The seventh child of John and Mary Louise Green, Johnnie Greene had one brother and three brothers-in-law serving in World War II when he decided it was time for him to serve his country. The only problem was, Greene was only 17.

Like so many others, however, Greene did not let his age stop him. He wanted to serve his country, but he wanted to serve it through the Navy, and he knew that if he waited to be drafted, he might have no choice.

“I wanted to be in the Navy and thought I might have to be in another branch if I waited to be drafted,” said Greene, who was working at a Naval shipyard in Georgia when he decided to enlist.

According to his older brother, Charlie Greene, who was in the infantry awaiting deployment to Italy, the 17-year-old also felt that with so many members of his family in harms way, it wasn‘t right for him to be home and safe.

Getting his mother to sign for him to enlist, however, was not easy. She already had one son and a grandson in service, and Johnnie was, after all, her youngest son and the baby of the family. She finally agreed, however, after a little encouragement from Charlie.

“He [Johnnie] wanted to be in the Navy. Chances were that he would be drafted and not have a choice, so I told Mama it was better to let him go ahead and enlist and she agreed,” says Charlie Greene.

So, on Feb. 28, 1944, a few weeks before his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. The 17-year-old soon found himself at boot camp at the U.S. Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Ill.

After boot camp, he was shipped to San Francisco, Calif., and then assigned to the LST 339 — which would be his home for the next two years.

A LST — Landing Ship, Tank — was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved beach.

“The LST was the only means of putting equipment and personnel on the beaches in World War II,” says Greene.

LST 339 and its crew were assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater and during his service aboard the Naval vessel, Greene and crewmates participated in several operations in New Guinea, Leyte, and Philippine Islands.

“We were mostly involved with what we called ‘island hopping’,” says Greene. “We traveled from New Guinea up to the Philippines invading and taking over islands that were occupied by Japanese troops.”

The one battle that sticks out in the veteran’s mind was the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In late 1944, after extensive debate, Allied leaders elected to begin operations to liberate the Philippines. The initial landings were to take place on the island of Leyte.

Greene, stationed aboard his home away from home, the LST 339, had a bird’s eye view of the battle, which was to become the last sea battle in the South Pacific in WW II.

“We were on Leyte beach unloading when the Japanese Navy came in, and we were called to General Quarters,” says Greene.

General Quarters is an announcement made aboard a naval warship to signal the crew to prepare for battle. When the call to General Quarters (GQ) is made, the crew prepares the ship to join battle. Off-duty or sleeping crewmembers report to their stations and prepare for action. Watertight doors between bulkheads are shut and security is increased around sensitive areas.

While the crew of the LST 339 had been under fire before, this was the first time they had been involved in an attack from sea and air.

“The bulk of the Japanese fleet had entered the Leyte Gulf, and we could see the battle from the beach, even though we were under air attack. But the U.S. Navy held the Japanese off. We didn’t realize it then, but this was last sea battle in the Philippines in WW II,” added Greene.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf lasted for four days, Oct. 23-26, 1944. In the fighting, the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers, three battleships, eight cruisers, and 12 destroyers, and 10,000-plus Japanese Sailors and Soldiers were killed. Allied losses were much lighter with 1,500 killed, and only one light aircraft carrier, two escort carriers, two destroyers, and one destroyer escort sunk.

Crippled by their losses, the Battle of Leyte Gulf marked the last time the Imperial Japanese Navy would conduct large-scale operations during the war. The Allied victory secured the beachhead on Leyte and opened the door for the liberation of the Philippines. This in turn cut off the Japanese from their conquered territories in Southeast Asia, greatly reducing the flow of supplies and resources to the home islands, which helped bring the end to the war one step closer.

Greene was still serving aboard the LST 339 in the area of Admiralty Islands — a group of islands located within the Bismark Archipelago in the southwest Pacific Ocean, north of New Guinea — when he and his crewmates got the news that the war had ended.

“We first got an announcement that the atomic bomb had been dropped on a Japanese city (Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945). Then we later heard a second bomb had been dropped (Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945). Then a few days later (Aug. 15, 1945), we heard the Japanese had surrendered. That was a real happy day,” Greene says.

Happy indeed, as well as fortunate, as he and his shipmates at that time were preparing to head to a new front — Japan.

At the war’s end, the LST-339 performed occupation duty in the Far East, but before that it made a trip back home with troops and tanks. The journey, says the former Sailor, took 36 days, as the LST was slowest ship in the U.S. Navy, with a top speed of only nine or ten knots.

On his return to the States, the young Greene was transferred to the U.S. Naval Air Station in Memphis, Tenn., where he was stationed for three months, receiving an honorable discharge on June 19, 1946.

Like all World War II veterans, Greene is proud of his service and his country. When asked what it meant to him he said, “It helped me to mature … and it made me realize what a great nation we live in.”

After his time in service, Greene settled down, married a local girl, the former Jeanette Pace, and became a father of four and a barber (a skill he learned while serving in the Navy). First working at the Manring Barber Shop, which was located on Cumberland Avenue in downtown Middlesboro, and later at his own shop, the Village Barber Shop.

Although now officially “retired”, Greene still cuts hair a couple days a week at Village Barber Shop, which he sold a few year back. He does it because he “still enjoys it and likes seeing his old friends and meeting new people.”

He also still keeps in touch with some other old friends — his Navy “family”.

“It’s close quarters on a ship. You get close and you become a family, more or less. There are three or four of us that still stay in close contact. They were my best friends, my family for two years, so it means a lot to keep in touch and to see them,” says the Navy veteran.

In 1944, at age of 17, the young Johnnie Greene was a son, a brother, and Sailor. Those are titles he can still claim, but now at the age of 82, he can add a few more to that list a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, retired barber … and through his service to his nation, a proud veteran.

Lifestyles/Business Editor Donna Greene can be reached by e-mail at dgreene@middlesborodailynews.com.