How We Won the War

Books on the shelves at book stores and libraries about war, abound with stories about people in combat being shot, killed by grenades, machine gun fire or bombs. This book is different. It tells the stories of how civilians turned warriors lived and coped in this strange, and different environment. It describes their fear yet nonchalant attitude as they went about soldiering. Most only a few years out of high school, were eager to experience this new life. Like it or not they were living in close quarters with people from different places of different attitudes and philosophies. Whether "Yankee"or "Southerner" they were part of a smorgasbord of men disciplined to act as a unit each dependent on the other for survival.The vignettes of daily life are depicted, shaving using the water from the last metal can, the rinse can in the chow line. Having to try to pee in your helmet - no time for a piss call - as the truck jostled and bounced you around as it sped toward its destination. Dieing for a cigarette so much so that one took one of the pages from a letter from home made it into a cylinder licked the edges and crammed it with leaves picked up from the ground, and lit it. Then there are the moments of living - of what takes place each dayIt is an Easter morning everything is very peaceful, your squad is behind the lines. Wonderful! You are lying face down in the grass on a hill top writing a letter to your folks; the sun so warm and soothing. Suddenly this reverie is shattered by the bark- like command of a Lieutenant. "Get up and move out!" "What the hell is this son-of--a-bitch yelling about?", you mutter to yourself.s. Any item there was ours to take. My watch repairer friend in civilian life ,scrounged for watches rifling thru every drawer in all the bed rooms. He acquired, "looted" hundreds of them.These are the stories.