Sam Hamilton - U.S. Naval Cadet 1952

Sam Hamilton joined the Navy as a Naval Air Cadet in 1952 near the end of the Korean Conflict. He says he wanted the Navy because as a child he was interned, with his family, by the Japanese in Manila during WWII, “I was 11 years old,” he explains. “We were interned for three years and a month. It was tough. An experience and really an adventure for a kid my age, but for my parents it was very humiliating more than anything else. At the end of our internment, because of our starvation diet, we were down to the equivalent of a slice of bread per day.” When he saw the American planes fly overhead to liberate Manila, he knew he wanted to become a pilot.

This video was produced by The Rowlinson Media Group, VERO BEACH, FL.