[ex-snook]

"My dad was in the Battle of the Bulge, and after a rest, he would have gone, as well. "

Yep that's the way it was. I had been part of that too. We were in occupation in Austria awaiting orders. No one had been released from the Army. But now the war was over we could go home. It was August I was 19. I couldn't vote. Nine months to go for my turn to go home. Then Life begins. Thank you Pres Truman.

[CatherineofAragon]

Thank you so much for your service.

It was 1946 before my dad made it home.

[jimtorr]

My father would have gone in as well, just behind the combat troops. He was the lead heavy equipment operator / regimental machine shop supervisor in the Army Engineer regiment with the most time in the Pacific Theater. MacArthur had asked for the regiment to back him up.

They built the airfields just behind the front lines across the pacific. Saipan, Okinawa and others I no longer remember. They were close enough to the fighting on Okinawa that my father said they would occasionally get a stray artillery shell landing on the field.