I was born in Good Samaritan Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in 1920. My parents were Bernard and Edna M. Johnson Godde. I had one sister, Jeanne, who was born two years later. My father had been in the Navy in WWI, training cooks and bakers at the Great Lakes Navy Training Center. My dad owned a small chain of bakeries and short order restaurants in southern Michigan. After high school, I went to the William Hood Dunwoody Baking School for two years. I returned to our home in Battle Creek and started working in my father's bakery.

After graduation, I met a girl named Virginia Gantt on a blind date. We attended the same high school, but we never met there. My family was financially well-off during the depression. I partied all during high school. Her mother was a widow and they had a tough time, so we didn't run in the same crowd. She impressed me because she didn't smoke or drink. We started dating regularly after the blind date.

The government started drafting young men into the military. I saw the lifestyle of the Army recruits at nearby Camp Custer and knew I would not like it. I wanted a clean bed and shower every night. It was difficult telling my dad I had decided to enlist in the Navy, rather than wait and be drafted into the Army. I guess he came to understand. I joined the US Navy at Detroit on Jan. 24th, 1941. I received Boot Camp training at The Great Lakes Naval Training Center. After training, I boarded the USS HENDERSON troop transport bound for Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. My assignment was on the USS SALT LAKE CITY CA25.

I went aboard as a "special order" baker, but wound up in deck division #2 instead. They said all men must serve one year in deck division before the "special order" took place. I don't remember how long it was before I transferred to the bake shop, it seemed like an eternity. I was baker before we went to Brisbane, Australia in July of 1941. I was a baker second class and passed first class testing. Due to an accident I will tell you about, I never got the first class rating.

On Dec. 7th, 1941, we were returning to Pearl Harbor after taking 12 Marine pilots and fighter planes to Wake Island. This was a USS ENTERPRISE task force. We were due at Pearl Harbor at 0600 on Dec. 7. A destroyer had trouble that delayed us. It was good fortune the ENTERPRISE and our task force was not at Pearl Harbor. At the time our Captain, Ellis M. Zacharias, passed the word of the attack, we were between Kauai and Pearl Harbor. We could not believe the attack was not just a drill. When the Captain gave the order to throw flammable material overboard, including our piano, we believed the attack was real. We spent some time searching for enemy forces. I don't remember how much time, but when we did enter port, the Arizona was still burning and destruction through out the Harbor was evident.

We took part in the first offensive action with the attack of the Marshall, Gilbert and Wake Islands.