them. He was a marine raider and had some terrible stories of the condition they'd find their fellow soldiers in if any of them were captured...
After the war his unit was given honor / duty to be the first troops ashore to occupy Japan. It was complicated too, but one of his stories was how he and some of his buddies helped put new windows into a girls high school that he played tennis at.
When his son went over to the Pacific Islands many years ago to go lead scuba trips, he'd joke "I'm not sure why you're going over there. I've been there, it's not very fun"