This is a man's war story.

I realize this blog is backwards. This is a description of what it is, just so you don't think you stumbled upon some angsty young 20 something's personal diary.

Years ago, my grandfather Hance Rogers had a friend named Tommy Harrell. They knew each other as young men in Tennessee and traveled the Virginia tidewater area selling Bibles. Harrell, being a man of the good book, was ever known in my family as Thumper Harrell. He died of Lou Gherig's disease in the 1970s, but not before writing about his experiences in World War Two.

This manuscript was given to my grandfather. My grandmother, who was mentally ill, squirreled it away somewhere in the depths of the house and we only found it again about a month ago.

It is entirely dictated to a nurse who typed it on a typewriter and I have taken it upon myself to type the entire thing up and share it.

All misspellings and grammatical errors are kept. I have done NO editing.

So...

there you go.