Eugene "Gene" Kramer left his home March 15, 1943 to join the Navy at age 17. He signed all his papers and they put him on a train to Farragut. Kramer did not even get to go back home to say good-bye. Boot camp was in Farragut, Idaho where he gradated in May and was transferred to Los Angeles for radio school. Training was until December 1943 and Kramer boarded his first ship, the S. S. Philip Kearny. Kramer served on board ships through out his Naval career by receiving messages transferring them into written messages that where passed on to the Bridge. His travels included Guadalcanal, Australia New Guinea Russell Island, New Hebrides, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and Siapan. Kramer was one of nine children, with eight boys and one girl in his family. He went to grade school in a one-room school house in Melvern, KS. Kramer and Lorraine Thompson Kramer were married June 9, 1946, and  had five children. The couple was married 73 years. Kramer started Kramer's Gas Station with his brother, John in 1959. He also worked for many years with Murray's TV in Paola.