Soldiering for Freedom: A Gi's Account of World War II

"Soldiering For Freedom" by Herman J. Obermayer. Subtitled: "A GI's Account Of World War II. Texas A & M University, Military History Series, 98. (2005). This book is a personal memoir that is different from most. Herman J. Obermayer, at the age of eighteen, was drafted in June 1943. From his entry into the Army at the New Cumberland Army Reception Center, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania until his return from Europe to the United States on the ship, "Colby Victory", he wrote his parents. His last letter is dated March 30, 1946. These letters, collected during the war years, formed the foundation for this book. At first, I thought I would not like the format of printed edited versions of Obermayer's letters, but then, I found that the author has woven the letters into a sort of personal and contemporary commentary on the events that were occurring at the date of each letter. So, for example, you will find his letters from the College of William and Mary, where Obermayer trained in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), intertwined with a rather detailed explanation of the Army Specialized Training Program, its goals, and that the fact that some 150,000 GIs were assigned to some 222 colleges and universities as ASTP students, and, for completeness, a brief history of the College. Due to his high score on the Army General Classification Test, Herman Obermayer was initially assigned to ASTP, so the former Dartmouth student entitled this chapter as "Back To College As A Soldier". Basic training, troopship crossings and awaiting combat are all dealt with in individual chapters, which, again, mix Obermayer's contemporary correspondence with succinct summaries of the status of the war in the European Theater of Operations, ETO. An interesting chapter deals with the war against the French, our nominal allies, who were robbing gasoline from the American pipelines. On pages 100-101, the author gives an incidence of the French actually sabotaging a train, resulting in the death of some 200 American soldiers. "Censorship kept the news of this event out of the U.S. press." Even today, the there is little written about it. The author has provided B & W contemporary photos of himself, his friends and some of interesting events he describes in the book. Additionally, the author has prepared an interesting map, showing his World War II trek across the ETO, and then marking the places he visited, including Paris, the Riviera and Geneva, Switzerland, where he was a student after the end of hostilities. This is an interested and very detailed book.

Mr. Obermayer's book is an excellent read. The chapters feature a summary and then copies of Mr. Obermayer's letters to his family during World War II. What makes Mr. Obermayer's story interesting is that he was a young man who didn't like the Army, but did his best to serve his country. Every since the movie "Saving Private Ryan," and the book "The Greatest Generation," the public has viewed WWII veterans as people who were on a crusade. "Soldiering for Freedom" brings back the facts of 1940 military life we've forgotten. He describes: * The hurry up and wait so common to military operations. * The dependence on rumors for information and the concurrent frustration of not knowing what's happening. * The forming and training and then re-forming and retraining. He goes through a dizzying number of programs and units: college based technical training, Combat Engineer battalion, Airborne Engineer battalion, a medic in a Fuel line detachment, and legal clerk. * The senseless and unfair rules: officer only facilities of higher quality than the enlisted men were provided, censor ship of his mail, working for officers and noncommissioned officers who had less intellegent and/or education than him, etc. * The resentment and lack of support from liberated French people for the war effort. This is a part of the Army and the war that use to be shown in the television show "Sergeant Bilko" or the "Sad Sack" comic books--Civilians with an uneasy alliance to military life who often spent their time in uniform doing the best with what little the Army gave them.

I cannot praise Mr. Obermayer too highly. So much of what we think we know we learn from the media these days--and so much of what we think we know about World War II and 'the greatest generation'-- is so much hogwash. When we get discouraged at how things are going in Iraq or elsewhere these days, it is fascinating to learn how people--and our soldiers--really thought about things during the last years of "the good war." He is (and was--as a young man) a wonderful writer.

Mr. Obermayer brings vividly alive a GI's life in the final years of World War II in Europe and the occupation that followed. But he also finds lessons in that period that inform us today-- especially his insights into the ongoing conflict between the United States and France that had fertile roots in 1944 and 1945.

This book is not only an excellent history lesson on WWII but it is a fascinating account of values applicable today such as family unity, education and patriotism. I am impressed at Mr. Obermayer's attention to detail, his astute observations for a young soldier at that time and especially at his commitment to daily letter writing to his parents. I have shared his writings with my children in hopes that they will adopt the same diligence when they leave the nest. There is much to enjoy and learn by reading "Soldiering for Freedom".