Ferril Curtis Elder:
World War II veteran
Ferril Curtis Elder was born on May 26, 1928 and lived in San Pedro, California all his childhood. Elder was the second child of Olive Anna and Ronald Elder. When World War II began he was 12 years old. On December 7, 1941, he recalls a person coming out a gas station calling out and saying “the Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor”, but as many people of that time; he had very little knowledge of geography and was more confused than aware.
Soon after Pearl Harbor, Mr. Elder remembers all his Japanese classmates being taken away and an immense boost in propaganda. He tells of his parents’ hard times financially prior to World War II. Due to his family’s financial needs and two other siblings Elder took an immense opportunity with Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP). A program that recruited seventeen year old young men to train and later send to war however in return the soldiers would be able to study in college.
Attending Utah University Elder had to work, train and handle his school work until he turned eighteen to be departure. Since war ended a few months after he began the program, he had completed his college and returned home. Elder hitchhiked all the way back home. In his way home Elder experience many different issues such as racism towards both African Americans and Japanese. Previously to being recruited, Elder still recounts of how quickly the entire country quickly shifted.
As a 12 year old, his family obtained their rationing card, and having to buy only the basics for all 5 family members. In addition, he remembers the sticker on the cars had in order to apply gas accordingly to what the gas number. Although Curtis Elder was unable to fully serve our country in World War II, he continued to fight in later wars.
This picture is from his days at the Army Specialized Training Reserve (Elder is in the far right side)
Ferril Curtis Elder was born on May 26, 1928 in San Pedro, California. At the time of World War II, he continued to live in San Pedro with his parents, Roland and Olive Anna Elder, along with his siblings, Mary Francis and Warren Roy. At only the age of 17, Elder joined the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP) to fight in the war. His main reason for wanting to fight was to go to college, in which he attended the University of Utah with a military scholarship. The war had ended before he could make it to the front, but he continued to fight in later wars such as the Korean and Vietnam War. He now spends his days in Torrance, California as a retired war veteran.