Levi Oliver was 20 years old, a student at Murray State University, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“I was standing at the end of the sidewalk at the Hut, a restaurant where everyone hung out back then. It was right across from the library at Murray.
“Somebody came by and told me they had just heard it on the radio,” said Oliver, now 88. “I don’t remember who that was who told me, but I remember what his message was, they had bombed us.”
Oliver said like most other “able bodied American boys,” he was ready to go to war and fight for his country right at that very moment.
“Everybody who was a true blooded American wanted to sign up after that,” he said.
Oliver was pursuing a bachelor’s of science degree from MSU with a major in agriculture and a minor in math and chemistry but was ready to put his education on hold and enlist.
“I went to the Army, but they wouldn’t have me because I have flat feet,” he said.
“I went to the Navy, but the Navy wouldn’t have me because my weight wasn’t enough for my height.
“By the time I got to the Marines, I had learned how to pass a physical.”
At the time, Oliver had severe burns covering his right arm, the result of an explosion in the chemistry lab.
“But they told me once I got that all healed, to go to Louisville and I could be sworn in,” he said.
Oliver was sworn in to the United States Marine Corps when he was a junior in college.
“They let me go back and finish my senior year though,” he said.
The day Oliver graduated from Murray State, he said he stepped out of the auditorium, diploma in hand, when he ran into his roommate with the morning mail.
“There were my orders,” he said. “So I walked across campus with my diploma in one hand and my orders for active duty in the other.”
Oliver’s date of induction was July 1, 1943.
He was to report to Parris Island, S.C., for basic training. From there he was sent to the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, in Virginia for Officer Candidate School.
“I don’t know if it was my size that was against me or what exactly, but I was busted out of that,” he said. “I didn’t make it through the officers’ training.
“I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen to me.”
Oliver said at the time he thought the situation was just plain “bad,” but later realized it may have been a blessing.
“Most of those boys who made it through the training the same time I was there ended up as infantry platoon leaders, and most of them never made it back.”
Oliver was discharged and headed towards home, which was Lyon County.
“I had this buddy at the time, and we had talked about trying to get into the Merchant Marines. But we didn’t have much time to talk about that before our draft numbers came up,” said Oliver.
The duo had their choice of what branch of service to join. Oliver decided to return to the Marines, while his “buddy” headed to Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
“And I never saw him again after that,” Oliver added.
Oliver’s second date of induction with the USMC was Dec. 21, 1943.
Camp Pendleton, located in southern California, just north of San Diego, was where Oliver was sent; and he was assigned to Casual Company, which is the designation given to a unit of Marines awaiting reassignment.
“It was just a holding pen for everybody who didn’t have a specific job yet,” he said. “We were all just there waiting until something came up.”
Oliver was assigned to the 5th Marine Division which was activated at Camp Pendleton on Jan. 21, 1944.
“And can you imagine of all things, they put me in the military police,” he said. “A skinny little guy like me.
“Can you imagine me trying to separate two drunken soldiers?”
Oliver said a notice posted on base one day caught his eye.
“They were looking for guys who could use a typewriter. So me and my friend, this Italian guy from Utah, we high-tailed it up there to headquarters,” he said. “And I got assigned to the service battalion.”
