He lost lots of good friends, pretty much all in one day.
He wasn’t there because of the “luck of the draw.” He told me that they were all asked to state which holiday they wanted to be in the States, Christmas or New Years. My dad, never one at the time to pass up a good time, picked New Years (for obvious reasons). The guys who picked Christmas were sent over. He and whoever picked New Years, stayed in the States....and I guess because so many died, the ones in the states were needed to continue training people to be sent over....he training them to shoot.
How horrible. My pop wouldn't talk about his buddies that got killed. When he died he took so many stories with him that will never be known.