Bob's WWII Story: Part 2

Here are some notes from the second half of my conversation with Bob:

• "It never leaves you"
• went to the VA recently and was told he had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
• back in the war that wasn't something people were diagnosed with
• "Patton slapped those two soldiers because they said they had it"
• more information on this incident here: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/July-August-08/On-this-Day--General-Patton-Shocks-Public-by-Slapping-Crying-Soldier.html 
• "You're constantly thinking of those things"
• When the men got back there were medals and parades
• "We couldn't care less about that. We just wanted to survive, and you have to fight to survive"
• quite a few deserters (people who just took off/ran away)
• Bob stayed in England 14 months total
• was in the hospital for a while
• got weekend passes and went up to London to have fun (and meet girls)
• War ended in Europe
• came back to US (got a 30 day leave)
• Bob was going to get shipped off to fight in the war in the Pacific
• got sent to Camp Stoneman in CA
• was given all the necessary vaccinations for the Pacific- got all geared up and ready to go when the atomic bomb was dropped
• prevented troops from having to go back into the war
• "We were about to go, and then the atom bomb dropped, and that did it. And I said, 'Boy, thank god Harry Truman'"
• "Normandy would have been nothing compared to Japan"
• expected 500,000 casualties just on the invasion
• Beginning in 1946: went to Camp Beale in Marysville (air force base)
• got discharged there
• Came to California with a company called Presco Food Seasonings (manufactured spices/food seasonings)
• bought a small company out
• promoted to vice president and general manager
• received a Legion of Honor 
• saw Patton once
• gave a speech to everyone before the invasion
• troops assembled at a soccer stadium
• came out of the car with motorcycles and pistols
• "I can't repeat what he said. He was a very profane man"
• Eisenhower "constantly got Patton out of hot water"
• Patton had a big mouth and said things he never should have said
• very feared, but effective general
• Structure of the army
• everything in WWII was triangular
• 3 regiments in a division
• 3 divisions in a corps 
• 3 corps in an army
• 3 battalions in a regiment...and so on
• tanks had their own division
• Bob was in the 90th division in the 3rd army
• all the medics carried morphine
• men called medics "doc"
• "There were sometimes they told a guy...'Hey doc, am I gonna make it?' and he said 'Yeah, yeah you're gonna make it'...and his whole stomach's gone, and the doc would say to them 'give them two or three more morphine....and they'd kill them with morphine"
• WWII veterans are going about 700 a day
• Final thoughts on the war:
• "It was quite an adventure and I'm glad I did it. I'd probably do it again"
• "In WWII the entire country is behind the war effort"
• rationing
• kids gathered tin foil and tires
• "That war had to be won. I mean, that was a vile regime. One of the worst on the face of the earth ever- the Nazi Germans"
• "The way [Hitler and the Nazis] did that was camps, and methodically like a machine. The teeth, the glasses, the hair- it was unbelievable"
• Bob's division liberated one of the camps