Over the period from 1942 until 1945 many casualties and deaths occurred and it was traumatic to hear of people you knew being lost in battles. Fortunately, I had no close relatives who suffered such events.
One event stands out in my mind and that was the drafting of my parent’s friend, Walter Vest. He was 38 when drafted into the army and had to survive boot camp at Ft. Benning in Georgia. We visited him on our trip to Fla. in early 43 after his boot camp bivouac in the Georgia wilds sleeping on wet ground and trying to keep up with a bunch of teenage recruits. I do not mean to compare his problems with more serious casualties, but I heard Walter describe his experiences.
I am amazed at how little returning vets talked about their most serious battles. I do not recall my brother saying much about his experiences. The only exception to this was my friend, Dunbar Dickey, who was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne. This may have been because we fished a lot together and did not have anything else to talk about.