re: Spinoff: Where did your relatives serve in WWII?

Bastogne. Never mentally recovered.

Great grand father was in France. He got shot in the rear but pressed on. Ended up hiding out in a barn to protect a buddy who had been wounded badly until help could arrive.

He refused to talk about it till the day he died.

Father, 1st Marine Division, in the Pacific.
Guadalcanal, Peleliu, also New Guinea I think.

Rarely talked about it and then only to tell some humorous stories about non-combat stuff. His best friend from childhood was captured at war's end and beheaded by the Japanese. And he did say once when they landed at Peleliu that "a lot of boys were killed who never saw a Jap."

After he died while going through my grandmother's old pictures and stuff, I found all the letters he sent home, in a scrapbook, in chronological order. Of course due to censorship he could not tell her where he was, what the weather was, etc.

In those letters, during boot camp, he was bragging that they got three meals a day, a shower, and a nice cot to sleep on. I supposed being raised during the Depression such was a real treat. Of his $20 a month salary, he sent it all home so "Mama, you can get out of debt." In about three months, he wrote "Mama, I am so happy you paid all the bills off and got us out of debt."

Also found a lot of photos taken of his pals and several of Japanese POWs they were guarding at Peleliu, large holes in the earth from bombing, and some action photos of flame-throwers. My mother said those photos were against the rules so Dad had to smuggle them out.