My father was in WWII on the USS Franklin, the ship that the Japanese thought they sunk a few times but kept on living. He went overboard on one of the bombings.
He never told us much about what he did, he did tell me once that he wound up on a beach and was handed a flamethrower, I always wonder what he did with that flamethrower. He would get letters from documentary companies doing WWII specials and never wanted to participate.