Vivid Memories of an Interesting Life

About the Book

This volume presents a dramatic collection of significant combat experiences of seventy-nine men in World War II, as told from one combat veteran to another. In the eighty-six chapters are stories involving all the various branches of combat service and all of the various theaters of war. Within reminiscences, veterans of dangerous encounters are much more apt to open up with details in discussions with men who have also experienced combat. Many find it emotionally distressing to talk of the war with the general public or to recall the horrors of warfare. This is not a history book nor any attempt to tell the big picture of grand campaigns. Instead, it is a collection of personal involvements in one-at-a-time incidents of conflict. Many ask what it was like in World War II, for our conflicts in recent years have been vastly different. It has been said that war has become and continues to be an intractable social phenomenon. While some say its elimination is necessary to the survival of mankind, we do not seem to have approached closer to that elimination in the sixty-seven years since World War II ended. Encounters of warfare remain a stark reality within the present era. That being so, perhaps we should read of what happened as recalled in the most vivid memories of men involved in the most overpowering conflict of modern warfare. Sincerely, John Roush

About the Author

Colonel Roush is particularly qualified to edit the accounts, for he himself was in combat in World War II and served in various branches of the army. He also held assignments with close contact with the other branches of the Armed Services. He is a professional writer, author of a dozen volumes and many magazine articles. Col. Roush is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, the Army War College, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and the Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of State.