Cold Ground's Been My Bed

Dan tells the story with unflinching honesty and humor amid the tragedies that befell his company.

• Feeling inadequate about handling the Browning Automatic Rifle in basic training, he expressed his doubts to a cadre man, who assured him, 'You don't have to worry about it, kid. It's given to the biggest men in the squad." The day he arrived on the front line, Dan, five-foot-seven and 133 pounds, was assigned the twenty-pound BAR.
• When his platoon was ambushed, Dan crawled over fire-swept terrain to retrieve the body of his sergeant. Decades later he learned that he'd been cited for the Silver Star, but the Jeep carrying the papers was blown up by mortar rounds.
• When a GI was killed by negligent 'friendly fire," the victim's buddy carried out a revenge murder.

In recounting his story, Dan never pretends to be more than he was, a young man being shocked and shaped by the reality of war.