A guy I served with in Iraq has a grandfather who was an Ardennes veteran. To this day he won’t even have ice in his drinks. He said his grandfather told him, “You can’t know how miserable we were out there.”
Interestingly, his grandfather also told him that he’d rather fight a WWII-style war than what we fought in Iraq any day of the week. The IEDs and all that sucked, but I’d take that over artillery barrages and armored charges any day of the week.
“... to this day he won’t even have ice in his drinks”.
I can’t even imagine what they went through but it must have been “hell”. To be home for that long and still not want an icy drink. Bless them all (living and deceased).