Voices of War: Chapter Three: Under Fire (Experiencing War, Veterans History Project, Library of Congress)

Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project (Voices of War)

No amount of training can prepare someone for the rigors, the chaos, and the sheer terror of coming under fire. Though the locations and armament changes with each war, the basic human emotions involved remain the same. No one who has been in the heat of battle ever thinks that luck had nothing to do with his or her survival.

"Sub spotted--let 'em have it!" Lend a hand--Enlist in your Navy today / McClelland Barclay, USNR. Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (page 106)

{ ONE MAN'S STORY }

CORBIN WILLIS

Corbin Willis delivers a stunning story dotted with heartbreaking humor. He survives interrogation, scabies, a crippling weight loss, and a 100-mile march through the snow from one POW camp to another in Germany. Upon return home, he finds out that most people think he has died. His mother tells him that his wife has remarried and is starting a new family.

Learn more about Corbin B. Willis, Jr. (pages 168-171)

Jump to other stories featured in Chapter Three
* Page numbers refer to the pages in Voices of War on which the veteran appears.

“Many of us called it the ride of death, for we were riding to what was to be the biggest battle of the war.” -- Theodore Kohls

	"'What in hell were you people doing back there anyway, to be caught that way?'" Donald Patrick Finn's story (pages 119-122)		"I didn't want to be in Germany when there was a war going on in Vietnam." Senator Chuck Hagel's story (pages 158-160, 161)
	"I felt well enough ... but I didn't want to face a military court so I went to the hospital..." William Frederick Nice's story (pages 109, 114-117)		"They wanted to prove that we could be as tough as the males..." Joanne Palella's story (pages 149, 166-167)
	"I hated to face the reality that I was about to undergo a drastic change in my 'life style'." Nathaniel G. Raley's story (pages 142-145)		"... we could expect to be in the thick of things all the way to Tokyo..." Joseph Steinbacher 's story (pages 122, 128-130)
	"...my bowels twisted me green..." James Walsh's story (pages 149, 150, 153-155)

{ ADDITIONAL FEATURED STORIES }

William Jennings Arnett (pages 138-141)
James Phillip Baross (pages 122-123)
Senator Max Cleland
(pages 156, 158, 164-165)
Alvin Dickson (pages 134-135, 138)
Raymond B. Dierkes (page 148)
John Walter Earle (pages 135)
Thomas H. Hodge (pages 160-162)

Theodore Kohls (pages 109, 111-114)
Bill McGlynn (page 148)
Rhona Knox Prescott (page 157)
Vincent Cornelius Reed (pages 109-111)
Charles Rosario Restifo
(pages 118, 124-126)
Sidney Algernon Riches, Sr.
(pages 122, 125, 126-127)
Ben M. Snyder (pages 127-128)

Donald Spencer (page 141)
Paul Alexander Steppe, Jr.
(pages 151-153)
Frederick Clarence Stilson (page 113)
Tracy A. Sugarman
(pages 134, 135-138)
William Whiting (pages 140-141)
Henry J. Wilayto (pages 131-133)
Ronald Winter (pages 162, 163-164)

Chapter Three: Under Fire

The Library of Congress
March 17, 2005

Veterans History Project Home
Contact Us