Arthur Kraft of Scottsbluff recalls his experience as a gunner’s mate on the USS St. Louis while serving in the Navy during World War II. Kraft said he feels lucky to be alive after the ship he was on avoided sinking despite being hit with a number of bombs and Kamikazes and also surviving a typhoon.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – In 1939, when Arthur Kraft was only 16 years old, he left Scottsbluff and traveled to California to join the Coast Guard.
Kraft, however, couldn’t land a spot in the Coast Guard, so he went to work at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It’s located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California.
Kraft spent about three years working at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard before he received a draft notice in 1942 to help the United States during World War II. He decided to return to Scottsbluff and was there for just 30 days before he received another draft notice.
The military sent him to Farragut Naval Training Station in northern Idaho, where he prepared to enter combat in the Navy. After his training ended, he was sent to Pleasanton, California, where he spent one week before being transferred to the USS St. Louis at Mare Island. The USS St. Louis (CL-49) was being armed for combat.
“I felt OK at that time because I had to go help, and everybody else was being told they needed to help, too,” said Kraft, who’s 95 now and is a resident at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home in Scottsbluff. “Plus, I felt comfortable being there since I had been around the Navy people a lot while I was working in the shipyard. They would come in with their ships all tore up, and I did my best to help. I was a welder, using a torch in the shipyard.”
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