[Colonel]

My Dad served on a hospital ship. My Dad's brother was in the engineering corp. He came in at D-day plus two. (I made the mistake as a kid of suggesting that building bridges must have been alot safer than being a foot soldier - he sat me down and told me stories of what it's like to build a pontoon bridge while guys are shooting at you and your buddies are dying). My Dad's sister's husband fought on Iwo Jima. He has never talked about it. My Aunt always said it was too painful for him to discuss it.