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Charles Commins

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Advancing into Belgium was memorable for Charles Commins. He dove into a river to escape counter attacking Germans and lost nearly all his clothing. In the next town, local women gathered to watch an American get treatment for an embarrassing wound. Moving on into Germany in a flurry of white flags and sheets, he liberated supplies from abandoned homes. (4:30)

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In the Hurtgen Forest, Charles Commins found an abandoned artillery forward observer's post and directed fire as the Germans counter attacked. Soon he received his second wound from an exploding German shell. This time, while he was in the hospital, he insisted that they remove the shrapnel from his first wound, which had caused him much pain. After his recovery, he was reassigned to the Air Corps. (5:05)

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Charles Commins was already on his way to the ship that would take him home when the news came, Germany had surrendered. Back in the States, he was driving a jeep at an air base when he was told to prepare to leave for India and the Pacific Theater. This called for some serious beer drinking, but the next morning, he discovered the best hangover cure. (3:29)

Charles Emerson

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Draftee Charles Emerson went to the 70th Fighter Wing in 1943 and, along with the rest of the support personnel, took a swift ocean liner across the Atlantic to England. The unit's initial mission was to escort and protect Allied bombers but their range did not allow them to continue all the way to the target. (3:53)

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Omaha beach was piled high with supplies of all kind when Charles Emerson waded ashore on the fifth day of the invasion. He was part of the headquarters unit of the 70th Fighter Group, which began operating right away on temporary steel runways just inland. They moved to the outskirts of Paris, then to Belgium, where he saw Buzz Bombs droning overhead. (5:20)

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During the Battle of the Bulge, there were German spies dressed in American MP uniforms directing Allied units the wrong way on the roads. Charles Emerson reveals how they could be spotted. After the German surrender, he was waiting in Marseille for a ship to the Philippines to join the Japan invasion force. His morale was low and he was looking for some good news and he got it. (2:42)

Charles Fallis

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Charles Fallis was in the ninth grade when the war started, but he became part of the effort when he entered the Navy in 1944. Assigned to the beach party on a troop transport, he was surprised when he had to learn to do what soldiers do every day. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (4:20)

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He was seasick the first two weeks, but it went away and he was never bothered by it again. Charles Fallis was on the USS Grimes, a troop transport that ferried troops to Iwo Jima, and then picked up the wounded for evacuation. When a severely wounded Marine died, he witnessed a burial at sea, something he will never forget. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (5:17)

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While anchored off Iwo Jima, a typhoon pushed the USS Grimes near the shore, near enough to Mount Suribachi that Charles Fallis had to take cover. After dropping wounded troops off in Hawaii, the ship went back to San Francisco, where he had to take cover from an angry hotel manager. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (3:28)

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The Japanese knew that Okinawa was the last step on the Allied move toward the mainland, so they went all out with suicide attacks. Charles Fallis remembers the kamikaze alerts when he was anchored there. His ship was part of the task force that readied to invade Japan, and then after the surrender, part of the occupation. (This interview made possible with the support of KENNETH ANTHONY WEST.) (6:11)