Adolph Edward Asher was born March 1916 in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], it was hard for his parents. He did not feel anything because he was young. Asher joined the military in August 1941, after being drafted. He got a letter from Uncle Sam [Annotator's Note: Uncle Sam; a common national personification of the federal government of the United States]. He could not enter the service when he got the letter, because broke his hip playing volleyball. He got the letter in February [Annotator's Note: February 1941], but it was August [Annotator's Note: August 1941] before he could go in. He was sent to Camp Livingston [Annotator's Note: Camp Livingston, now part of Kisatchie National Forest in Rapides Parish and Grant Parish, Louisiana]. There were five of them from the area that went to Camp Livingston. He was sworn into the Army. The next day, they loaded a bus and went to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: in Hattiesburg, Mississippi]. His parents visited him every Sunday. He got the job of cleaning the commodes. He was in the 45th Infantry Division which was the Oklahoma National Guard Unit. He made friends with the other soldiers. He was trained as a machine gunner. It took three months. Then he was sent to the 79th Infantry as a machine gunner. They were sent to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] and then sent overseas.

Adolph Edward Asher's [Annotator's Note: with the 45th Infantry Division] ship was sunk by a U-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine before he was to board it]. Their equipment was on the ship. All they could do was train because they did not have any equipment. There was a new unit that was training truck drivers. When he came home from Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] he had to go in the office because he was leaving the next day. He had orders to go to the New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] port of embarkation. He was no longer going to be a machine gunner. He was going to be a truck driver. He made friends there. The lady at the port said he could go into the infantry, or he could go work with telephones. He declined the offers. He stayed in New York and trained soldiers. He went from recruit to corporal to sergeant and then staff sergeant. He was getting ready to go overseas and he had to get the soldiers prepared for it. He had to go into the office. The lady remembered he had requested a transfer and she had gotten him a place with OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School]. He left on New Year's Eve [Annotator's Note: 31 December 1941]. He arrived in Saint Petersburg, Virginia [Annotator's Note: Petersburg, Virginia] at two in the morning. They took him outside where it was cold. His job was to start a fire for the soldiers to dip their utensils in after they finished eating. Then he was taken to his unit. He was a cadet at this time. They told him he had a test the next day. They had a test every day over what they had learned. He was there for three months. They would move cadets out of there every day. He thought he would be removed. 16 March [Annotator's Note: 16 March 1942] he was sworn in as a second lieutenant. He went home to see his parents in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] on his way to Texas. He was there for three months to learn the equipment on the trucks. Then he went back to Petersburg. Then he returned to New York until they decided what to do with him.

Adolph Edward Asher was assigned to a unit [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] in April [Annotator's Note: April 1944] through the following May [Annotator's Note: May 1944]. They were stationed in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He was sent a day in advance to get everything ready for his unit. When he tried to get off the ship to go into Boston a sailor stopped him and told him he could not leave. His roommate on the ship was sick the entire time. They left on 3 June [Annotator's Note: 3 June 1944], and it took them 8 days to get to Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England]. When they arrived, it was raining. He was a 1st lieutenant. He took a truckload of troops into Liverpool to see the town. When they got ready to leave, he was short three or four men. As a unit, they moved General Bradley's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Nelson Bradley] headquarters from England to France. He got a call from the 79th Infantry Division. They wanted 50 trucks and trailers. When he got there a colonel said he did not want the trailers he wanted the trucks to haul his soldiers. He did not know what he was going to do with 50 trailers. He stored them in an open field. He was in charge of a soldier that kept getting into trouble. He locked this soldier into one of the trailers with another soldier guarding him. When the unit was ready to leave Asher did not know what he was going to do with the trailers. He thought he was going to have to pay for them.

Adolph Edward Asher arrived in France and was assigned to a new outfit [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. He had known the outfit previously. His job was to haul the infantry. When they were going through Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] the weather was bad, and the terrain was rough. He let the infantry do some fighting. He tried to avoid that. They had to chase the Germans out of France and back into Germany. The outfit ran out of gasoline and ammunition. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] told Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] if he could get him the gasoline and ammunition he could get to Germany before the Russians did. He was a political general. The Russians had agreed to certain stipulations and the American soldiers had to abide. The Russians entered Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] before the Americans. The president [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] and the Russian leaders had agreed the Russians could go in first. General Patton did not like this, but he had his orders from Eisenhower. General Patton did not care who was around it was his way or no other way.

Adolph Edward Asher was in training as a soldier when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was going to the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] to get some goodies. A soldier passing him told him they had been attacked at Pearl Harbor. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was, and he thought that was too bad. Later that day he went to a movie with a friend in Fort Worth [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth, Texas]. Halfway through the movie, the lights came up and an announcement was made for all military to report back to their post. He was worried because he was supposed to have leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home to see his parents. They took the leave away, but then reinstated it for some people. His leave was not reinstated. He bought leave from a guy who was from Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. The guy could not make it to Boston and back in three days. He paid the guy 10 dollars so he could go to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] to see his parents. His unit [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] went to Pearl Harbor after it was attacked. He saw the ships that had been sunk. His infantry beat the Germans. He remembers they relieved the commanding officers of the Navy who were playing golf on that Sunday.

Adolph Edward Asher went to France to fight at Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Every night the Germans would fire over to see where his infantry [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] was. He would get under a truck every night so they could not find him. They kept advancing until General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] told them to stop. They would stop when he decided it was as far as they could go, and the Russians needed to move forward. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] did not like it and none of the men wanted to turn over their advance to the Russians. When they got into Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], the British were supposed to go in before the Russians. The Russians came in thinking they would have control of Paris. Patton did not agree with this, and he went in and took over Paris. The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter-Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was the German's last stand.

Adolph Edward Asher went to Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. Every day they [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which unit] would advance with the infantry in their trucks. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and the 45th Infantry Division had taken command of the Dachau concentration camp. It was a terrible sight. He saw the troops on the train. He saw them being mistreated. Everyone he asked about had been killed. They lost 80 percent of the people he knew in that division. He did not know anyone that was left. He ran into someone who was from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. His mother had written the guy was there. He met up with him to take him into a town. The guy got into some trouble and had to return to his unit. Then Asher ran into his best friend. His friend was in a unit dropping bombs. He had it easy compared to his friend. Dachau is something he wants to forget. He went to Salzburg, Austria, where they had taken over a beautiful home. He met a young girl there. She asked if her mom and dad could stay in the basement. They could not stay because they were not supposed to fraternize with the enemy. He ran all the Germans out and his troops had a nice villa to stay in. He saw a fenced enclosure. He told the guard to release the men, or he would be shot. They were American troops. He had them released. After that, he was transferred back [Annotator's Note: to the States] from Germany.

Adolph Edward Asher was transferred back from Germany. A colonel had known him in the States [Annotator's Note: United States] and wanted him to work for him. Asher did not want to be in the infantry. The colonel promoted him to major. He received a letter that his mother was dying while he was in Germany. He went to see about getting out of the Army so he could see his mother. They told him they would see what they could do for him. He got notice that his request was approved. He was able to get on a plane to head back to America. They landed in Delaware. He had to pay his own way to get home. He went to the Red Cross to see if they would loan him some money for the flight home and they did. When he went over to the man in charge, he told him he needed to get on a flight. The man told him he would have to remove someone from the plane because it was full. Then a train pulled up into the station and they paged Asher. The man had forgotten to remove someone from the flight. The plane landed in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He made it from Germany without a penny in his pocket. He saw his mother and did not leave her for 30 days. After that, he had to report to Mississippi. When he reported for duty, he told them he had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to get out of the military and that is what he wanted to do.

Adolph Edward Asher was in Hattiesburg [Annotator's Note: Hattiesburg, Mississippi] at Camp Shelby when he got out of the military. Seeing Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] is his most memorable moment. It was terrible how they treated the Americans. They were cooped up like cattle. The troops were mistreated. He sent German presents to a German stockade. He went to a party, and he did not know where his equipment was. A lady he was with said he could go home with her. In the morning her boyfriend showed up and he had to be snuck out. She was a nice girl and she worked at the children's hospital. He gave her about eight or ten watches he took from the Germans. He stayed until his colonel called for him. When he got home to see his mother, he received a letter from the girl. She sent him a locket with some hair. His mother passed away a couple of months later. He made friends in the military. He continued his friendship with those who were in the New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] area. He did not use the GI Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] right away. He did not know about them paying for things. He is paid and taken care of every month now.

Adolph Edward Asher worked for United Fruit Company importing bananas [Annotator's Note: before the war]. He started off small and worked his way up. The manager had an opening for a war superintendent in Mobile [Annotator's Note: Mobile, Alabama] when he was 21 years old. He went home and asked his parents if he could do it. They were unsure, but his sister told them to let him go. There was another war superintendent, and the manager was told he needed to be replaced. The manager decided to put him in Mobile and send Asher back to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He was working in New Orleans when he was drafted. He went back to work for them after the war. They offered him a position in Charleston, South Carolina. He did not want to be there. He wanted to be at home with his father. His mother had passed away and his father was alone. It is important to teach about World War 2. He brought his medals [Annotator's Note: to the interview]. He was in five campaigns. Going to war was something he had to do. He was young and, in the military, he had a purpose. He achieved promotions. In the military, it is not what you know it is who you know.