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I was a WW II infantryman. Our c-caps had the slight blue piping. After turning 18 in 1943 I entered the Army two months later. I was sent to Texas for a 17 week period where I trained to be an infantry replacement. That so many needed to be trained spoke directly to the casualty rate. We learned to use every weapon we could carry from the M-1 to bazookas, hand grenades, machine guns, [not pistols for officers], gas masks and living out of a steel helmet.

When finished, I was sent to the 42nd Division in the States because I was still 18 and would not be sent overseas as a replacement until you were 19. I was to ship out from NYC to France on my 19th birthday. We got there in time the Battle of the Bulge where we all got the Combat Infantry Badge. We had a lot of causalities but not nearly like units that came up from Africa and D-Day. My worst was pneumonia from living in a hole before advancing into Germany. I was in Schweinfurt, the Nazi ball-bearing production center, when Roosevelt died and in Munich when Hitler killed himself. Occupation in Austria was a paradise.

I thank you Sir, and the other vets for your service.

I salute you.

Just think I would not be born until 20 years later from 1943.

Now it seems a long time ago.

Where does the time go ?