Eli Rauzon
June 5, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Grace United Methodist Church 433 E Main St, Hummelstown, PA 17036, USA The Central PA WWII Roundtable will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, June 5th, at 7:00 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church, 433 East Main Street, Hummelstown.
Time & Location
Jun 05, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Grace United Methodist Church, 433 E Main St, Hummelstown, PA 17036, USA
About the event
Eli Rauzon, age 102, enlisted in the US Navy at 17.5 years old before the formal start of WWII. After three months of Basic Training in Norfolk Virginia, he was sent to running mail on the USS Overton, a destroyer in the North Atlantic in Newfoundland on the Lend/Lease program getting ships to England. Almost a year after enlistment, the war formally started, and he was detailed to the USS Griffin, a submarine repair ship. He eventually took the ship, zig-zagging to avoid German subs, to Australia to aid US submarines in the South Pacific theatre as MacArthur was in the Philippines. Visiting Perth, New Guinea, and then Subic Bay, he was detailed to work with the Seabees. He was sent back via Midway, Pearl Harbor as the war ended to be transferred to the Great Lakes and worked in Chicago on shore patrol.
He ended up back where he started in…