My Uncle Jerry died a couple years ago. He was in the Army in Italy during WWII, but never talked much about the actual war. He loved to talk about meeting the Pope in Rome, however... and this was a Jewish kid from Brooklyn!

My wife's Uncle Jack also died a couple years ago. Jack was an officer, so I always assumed he had a relatively cushy life as a soldier. Then, after he died, I read a battle diary written by another soldier in the same unit (the 100th Division, also called the "Century" Division) and discovered that Jack was an artillery officer in France and Germany for some of the hardest fighting of the war. He was awarded a Bronze Star, and I'm pretty sure he really did "earn" it.

--Bob (who was in the Army from 1971 to 1974)