Only a small percentage of the sixteen million servicemen called up during World War II saw front-line service. For the others, war involved training, reinforcement depots, tedious assignments, and lots of waiting. Herman J. Obermayer was one of those who earned a combat star without ever coming close enough to a battlefront to hear or see booming guns. Nonetheless, his letters then, and his reflection on them now, reveal important aspects of the war and the wartime world. From school, from basic training, and later from Europe, Obermayer wrote home with vivid descriptions of life in the...

Only a small percentage of the sixteen million servicemen called up during World War II saw front-line service. For the others, war involved training, reinforcement depots, tedious assignments, and lots of waiting. Herman J. Obermayer was one of those who earned a combat star without ever coming close enough to a battlefront to hear or see booming guns. Nonetheless, his letters then, and his reflection on them now, reveal important aspects of the war and the wartime world. From school, from basic training, and later from Europe, Obermayer wrote home with vivid descriptions of life in the...