Growing Up, Then Army
Subtitle: A Memoir, 1925 through World War II
Publisher: NA
Published: NA
Place of publication: NA
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 350
Copyright date: NA
First sentence: "I don't think they'll counterattack tonight."
Description: The Great Depression and World War II are the backdrop of a young boy's life leading to manhood in hazardous infantry fighting. Twice wounded in action, Orville Nilsen, now in his 80s, tells how he grew up and then, of his desperate wartime experiences in Europe with the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) in the Battle of the Bulge, Hurtgen Forest and Remagen. The riveting stories of personal combat are told from the viewpoint of a private, giving an honst picture as fought at the lowest, most vunerable level. 

bellingham, Washington was the place of the growing up years where he was the second of three children in a stable, middle class, 20th Century family. His father, a laboring man, was a Norwegian immigrant and his mother a first generation American of immigrant parents.The anecdotes of boyhood are often humorous and happy, sometimes sad or introspective, always real.

Faith in God, or the lack of it, is an important theme throughout. This problem is resolved, but only partially, through a life-or-death combat experience which later becomes the significant milestone in future faith development.

The two parts of the story "Growing Up" nd "Army," are woven together, moving back and forth from one to the other.
Notes: -+** 
[number] 234
signed "To Harriet Palmer, our friend and fellow traveler, Orville Nilsen. April 2013.

There is no other publishing information for this title listed.
Table of contents: title: Book One: First Things; title: Book Two: Assimilation; title: Book Three: Joys and Disasters; title: Book Four: Heaven or Hell?; title: Book Five: The War Ends, Home Again; title: Epilogue