Being at the right place at the right time has worked out well for John Guildner.

Guildner, an Albert Lea resident, served in World War II as a radar specialist in the Pacific Theater and how he got there was almost by chance.

“I’ve had a wonderful life,” Guildner said. “I’ve been at the right place all my life at the right moment.”

How Guildner, 84, got involved with radar was by way of a chance encounter. A radio man stopped by his house in Randolph one day to speak with his father.

“They went to my school and I was good at science and math, and they thought I’d be a good one,” Guildner said. “They came out to the field and I was plowing, and the guy talked to my dad for probably two hours. Then he finally called me over to him. My dad announced to me, ‘You’re going to be a radio engineer.’ I said, ‘I’m going to be a what?’ He said, ‘You’re going to be a radio engineer.’”

That decision set off a chain reaction that eventually placed Guildner in an important role during World War II. After going through a correspondence course and passing a series of licensing tests to become a radio engineer, he heard the Marines were looking for radio engineers.

His talent for science and math advanced him quickly. In 1942 he decided to join the Marines. The Marines needed his help with radar as the technology had just come into use. He did not even attend boot camp.

“I didn’t have to start as a private or go through boot camp or any of that,” Guildner said. “They didn’t have time for me to go through boot camp. I was one of two people that didn’t go through boot camp. I never fired a round of ammunition.”

At 5 feet 4 inches he was too short to be a Marine, but his paperwork was changed to make him taller. The Marines never wanted him for his combat ability.

“It wasn’t my brawn, it was my brain,” Guildner said.

His gift with learning radar technology put him at the top of training classes and he started training officers on how to use the technology in the field. He taught the theory aspect for the classes on fire control radar.

“We had to set up the technical school to teach technicians to learn radar,” Guildner said. “I taught theory and my other buddy taught how to fix them. Both of us had two classes a day. Two classes of eight hours, and we would get so tired that we would put someone in charge. And then we could get a little shut eye during the day because we had other duties. We were working 20-something hours a day, that was for eight weeks.”

After training, Guildner was sent to the Pacific and started setting up the guns on Midway after the Battle of Midway. He was also in charge of repairing radar and other equipment.

“They set up the radar section to bring out radar equipment,” Guildner said. “The anti-aircraft guns and the radio jeeps and the telephones, we took care of all that at the section where I was at.”

The Marines utilized his ability as a troubleshooter and sent him around the Pacific to fix radar. He traveled to islands most people have never heard of to keep everything in working order. He also prepared the equipment for the Marines to use on invasions. All the while he was in charge of 350 officers.

“I never ran into the problem of people disobeying me,” Guildner said. “It was cooperation and knowing what the goal was and you never had trouble with people giving out 100 percent.”

When Guildner reflects on the experience he is still amazed at the amount of responsibility the Marines had given him when he was 19, 20 and 21 years old.

“What amazed me was how young I was and yet they had confidence in me,” Guildner said.

Guildner maintained a correspondence with his girlfriend from back home the entire time he served from 1942 to 1945 and saved every letter she wrote to him. She did the same and he has a record of nearly every day while he was in the service.

“We didn’t know we were going to do that,” he said. “It all comes back when you have it in black and white. It’s a way a person’s mind works. I have got hundreds and hundreds of letters.”

Guildner had spent some time in Albert Lea before he joined the Marines, and when he returned from serving, he and his girlfriend, Eileen, decided to wed and start a family in Albert Lea.

Guildner started his own business in 1950, Johnny’s Electronics, which was on 132 S. Broadway for many years.

Guildner and his wife raised four children in Albert Lea. Guildner retired from selling electronics after some health problems. His wife passed away 14 years ago, but he remains active with gardening, fishing and catching up with old friends.

He still remains in contact with one of his Marine buddies in Houston and travels down there about once a year to catch up with him.