Carey Suratt was born in July 1926 in Dennison, Ohio. His father worked for the Pennsylvania railroad as a fireman. His mother stayed at home with the kids. She made clothing for the kids to wear. Suratt had a sister and a brother. His brother required facial surgeries which cost money the family could hardly afford. His father was a veteran of World War 1. He told Suratt about fighting in trenches. Those stories helped him decide to join the Navy. His parents signed for Suratt to join the service at 17 years old.

Carey Suratt trained at Great Lakes, Illinois. Boot camp lasted five weeks. He enjoyed boot camp. The trainees learned discipline and how to march. After boot camp, Suratt briefly returned home and then traveled to Norfolk, Virginia. He boarded a ship called the United States Army Transport Imperial [Annotator's Note: USAT Imperial]. He then sailed through the Panama Canal. He ended up at Milne Bay, New Guinea. Coming from a small town, Suratt was surprised how big the world was.

Carey Suratt left the United States Army Transport Imperial [Annotator's Note: USAT Imperial], and walked through mud to get to the receiving area. It rained all the time. In the receiving area, he was assigned to the 118th Seabees [Annotator's Note: 118th Naval Construction Battalion] to work until he received another assignment. He built wooden pallets for about three weeks then he was transferred to the amphibious forces. He boarded a refrigeration ship and landed farther up the coast of New Guinea. He was assigned to a hospital ship while he waited for his ship to arrive. He did not mind the work. As a young kid, he worked as a track man for the Pennsylvania railroad during the summer.

Carey Suratt worked on the hospital ship about three weeks and was then transferred to the LST-452 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-452], and finally to the LST-459 [Annotator’s Note: USS LST-459]. On the ship, he performed maintenance jobs, including chipping away paint and rust scabs to keep the ship in good shape. His main supervisor on the top deck was the chief boatswain's mate. He went aboard as a Fireman 2nd Class and after about a year, he started working in the engine room. Surratt stood watch in the main engine room. During the watch, Suratt would clean different areas of the room and took readings. Later he would start the engines and make sure there were no contaminants in the cylinders. He was one of the main machinist mates. He worked with the bridge to make sure the engines were working properly. He had to serve 30 days cleaning all eating utensils. The chief pharmacists mate checked his work for quality. Suratt occasionally would have left over food spill around his work station, making more work for him. It was an educating experience.

While Carey Suratt was aboard the 452 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-452], the ship landed on New Guinea. While there, Suratt witnessed the shore shelling and landing of troops on the island. He was fearful of aerial strafing and artillery fire. During that experience, he understood what amphibious assaults were like. His ship was required to take wounded away. There was a surgical team aboard that could operate on the wounded. Suratt carried wounded on stretchers to the hospital. It was difficult to move people on the stretchers. In the invasion of Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], 60 wounded soldiers were brought aboard, and not one died. During other landings, when people died, they buried them at sea. It is something Suratt has to live with. He knew that it could be him. Food that was not eaten was dumped over the side of the ship at night so they could not be tracked by submarines.

The closer Carey Suratt got to Japan, the more aggressive things became. On his second trip to Leyte, the 459 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-459] pulled up next to USS LST-66. A plane flew down and bombed the other LST [Annotator's Note: landing ship, tank]. Suratt was on a 40mm gun and saw the pilot smiling at him. Suratt thinks about that pilot every day. [Annotator's Note: Suratt gestures with his hands how the pilot flew around.] The pilot flew around until a 40mm shell blew his plane apart. In Lingayan Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayan Gulf, Philippines], submarines were expected in the area. One night near to Manila, a destroyer got into a firefight. After the landing, LST-700 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-700] was hit. On his way to Samar, Philippines, a kamikaze hit a troop ship. The LST-700 was then hit by a kamikaze. The convoy kept going as a destroyer helped the wounded ship. Suratt picked up Australian troops bound for Borneo. Before he got through the Coral Sea, a crank shaft broke in bad weather. The screw [Annotator's Note: propeller] snapped in two from a swell. Sometime after, Suratt made it back to Samar, Philippines, then took troops to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. During that time, a jeep in the hull came undone and got destroyed in the ship.

The LST-700 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-700] eventually made it back to the Philippines. Carey Suratt needed repair parts for his ship and got them from the 700. In the engine room, Suratt saw the extent of the damage from the attack. Two men were killed in the engine room. Suratt received an engine injector from the other ship. Since the war had now ended, Suratt was also on backup duty. In dry dock, Suratt helped chip and repaint the ship's hull. On his return trip to the States [Annotator's Note: United States], the ship started smoking near Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands]. The number six cylinder was leaking. While on duty in the engine room, Suratt asked the bridge for permission to turn off the engine. He managed to fix the engine in 15 minutes. Once back at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], a landing craft was put onboard. He went through the Panama Canal then up the mouth of the Mississippi River and unloaded south of New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. Suratt then sailed to New Orleans and had three or four days of liberty [Annotator's Note: a short authorized absence]. His parents visited him. Around April or May 1946 Suratt sailed to Texas, where the ship [Annotator's Note: USS LST-459] was decommissioned.

Carey Suratt left the Navy when his enlistment time was completed. In 1950, someone recommended Suratt join a new Army Reserve unit being formed. He joined as a sergeant first class and left as a master sergeant, but never saw active duty. He was in the reserve until 1958. His civilian job was as a technical representative. The closer Suratt got to Japan, the more severe the kamikazes became. He was scheduled to make a landing in Japan in November [Annotator's Note: November 1945]. The casualties were supposed to be severe. He knew if that had happened, his ship [Annotator's Note: USS LST-459] would have been filled with casualties and there would be a lot of burials at sea. Suratt prayed that Mr. Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] would do them a favor. The Japanese did not stop immediately after the first atomic bomb was dropped. He knew he was going to be able to go home. Suratt believes the war made him grow up. When he was in school, he did not date. He preferred to go hunting over dating and school. He joined the Navy because he did not want to crawl all around Europe. His mother drove him and two friends to Canton, Ohio to enlist. One of the boys decided to be drafted into the Army.

When he left the Navy, Carey Suratt worked as a brick man for the Pennsylvania railroad. He helped make coal cars. While riding one, Suratt ended up gaining too much speed and had to bail out. His father got a new job as a railroad engineer in Columbus, Ohio and the family ended up moving to Columbus for the new job. Soon, Suratt got a job at the Columbus Army Depot. He knew the family of his interviewer. He spent the next ten years repairing surveying instruments for the Corps of Engineers. He used spider webs and clay to do his job. He then went to work at an engineer maintenance center. His job there is what took him to Vietnam. He received a certificate from General Westmoreland [Annotator's Note: US Army General William Westmoreland], thanking him for his contribution. While assigned to the New Equipment Training Division, Suratt worked on a new security system and the operation of a school in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri]. He went to Vietnam to train instructors on security. He showed the Marine Corps how to install the equipment. He went to Vietnam twice. Suratt needed to know the land he was going to put sensors on, so he went on a patrol.

Carey Suratt believes the war in Vietnam was costly in lives, unnecessarily. He thinks it is important to teach about World War 2. He thinks the Congress should do what they are voted into office for, to protect the country. He thinks everyone should work together because Congress cannot do it all. He thinks all history should be evaluated as required or not required or correctly and incorrectly. He thinks the war in Afghanistan has cost the country a lot in lives.