Henry Rehder spent three and a half years in the Merchant Marines after unsuccessfully attempting to enroll in both the Army's and Navy's Officer Candidate Schools. With only one year of college, he was not admitted. Through a Wilmington shipping agent he found a job with Merchants and Miners, a shipping firm in Baltimore, taking leave of his family's florist business, and worked aboard the Libery Ship Nathaniel Alexander as a clerk and purser. Aboard the Nathaniel Alexander, as well as several other ships, he visited ports around the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In July of 1945 he returned home and married; he was discharged in December.

Transcript Number 102 Title: Henry B. Rehder: Remembering World War II Interviewee: Henry B. Rehder Interviewer: Paul Zarbock Date of Interview: December 6, 2001 Location of Interview: Wilmington, NC Description: Mini-DV Documentation: 1 Typed Transcript Series: World War II Veterans Oral History Preservation Project Series: Voices of Experience