S/Sgt. James Killion, Jr. served for six years in the US Army. In the rain and mud of France, he dreamed of reuniting with his wife and meeting his infant son.

World War II saw an unprecedented level of inter-Allied cooperation that led to the formation of new staff organizations like the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the US-British Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS).

In June 2004, while spending a weekend in Munich away from dissertation research at the Austrian National Library, I boarded a train in the city’s Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) for a short trip.

As USS Arizona burned on December 7, 1941, Lt. Commander Fuqua displayed true courage under fire.

“As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn’t been touched by the war and blew it to hell.” - Bob Hope, Operation Crossroads by Jonathan M. Weisgall, Naval Institute Press, 1994.