Correspondent photo / Maurita Hoffman George Lutza, 99, of Youngstown, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was trained as an aviation machinist.

YOUNGSTOWN — George Lutza grew up on the West Side of Youngstown.

As a senior at Chaney High School in 1943, he turned 18 that May, but did not graduate with his class because he enlisted in the U.S. Navy before graduation. After serving during World War II, he received his diploma when he returned home. Lutza said he joined the Navy because he wanted to be based on the water, not on land. The Great Lakes Naval Training Base in North Chicago was his first base. From there, he was assigned to the Navy Pier in Chicago for his training as an aviation machinist.

His next post was to Norfolk, Virginia, after the training course, “for just a short time, working on the planes there.” The Navy transferred him to California and then on to Hawaii where he boarded a ship, the USS Hamlin, heading to the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He said Hamlin’s duties were to “support the planes fighting in Saipan.”

“They asked for 50 volunteers to stay on Saipan, but there were not enough volunteers, so I was selected to stay on Saipan for my three-year tour of duty,” Lutza said. “The Marines were fighting there, and as an aviation mate, propeller specialist, I stayed and worked on the planes to support them.”

As an aviation machinist, Lutza repaired and refurbished the propellers of the bomber planes that were based there.

“The propellers of the planes were aluminum, and the salt from the ocean water corroded them,” he explained.

The corrosion caused the propellers to be out of balance. However, the propellers had to be salvaged, not replaced, he said, “because new propellers weren’t available.”

Although Lutza noted he was “content in the Navy, I was not happy in the Islands.”

He disliked the heat and the humidity. The food there was not to his liking either.

“When we were flying on the seaplane, the food on the plane was pretty good, but on the island, the food was no good. The water was no good,” Lutza said. “We had lamb every day, for every meal. It was awful.”

To this day, he refuses to eat lamb.

“A lot of the meal servings were tossed into the trash can as soon as we got out of line at the mess. Otherwise, we would just get the same thing at the next meal,” he said.

He was discharged in May 1947, but did not return to the Youngstown area immediately.

“I had two sisters in Chicago, and they said I looked terrible, so I stayed with them for a few months to put some weight on,” Lutza said with a chuckle.

He then returned to Youngstown, where he went to work at Republic Steel as a machinist. He also worked at Youngstown Welding and finally at Sawhill Tubular in Sharon, Pa., from where he retired. He continued to live in Youngstown and commuted to Sharon.

Lutza was the best man at a friend’s wedding in Sharon and met his future wife, Kathy, there who was a member of the bridal party.

“We saw each other at weddings after that — it was the year that lots of our friends married,” Kathy said.

They were married on May 17, 1952, and celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary this year.

The Lutzas have four children and three grandchildren, though one grandchild is deceased.

Although Lutza did not enjoy the climate of the Mariana Islands, he said he did enjoy the traveling that he was able to do in the Navy. He said he liked visiting California and “of course, Hawaii.” He acknowledged, however, that the best part of the service “was getting out.”