Austeen Bice was born in August 1923 in New Boston, Texas with five brothers and one sister. His father was a farmer and his mother stayed at home to raise his family. When describing his childhood, Bice remarked about going to school and working on the farm with his brothers. Times were hard, but neighbors found ways to help each other out. Bice’s family always had plenty of food during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. When Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Bice was working at a soda shop when he heard the news on the radio. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was located, but he knew it was out in the Pacific. Immediately following the news, everyone in town wanted to go out and “kill the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]”. His older brothers enlisted in service. Bice married when he was 19 years old, so he did not enlist into service and found a job working in a defense plant at Red River and Lone Star as a bomb inspector making 55 dollars a week. He bought war bonds because he was able to afford it. He describes the environment at the plant and the surrounding community. He took the bus to and from the plant and lived in a house with his wife. In 1943, Bice received his draft notice and reported to the induction center at Mineral Wells [Annotator’s Note: Mineral Wells, Texas]. His friend tried to persuade him to join the Navy, but Bice decided to enlist in the Army. He was sent to Camp White, Oregon by train for boot camp with the 300th Combat Engineers [Annotator’s Note: 300th Combat Engineer Battalion]. He did not find boot camp to be very difficult. He was used to taking orders and physical work. He volunteered to be acting corporal and was released from KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police] duties. After boot camp, the unit conducted maneuvers in the Oregon desert. He remarked that everyone worked as a team. Bice received a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before he was deployed to England near Christmas of 1943. He boarded the Queen Mary at Camp Shanks, New York with 13,000 other soldiers. His ship went without an escort because it was fast.

Austeen Bice [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 300th Combat Engineer Battalion] landed in Glasgow, Scotland near the end of 1943. He caught a train with his unit to England. His unit trained for another six months on building bridges and laying mine fields before landing on Omaha Beach [Annotator’s Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France] on 10 June 1944 [Annotator’s Note: four days after D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944]. His battalion was broken up to support other units. Bice was in Company C and stayed mainly with the 76th Infantry Division. He recalled multiple bridges his unit put up and the combat that ensued around them. When he landed at Normandy, he saw carnage everywhere and the stench was strong. When they were not building bridges, he and his unit filled in as infantry in the weak spots along the front lines. He recalled being on the line at the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] and being fired on by the Germans. He saw one of his friends roll off into a creek, and Bice ran over to check on him. His friend was fine but stunned by the action going on. He witnessed an officer being blown to pieces on a bridge by German artillery. Bice remarked how the Germans attempted to do a counterattack at Normandy but failed. By the end of December 1944, his unit was in Belgium and the weather was cold. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite. He wore every piece of clothing he had and did not shave his face for 14 days. During the Battle of the Bulge, he was in Manhay and Malmedy, Belgium. His unit built a narrow bridge across a creek. [Annotator’s Note: The interviewee loses his microphone at 0:39:42.000.] It was a wonderful sight and sound to see the American bomber planes finally coming in after the weather had cleared. Bice continued to built roadblocks to keep the Germans from using roads. He learned from his new officer that his unit was surrounded, but the officer soon left the unit and Bice never saw him again.

After the success of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], Austeen Bice [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 300th Combat Engineer Battalion] continued through Europe. When he reached the Siegfried line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s], there were pill boxes everywhere. Bice asked for construction vehicles and his unit built a road over them. The war was coming to an end. Bice was in Moosburg, Germany when he learned that the Germans surrendered. He was building a bridge. He completed the first section and then he heard someone yelling at him to move the construction vehicles. It was a small envoy of Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.], Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Nelson Bradley] and Arnold [Annotator's Note: General of the Army and General of the Air Force Henry Harley Arnold]. After the war ended, his unit was tasked with the reconstruction of German towns for which he used prisoners of war and civilians as help. He blew up a lot of landmarks and factories. Although Bice was enjoying his time in postwar Europe, he was ready to go home. He enjoyed working with the Belgian and German people. Everyone was relieved that war was over. He was discharged on 11 November 1946 and wanted to go back to school to study to be a veterinarian, but ended up leaving school. He worked various jobs in supermarkets and butchery shops until his retirement around 1985.

Austeen Bice’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was in Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] trying to build a bridge. [Annotator’s Note: Someone knocking on a door can be heard in the background. There is a break in the video from 00:59:52.000 to 01:00:05.000.] There was also a time when he was on rest period in Belgium. A sawmill was cutting lumber and he stayed there in the village. A buzz bomb [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] landed in the edge of town and there were many civilian casualties. Bice began bandaging people up. People were so thankful for the Americans being there. He used to look back on it and was extremely proud of his military service, but he would not go back in the Army today. The military is too conventional today. World War 2 made him aware how fortunate he is to be living in America and is a proud patriot. He hates to see American people being unpatriotic. People that know about World War 2 believe it is the greatest war ever fought, and it had to be done. He believes there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. [Annotator’s Note: The video cuts out and a new interviewee appears at 1:11:32.000 then goes black again from 1:12:43.000 to the end of the segment.]