John Reisinger, World War II, Korea, Philippines, Japan....
From a memoir:
I was sent to Ft. Sill, OK. In school, math was always my poorest subject so, in the wisdom of the Army, I wound up in a survey outfit. I was the youngest kid there, being only 18. The other men, engineers, teachers, surveyors, were all in their 30's and 40's. I wound up being a surveyor for the Army and it turned out to be a good occupation. After seventeen weeks of Basic Training, I was sent overseas. My first combat was the fringes of the Battle of the Bulge. We came under artillery fire and a shell burst about a hundred yards from where I was. I decided then that war wasn't too much fun. A guy could get hurt out here.
A little later, I was working with an infantry outfit in a little village outside of Orleans, France and the Germans were acting up a bit. We were walking down a narrow street and the Germans opened up with machine guns. Most of the section ducked into a doorway on the opposite side of the street while I ducked into one on the other side. The door was locked and I couldn't get in. All I could do was stand pressed up against the door and the bullets were nicking pretty close. I decided that maybe I could get across the street to where the other guys were hiding. The street wasn't that wide, probably no more than an alley, but it was still open. I got jammed up against the door as hard as I could, took my helmet off so it wouldn't fall off, got my rifle clutched tight, put my head down and took off across the street. I wasn't planning to stop and open the door, I was going to go right through the door. Just as I got there, it opened and I crashed through the room and into the wall on the other side. My buddies stood there looking at me on the floor and laughing and asked me, "What's the matter? Didn't you think we'd open the door?"
RIP
