroute to Norfolk, Virginia.
After a short stay, Carlos and several other sailors were due to be discharged from the service. “We were placed on a passenger train back to the West coast,” added Carlos. “The journey across country took five days and the trip was okay. I had a nice sleeper car, the food was good, and I got to see a lot of the country.” After arriving in California, Carlos processed out of the service.
Ruben met his wife, Mary, in 1952 while living in Amboy, San Bernardino County, California. They married seven months later and will celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary in November of this year. They raised seven children, five boys and two girls. Ruben worked as a truck driver six days a week until he retired in the 1980’s. He and his wife still live in the same house they bought in 1959 in La Mirada.
“The good thing about being 100 years old is that you always get the last word,” Carlos said jokingly. Reflecting on his enlistment into the service, Carlos declared, “If I had to do it over again, I would do it in a
second.“
Article republished from the September 2025 issue of The Fence Post monthly newspaper. Pick up your free print copy at select La Mirada area locations. Get it delivered by mail for $25 annually by subscribing here.
