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TI: Today is Wednesday, May 24, 2023. We are in Reno at the home of Jack and Jill Svahn. Today we have John A. Jack Svahn to interview. I'm the interviewer, Tom Ikeda, and I used to say I was the executive director, but this is my first interview not as the executive director, I retired three months ago. So, Jack, you pulled me out of retirement to do this interview.

JS: Well, I'm impressed.

TI: And on camera -- and Dana, you've done hundreds of interviews with me -- is Dana Hoshide. So, Jack, I'm going to just start with some basic background information. Can you tell me where and when you were born?

JS: Well, I was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1943.

TI: So 1943, what was the date of your birth?

JS: May 13th.

TI: And so today's May 24th, so this makes you eighty years old.

JS: Don't remind me. [Laughs]

TI: So congratulations. And I'm sure people tell you, you look fabulous.

JS: Only my wife does.

TI: No, I'm sure. You look great. But I want to start actually just... tell me the names of, first, your father and just a little bit about you.

JS: Well, my father was in the navy, and he started out in 1935, no, '36, I think, and went to submarine school, and then was transferred to a submarine out in the Pacific. And was out there for about five years, came back in 1941, and married my mother from Spokane.

TI: Spokane, and then ended up in New London, Connecticut, where you were born.

JS: I was born there. He was on a submarine in the north Atlantic just out of New London.

TI: And you said he met your mother in Spokane. Why Spokane, Washington?

JS: Well, they're both from Spokane. Well, actually, my father lived in a little town outside of Spokane called Fishtrap.

TI: Oh, I don't know that place. Fishtrap?

JS: It's in between Sprague and Cheney.

TI: Okay.

JS: They lived on a farm there, and my mother lived in the city of Spokane. And after, I guess it was after my grandfather sold the farm or the ranch, and he moved into the city, he was running a store that was next door to where my mother lived with her family. And when my father came home on leave, it was July of '41, and they had already been engaged in the Pacific, of course, because he was operating out of the Philippines and China, and Japan had already invaded China so there was a war going on over there. We weren't involved in it yet, but I guess people met and got married in a hurry.

TI: Well, and for your parents, I mean, literally, she was the "girl next door."

JS: Absolutely.

TI: You hear that term, and especially for younger generations, I mean, that would be so rare.

JS: Well, it was a different time.

TI: Different times.

JS: Different time.

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