It indicates that the Fort Dodge man went into the United States Navy on July 17, 1943, and was discharged in March 1946.

In between those dates, he was part of the American forces that wrested five Pacific Ocean islands from Japanese control. He also supported the occupation forces in Japan immediately following World War II. Helping to transport troops back home to the United States was his final duty.

Walley, who is 99 and lives at Friendship Haven, insists he did nothing special or heroic. He said he was just doing his duty and following orders.

Born in Bloomington, Illinois, he moved with his family to Ottumwa when he was 2 years old.

In late 1941, he won a trip to the Chicago International Livestock Exposition. When he came home, he and his family went to the home of an aunt and uncle in Blakesburg for a family get-together at which he could tell everyone about his adventure in Chicago.

That get-together was on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.

“It was there on their Philco radio that we learned that Pearl Harbor had been attacked,” Walley said.

He said he “figured something was going to happen that would draw the U.S. into the conflict.”

In June 1943, he graduated from Ottumwa High School. He was drafted the following month.

His draft notice ordered him to report to Farragut Naval Training Center in Idaho for basic training.

He recalled that he weighed 135 pounds when he reported for basic training. When it was completed, he weighed 150 pounds.

Walley was then sent to a Navy Signal School in San Diego, California. There, he learned things like Morse code and how to use semaphore flags.

Then he went to another military base where he was assigned to a Joint Assault Signal Company, which consisted of Marines and Navy sailors who would go ashore and maintain communication with ships at sea.

“This group went in with the troops to set up communication between ship and shore,” Walley said.

His unit boarded a Liberty ship for a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. Walley said he got seasick one day, but never had a problem after that.

His unit traveled to Guadalcanal, a south Pacific island American forces had already captured from the Japanese.

There, he boarded the troop ship USS Wayne.

His first mission was to support the June 15, 1944, invasion of Saipan.

“We didn’t go in,” Walley said. “We just stood by in case troops we had on board were needed.”

His unit was part of the July 21, 1944, invasion of Guam, an American possession in the Pacific Ocean that Japan had seized in December 1941. “That is where I first encountered the awfulness that war is,” Walley said.

His unit rode to the beach in landing craft called Higgins boats.

“After we set up, we began to receive the wounded and some of those that were dying,” he said.

The wounded were taken by boat out to the USS Wayne, which became a temporary hospital ship, he recalled.

When night fell, he hunkered down in a bombed out fortification near the shore.

“That first night was a sleepless night because the Japanese were lobbing their mortars at us,” he said. “We could hear them coming over.”

He was on Guam for two or three days and recalled that he helped unload supplies that were brought in on boats.

On Sept. 15, 1944, he was part of the invasion of Peleliu. “That was a fierce engagement there,” Walley said.

The liberation of the Philippines was next for Walley and the USS Wayne. The island of Leyte was invaded on Oct. 17, 1944. The island of Luzon was invaded on Jan. 9, 1945.

During the Philippines campaign, the USS Wayne faced a new threat — Japanese suicide pilots called kamikazes.

“When we were getting near the Philippines, that was when those kamikazes began to show up,” Walley said. “Our gunners did bring down one of the Japanese planes and one of the Japanese planes did crash into the ship just ahead of us in the column.”

The last invasion for Walley and the crew of the Wayne was at Okinawa on April 1, 1945.

American forces were preparing for the invasion of the Japanese home islands when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Walley recalled that none of the sailors or Marines knew what an atomic bomb was, but they all believed a weapon that powerful would have a “positive effect” on the length of the war.

He said the ship was at sea when word was received in September 1945 that Japan had surrendered. He doesn’t remember any big parties to celebrate. Instead, he said, the sailors became anxious to get home and get out of the military.

The USS Wayne was anchored at Nagasaki, the second city hit with an atomic bomb, to support the occupation of Japan. Walley said he never went into the city.

The ship then began ferrying troops back to the United States.

“It became very tiresome for all of us because we were so anxious to get home,” he said.

After being discharged, Walley went to college and earned a bachelor’s degree. He then enrolled in Berkeley Baptist Divinity School in Berkeley, California, and was ordained as a minister in the American Baptist Church.

After stints at churches in Pontiac, Michigan, and Plainfield, he came to Webster County to be the director and manager of Dayton Oaks Camp and Conference Center. He later served as pastor of Burnside Baptist Church and Riverview Community Baptist Church in Fort Dodge. Walley also helped to organize Habitat for Humanity in Webster County.