I had many friends who were killed. My first reaction was anger. I recall being in the town of Recklinghausen. We were in the basement of this building when a German artillery shell penetrated into our location. One of my close friends toppled over dead.

We later discovered that only a sliver of shrapnel had broken off from the artillery shell and had entered right behind his ear. But that was enough to kill him. The unjustified death of our friend angered all of us.

I witnessed many acts of courage. One in particular was my friend contesting against a German tank. We had just crossed the Rhine River and were on open ground. There was a house at the end of the open field where residents were usually housed. My friend and others from our company had entered the house. Shortly, a German tank came up right to the house and stuck its guns into the windows and fired at point blank range.

My friend took it upon himself to face the tank directly. He came out with a grenade and was successful in placing it under the tank’s track. It blew out the track so the tank was incapacitated. He won a well-deserved Silver Star for that act of courage.

Combat results in many difficult choices. When one of your comrades is wounded, you have to choose between attending to him versus attending to combating the enemy. My friend was once hit by a bullet called an “armor piercing bullet.” That particular German bullet was designed to go through armor, but on this occasion, it went right through my friend’s side and caused a clean wound. I had to decide if I should take care of him or look around and combat the machine gun that had fired on him. I went after the machine gun.

I’ll never forget the few days of leave I was granted in Maastricht, Holland. Maastricht is a coal mining town, so they had public showers set up for the miners. We soldiers had been sleeping in barns and haystacks and had not seen showers for months. I recall entering the shower room, stripping off my lice-infested clothes, and being issued new clothing.

Every day we faced a different issue or a different struggle. Hearing from home was a tremendous morale booster. Even writing home was a morale booster. Even though you were precluded from giving details, being able to communicate with your loved ones made you feel better. Receiving a package was cause for a real celebration, especially when it contained chocolate cookies and nuts.

Reminiscing about home with your fellow soldiers was the most popular activity that boosted morale. I mostly thought about the comforts of being with my family and being in my own room and my own bed. I also thought about being in the community that I knew so well and being with my friends.

I carried pictures of everybody in my family and my girlfriend in my wallet. When I felt down I’d get them out and look at them. I was close to the people in my immediate platoon, but because there was a lot of turnover, I avoided getting too close to people because they might be gone tomorrow.