Soldier*: (*Rifleman by Training, Clerk-Typist by Accident. In North Africa, Italy, and Austria)

Over 11,200,000 men and women served in the United States Army during World War II. An estimated 5,200,000 of those men and women were in actual combat of one form or another. And over 880,000 of them became casualties. The other 6,000,000 or so were in the same Army. At the same time. In the same war. Like those in combat we lost girls, lost friends, and lost 3 or 4 years of our life. We trained just as hard. Got just as homesick. Worried and ached and grumbled just as much. We were radar operators and cryptography specialists and MP's. Medics and buglers and mechanics. Truck drivers and cooks and clerks and everything else. But there was one big difference: we were the lucky ones. The ones that didn't get shot at. It was still the same war, but the shooting was aimed at somebody else. Yes, we were the lucky ones. And a lot of us still feel guilty about it.

He was nineteen. Raised in Wisconsin and fresh out of high school when the Army came calling. Eager to go and gung-ho to get the bad guys, especially after rigorous infantry and combat engineer training. So the army promptly shipped him overseas. And handed him a typewriter. That wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but it didn't do any good to argue. So Wallace J. (Wally) Gordon hitched up his socks and typed his way through North Africa, Italy and Austria. Then, after forty more years of typing ads and commercials for clients ranging from Coca-Cola to the local bank and supermarket, he decided to write a book about it all. Enjoy...