A Full Measure

A list of the significant events of World War II would include Pearl Harbor, D-Day 6 June 44, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Battle of the Bulge, Anzio, air and naval battles in the Pacific, Bataan, Northern France and Germany. We tend to overlook the fact that young men from big cities and small towns, leaving families and farms to don a uniform and engage a fierce and determined enemy, fought these pivotal battles. The great military effort of planners, manufacturers, and transporters of material, ultimately depended upon the fortitude, determination, and courage of young men, seventeen to twenty-two years old, who faced the enemy eyeball-to-eyeball. These nine compelling stories are but a few of the thousands, most never recorded, who paid a tremendous price to preserve the many freedoms we enjoy today.