Mason Dorsey was born in July 1925 in Chester, South Carolina. He grew up during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and his parents moved a lot. He went to the first grade in Monroe [Annotator's Note: Monroe, South Carolina]. His father was a mechanic and only worked two or three days a week. Money was scarce and times were hard. They moved to Fort Mill [Annotator's Note: Fort Mill, South Carolina] and then Chester, where he finished school. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Dorsey how he felt hearing about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] There was nationwide astonishment that it could happen. He knew he would probably be in war eventually. He enlisted after volunteering for the Air Force, then the Navy, then the Marines, all of whom turned him down. The Army took him on limited service [Annotator's Note: limited-service duty means not eligible for combat duty] due to his hands. He has only one finger on his left hand. He went in at Fort Jackson [Annotator's Note: Fort Jackson, South Carolina] and then went to Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. From there he went to Camp Blanding [Annotator's Note: in Clay County, Florida] for basic training. He was top of his company in training, and he made the highest score with the rifle in the battalion and received 50 dollars for that.

Mason Dorsey was at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] when he found out he was going overseas. He was with the 71st Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: 71st Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 71st Infantry Division]. He was assigned to an M8 armored car [Annotator's Note: M8 light armored car; nicknamed the Greyhound] as a forward observer. They prepared for overseas and went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer in Piscataway Township, New Jersey and Edison Township, New Jersey]. He went to England then crossed the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel] to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France]. They went through Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] to Nancy [Annotator's Note: Nancy, France] before they got into action. They were assigned to the 7th Army. Around the time of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], they were put with the 3rd Army. Combat was an unbelievable experience. You are trained to shoot and hit a target, but when they shoot back it is quite a different experience. On Easter Sunday 1945 [Annotator's Note: 1 April 1945], they were assigned to reconnoiter a German outfit. He was knocked out by a tank grenade.

Mason Dorsey and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 71st Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 71st Infantry Division] got in at the end of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. It [Annotator's Note: the Battle of the Bulge] had been primarily fought and won by that time. He talked with the guys who had been in the battle. His unit was south of the battle, and it ended before they got up to it. He has a map of where they went. They went into action near Aachen [Annotator's Note: Aachen, Germany]. They captured Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany], Darmstadt [Annotator's Note: Darmstadt, Germany], Hamburg [Annotator's Note: Hamburg, Germany], Bayreuth [Annotator's Note: Bayreuth, Germany], Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany], Regensburg [Annotator's Note: Regensburg, Germany], and then went into Austria. They captured part of Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria]. The Russians claimed they captured it. When they went into small town, they would look for the mayor who would say whether they would fight or surrender. They usually surrendered. Dorsey was the radio commander for his M8 armored car [Annotator's Note: 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8]. They were forward and would go to see the strength of the enemy. He had close calls. On Easter Sunday 1945 [Annotator's Note: 1 April 1945], they were given the task of capturing a little town with one street. At the end of the street there was a church. He was in the first M8 [Annotator's Note: M8 light armored car; nicknamed the Greyhound] and told to go left. There was a stone wall, and a German shot a Panzerfaust [Annotator's Note: single shot, German anti-tank weapon] from behind it. It exploded at the light guard. It knocked him and the driver out. They finally got out. They had several close calls. They captured a little town, and he opened a barn door to find a German soldier sleeping. Dorsey woke him up and he grabbed his rifle. Dorsey shoved him down. In another town in Austria, a guy surrendered to them. He took Dorsey through town to gather the officers billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily] there.

Mason Dorsey was part of the occupation force. That was nice. After the war, he was the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] manager for the 3rd Military Government Regiment [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] in Augsburg [Annotator's Note: Augsburg, Germany]. He had a car to go to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany] to get supplies. He had a horse and German prisoners to take care of it. He had a girl and had it pretty nice. His girlfriend was a German girl who lived in Volberg [Annotator's Note: Volberg, Germany], outside of Augsburg. He was more welcome there than any place he had been. Her sister's husband had been killed on the German warship Scharnhorst. Dorsey went deer hunting there and his girlfriend's mother would fix meals. It was a good family. He talked about the war with them but not much. Dorsey went back to Augsburg for a year.

When Mason Dorsey was returning to the United States, he says that if they would have said they were returning to Germany, they all would have said "let's go". When there, he had it made as the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] manager for the 3rd Military Government Regiment [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] and had a good time after the war. Life back in the United States was regimented. He had gone back to school on the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment], which was good deal. He enjoyed it. He majored in textile engineering. He went to Charlotte [Annotator's Note: Charlotte, North Carolina] and started his own company. He had about 20 people working for him. His son runs the company now. Going back to civilian life was just a matter of routine. He just went back to Clemson [Annotator's Note: Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina] where he had already been. He did have nightmares about the war. They liberated Gunskirchen Lager concentration camp [Annotator's Note: subcamp of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Austria]. Out of about 20,000 people there, 15,000 were dead. It was unbelievable to see that. They had heard about them. When he saw it, he could not believe it. The people were skin and bones. All of the people clamored around them, hugging their legs. They gave them food and cigarettes, which they ate. The Division [Annotator's Note: 71st Infantry Division] printed a booklet about it. Dorsey and the men had been indoctrinated with hatred of the Nazis but did not know about them until seeing Gunskirchen. He had nightmares about what he saw. He could not believe that people could treat other people that way. The camp sticks out foremost as solidifying everything [Annotator's Note: that gave him nightmares after war]. He had the nightmares for 40 years. He still occasionally has them. He talked to his girlfriend's German family, and they could not believe it. They were from a small, rural village. He wrote letters home about it. All of them are in the Library of Charleston College [Annotator's Note: College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina]. There are about 150 of them.

Mason Dorsey's most memorable experience of World War 2 is the day he got knocked out by a German Panzerfaust [Annotator's Note: single shot, German anti-tank weapon on 1 April 1945]. He had seen what one would do to a regular tank. It hit the iron in front of his searchlight, exploded, and knocked out him and his driver. Much higher or lower, it would have killed them all. Dorsey decided to fight because those who did not stood out. Everybody joined if they were in the physical condition. The Army was the only one who would take him because of his finger. He was in Germany after the war and had a good time. He had a girlfriend and her family. He had a car and a horse and had a good time. There are not many of them [Annotator's Note: war veterans] left, but his service means quite a bit to him. He could have stayed out if he wanted to. America at that time was the most powerful country in the world, even over Russia. You cannot say that today. He feels the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is absolutely important. He has gotten several invitations to go there. They should continue to teach to future generations. He wanted to be an Air Force pilot and tried three different places to get in but was turned down [Annotator's Note: Dorsey has a congenital issue with one hand]. The Navy turned him down and then the Marines did. The Army finally took him.