Irvin C. Klimas was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in October 1920. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks what Klimas' recollections of the Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945, are.] There was a lot going on and he was relatively young at the time and did not appreciate all of the problems. His dad had a tough time working. There was a very gracious grocer who carried them. Klimas started selling newspapers at eight years old and did that through high school. It helped with the finances. He graduated high school in 1938. Things were still tough, and he looked for work door-to-door. He got a job running an elevator for a couple of years. He had aspirations of going to school. He enrolled at Linsly Institute [Annotator's Note: Linsly School in Wheeling, West Virginia]. He got offered a job as a bank messenger in 1941. Late 1940, one of his elevator passengers was a pretty young lady. He got to know her and married her. Their first date was in February 1941. He started his bank job in March [Annotator's Note: March 1941]. On 7 December 1941, there was Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He fully expected to be drafted. Around February 1942, he enlisted in the Navy because he did not want to be drafted. He was not called up until July 1942. He went to Charleston, West Virginia for a mass induction ceremony. They had a baseball game for them, and Bobby Feller of the Cleveland Indians [Annotator's Note: Robert William Andrew Feller, American baseball pitcher] was there. They got on a train to Norfolk, Virginia for boot camp.

Irvin C. Klimas was in boot camp for six weeks. After boot camp, he had a ten day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He then went to Fire contral school in Huntington Point [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], Newport, Rhode Island until the end of December [Annotator's Note: December 1942]. He was promoted to Fire Controlman 3rd Class. He was sent to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to advanced Fire Control school around January 1943. They took a troop train to a destroyer base. That lasted to around the end of April [Annotator's Note: April 1943]. He was assigned to the USS Thompson (DD-627) which was under construction in Seattle, Washington. He went aboard the ship and watched the installation and testing of the fire control equipment that he would be operating. The ship was commissioned on 10 July 1943. They went to the Bremerton Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington] and then headed down to San Diego through the Panama Canal and to the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean]. Their first stop was the Brooklyn Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, New York] for fine tuning. They worked along the coast with the battleships New Jersey [Annotator's Note: USS New Jersey (BB-62)], Arkansas [Annotator's Note: USS Arkansas (BB-33)], and New York [Annotator's Note: USS New York (BB-34)] that were doing bombardment practice. They took a convoy across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and pulled into Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] in the fall of 1943 [Annotator's Note: October 1943]. They then made a convoy run back to the United States. This continued for several runs. About every six weeks they would make a convoy run to Europe and then back. Once in a while, their sonar would pick up a blip of something shadowing the convoy. They would drop depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] and the blips would disappear. They did not know if they were submarines or whales.

In the early part of 1944, Irvin C. Klimas and his ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Thompson (DD-627)] were put in a Task Force [Annotator's Note: Destroyer Squadron 18 (DesRon18)] headed to Europe with the battleships Arkansas [Annotator's Note: USS Arkansas (BB-33)] and Texas [Annotator's Note: USS Texas (BB-35)]. They went into Plymouth, England. In May [Annotator's Note: May 1944], they visited other ports in the British Isles. Many years later, the captain told him at a reunion that they had been delivering the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] plans during those visits. At every stopping point, the day after they left, the Germans bombed the ports. They must have had a notion of the plans. When it got close to the date of the invasion of Normandy, they got in the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel] ready to go. They pulled in on 3 June [Annotator's Note: 3 June 1944] and the seas were rough. On 4 June [Annotator's Note: 4 June 1944], they went into Portland Harbor [Annotator's Note: Portland, England] to get out the seas. That night, the Germans bombed the water around the fleet. The bombs straddled the ship. This went on for about an hour and nobody was hit. If they had hit one ship, they would have seen the fleet. They pulled out in the afternoon on the 5th [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944]. They appeared off the coast of France about three o'clock in the morning. He could see flashes of the bombs exploding on the beach. They took a position off Pointe du Hoc [Annotator's Note: promontory on the English Channel, Calvados, Normandy, France]. Their job was to keep the gun battery down on the flat land about the Pointe. They opened fire at five thirty in the morning and knocked out targets of opportunity. They ceased firing when the invasion fleet moved into the beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy]. They hovered off the beach on D-Day. At one point, the Rangers [Annotator's Note: Army Rangers] had some difficulty, so they moved in to help them and take some of the wounded off. They kept the German gun battery pinned down so the Rangers could climb a cliff. They spent the afternoon firing at targets provided to them by a Ranger spotting party inland. These included trains, barracks, houses, and cars. At the beachhead, it was pinned down for quite a while. Klimas was below deck. He did go topside and watched an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] unload some trucks. A German gun battery was knocking them off one after the other. About mid afternoon, the battleship Texas pulled up. They walked up the beach with their 14 inch guns [Annotator's Note: 14 inch, 45 caliber gun] and must have taken out the battery. From that point on, the ships could unload without problems. The Germans had been using smokeless powder so they could not see where they were firing from. After the beach opened, people began to move out.

Irvin C. Klimas and his ship [Annotator's Note: USS Thompson (DD-627)] gave support to the Rangers [Annotator's Note: Army Rangers] off Pointe du Hoc [Annotator's Note: promontory on the English Channel, Calvados, Normandy, France] all through the night [Annotator's Note: during D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Mid morning on 7 June [Annotator's Note: 7 June 1944], their ammunition levels were low, and they had to go back to England to reload. That was his first sleep in about 36 hours. They loaded ammunition for five hours. They stayed overnight and returned on the 8th [Annotator's Note: 8 June 1944]. The ships were warned to approach the beach cautiously as the Germans had dropped mines by air overnight. A destroyer escort was sunk, another lost its fantail, and another was tilted on its side. The mines were cleared. Their duties at the beach were knocking out targets of opportunity. There was an old house standing. The rangefinder said they should put a shell through the rear window, and they did. The Germans were using it as a spotting station for artillery. Around ten days in, they were sent back to Portsmouth [Annotator's Note: Portsmouth, England] to pick up General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], General Arnold [Annotator's Note: General of the Army and General of the Air Force Henry Harley Arnold], and others. They took them to the Normandy beachhead [Annotator's Note: at Omaha Beach]. The General [Annotator's Note: General Eisenhower] was very gracious. Klimas had to pass by him, and the General shook his hand and thanked him for what he was doing. He was there for one day and they took him back to Portsmouth. They continued patrolling. They were attacked by several German torpedo boats. The English had destroyers out there that helped knock out the torpedo boats. Klimas' ship fired star shells [Annotator's Note: artillery used to illuminate the battlefield] so the English could see the incoming Germans. About two weeks later, General Eisenhower again visited the beachhead. They were his taxi again. About a month in, the Augusta [Annotator's Note: USS Augusta (CA-31)], the flagship of Admiral Kirk [Annotator's Note: Admiral Alan Goodrich Kirk; senior naval commander, Normandy landings], had to go back to refuel. The Admiral's flag was transferred to his destroyer for about three weeks. After that, they were taking a General to Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France]. Klimas was on the deck watching the PT boat [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat] take him to shore. A British minesweeper [Annotator's Note: small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines] crossed the wake of the PT boat and blew up. They deduced that Germans had set mines with counters on them. They picked up most of the survivors.

Irvin C. Klimas and his ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Thompson (DD-627)] gave support to the landing forces around Omaha [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France as part of D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy 6 June 1944] and Utah Beaches [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France] until the latter part of July [Annotator's Note: 24 July 1944]. They pulled out and went to the Mediterranean for the invasion of Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944]. They went to Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy]. On 15 August [Annotator's Note: 15 August 1944], they were in position off Saint-Tropez [Annotator's Note: Saint-Tropez, France]. The Germans moved out and there was no resistance. The ship never fired a shot. They hung around the area for about a month and then headed back to the United States. They stopped in Bermuda for a harbor check [Annotator's Note: 1 October 1944]. They went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: in Brooklyn, New York, New York] around 1 October. He had a 12 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He decided to get married. The ship made a few more convoys to Europe and back in 1944. In early 1945, they were converted to a minesweeper [Annotator's Note: and reclassified as USS Thompson (DMS-38)] for the invasion of Japan. They were sent to South Carolina for that. Toward the end of July [Annotator's Note: July 1945], they headed for the Panama Canal Zone. They were there on 6 August when the first atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945] was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later they bombed Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. They were in the Pacific. On 14 August 1945, the Japanese surrendered. He had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be considered for discharge when pulling into San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. He went to Bainbridge, Maryland where he was released from the Navy on 22 September [Annotator's Note: 22 September 1945] and went back to civilian life.

Irvin C. Klimas' interest was in college, and he applied to a few colleges. He was accepted at Carnegie Tech [Annotator's Note: Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] and enrolled in February 1946. His first daughter was born on 29 December 1945. He went through four years in chemical engineering. He graduated with honors. His second daughter was born a week before he started his master's degree. He got it in May 1950. He went to work for PPG Industries in Natrium, West Virginia on 3 July 1950 as a chemical engineer. He was made Area Superintendent of a unit that made chemicals like ammonia. About 1955, he was moved to be the Production Control Engineer. In 1956, the company was negotiating to participate in a venture refining zirconium from zircon sand. He was put on a team to study the process. In February 1957, they presented their findings and agreed to participate. Klimas was asked to be the representative and he moved to Pensacola, Florida with his family. He stayed there until about 1962. He was sent to Beaumont, Texas to evaluate another process. He became Operations Superintendent there and eventually a manager in 1965 to 1968. He then became the Business Manager for organic chemicals and moved to Pittsburgh. He enjoyed the work, and it was a lot of fun. There was a mining operation in Sierra Leone that was changing management. He became President and Managing Director there. It was a great disruption and uprooted him from his family. They were with him the first summer. The operation was not economical, so they shut down. There was a coup in Sierra Leone, but he got through it. In 1971, he went back to Pittsburgh and was appointed to a plant in West Virginia where he had started in 1950. They had a strike in 1973. In 1974, he was transferred to Pittsburgh. He managed plants around the United States. He was made Director of Manufacturing and later the Director Operations in Saskatchewan [Annotator's Note: Saskatchewan, Canada]. He retired in 1985. He had opportunities to consult but felt he had spent enough time away from his family. They have done a lot of traveling since then. He has enjoyed his life. His wife died in 1998. He has four daughters, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

The Germans had several towers with radars on them that Irvin C. Klimas and his ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Thompson (DD-627] took out [Annotator's Note: during D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. There were several gun emplacements above Pointe du Hoc [Annotator's Note: promontory on the English Channel, Calvados, Normandy, France]. Because of the shallow trajectory, they had to use proximity fuses [Annotator's Note: detonates an explosive device according to a predetermined value] to explode over the targets. The German soldiers would abandon the installations. When they came back, they would shell them again. They did not see the targets provided by the Ranger [Annotator's Note: Army Ranger] spotting party inland. They had no contact with any crew on the ground other than the Rangers. They were about 1,000 yards off the beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy]. They only had three or four feet of clearance so they could not get closer. They had no fire at them at all. German planes flew over. One evening a German plane flew right in front of them and one of their 20mm guns [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] shot him down about 100 yards away from the ship. They had no direct fire at them from shore batteries. German planes dropped bombs, but nothing hit them. Sniper nests would have been picked up by the Ranger spotting party. Klimas was not nervous but apprehensive on D-Day. They picked up a body of a 21-year-old soldier and that made Klimas mad. He did not have any fear. He had caution when bombs were dropping around them but was not scared. On one of their runs through the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel] they dropped depth charges [Annotator's Note: explosive charge used for attacking submarines] off the fantail [Annotator's Note: overhang of the deck extending aft of the sternpost of a ship] but were not going fast enough. When they went off, they lifted the fantail. That damaged the rangefinder so they were limited for a short period until they could fix it. They had radio contact with the Ranger squad who had been aboard their ship before the operation. They also helped with the wounded. They would transfer them to a hospital ship. They all had confidence in their captain. The fact that Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] used their ship as a taxi is a credit to their captain.

Irvin C. Klimas is not sure the war itself changed him. Changing his life to go to the Navy for 38 months gave him a different direction. There was no mental change, but there was opportunity to go to school and get an education. That helped him live a good life for himself and his family. America had no choice in getting involved. Prior to the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], we [Annotator's Note: the United States] were supporting the British with Lend-Lease [Annotator's Note: Lend-Lease Policy, officially An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States 1941 to 1945]. Once attacked, the United States did the proper thing and became involved to put an end to the fighting in Europe and bring the Japanese under its control. Every one of the men did a big job. The Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana] eulogizes the people, justifiably so. World War 2 changed the world for a while. Our presence in Europe gave the other countries a chance to improve their economies. They gained a lot of a result of America helping them by getting them from under the thumb of the Germans. The significance of having the museum is that it is a great idea and tribute to the service people. It is a reminder of what this country did. You cannot belittle the efforts of these people. He is pleased he had a chance to do this interview.