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Raymond Robert Gordon followed his older brother Edward into the United States Navy with his mother’s permission.

The Aurora native enlisted in March 1943 at 17, after his brother told him he’d end up in the service one way or the other in World War II.

Serving at first on Liberty ships, Gordon, 87, recalls the storms at sea, especially one which almost washed him overboard.

“It was pretty rough. … They had a big box on deck. … A wave come up and washed me back under there. I didn’t have a chance. … It was scary,” he said. He remembers seeing the ship’s bow going down into the water and the propeller at the back of the ship rising up in the air, as the whole ship shuddered in the waves.