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Many thanks for this post. My dad was based on iceland for just over a year. He left college ( Wisconsin, after his freshman year) for pilot training..he flew C-47's...they were used for U-boat patrols. He was among the first to arrive on Iceland. At the time, the US was still trying to maintain the appearance of neutrality, so they preferred using unarmed transports for patrol. The often saw Uboats on the surface. More effort was devoted to using the information to direct the convoys away fro the subs path, than to intercept them. He often described iceland as cold, and boring..

He then went to England with the 8th USAAF..dropped paratroops on D-Day..was shot down twice, and made it back both times..

So in a real sense the war started for your father 6 months before Pear Harbor.

That is interesting. My uncle followed a very similar path to his WWII service. He left UCLA before graduation and went to pilot training. He washed out of that course but made it as a navigator in B-17s. He must have followed your father by a year or two. He completed his training stateside and joined the 8th AAF in December '43. He was only shot down once but he didn't make it back to England, instead residing in Stalag Luft 1 until he was liberated by the Reds. After the war he stayed in the AAF and then the new Air Force. He had to complete his degree in order to do that.