My dad fought in WWII, he was a medic with the Second Armor Division and was involved with every major campaign in Africa, Italy, Sicily and Europe. Daddy talked about the war a lot, said young men needed to know what it was really like. He said it was horrible. Working as a medic during battles, then in the field hospitals afterwards, he personally saw hundreds of young American and German men die. He saw thousands that had been killed. Daddy told me that once he saw the remains of 600 to 800 Germans that had been killed in battle. He said that they used bulldozers to bury the men. He said that they would bring the prisoners into the field hospital to get fixed up and then, if they did not have time to take them to rear, the guards shot the Prisoners. This made my dad very mad... My dad had the rare opportunity to talk to many German prisoners and was amazed at how many spoke fluent English and had been educated in the United States. On several occasions he worked with German Medics to help retrieve wounded Germans and they would help him with the wondered Americans. My dad told me these simple truths about war and I think they still apply. War is sometimes necessary; Solders need the support of the folks back home; War is about sacrifices and suffering; There is a difference between killing and murder; There are no plans after the fighting starts; Know your enemy; Politicians and reporters cause many deaths; Civilians get killed; friends die. My dad had the opportunity to go on to medical school after the War, but he didn’t. He told me that he couldn’t take any more suffering, he had seen a lifetime of suffering during the War. He worked as a coal miner until he died and they called him Doc Cox (that is another story).
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