Benjamin "Dusty" Rhoads was born in Clovis, New Mexico in March 1922 and moved to Farmington, New Mexico shortly after. After graduating form high school, he went to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque [Annotator's Note: Albuquerque, New Mexico] for two and a half years before enlisting in the Army. He had three sisters: Irene, Fern, and Mildred Rhoads. Their father worked for the railroad and did odd jobs, as work was not so plentiful at the time. Then he went to work for Continental Oil Company [Annotator's Note: Continental Oil and Transportation Company; now known as Conoco, Inc.] until he retired. Rhoads' mother stayed home and took care of the house. Rhoads heard about the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on the radio while in college. Shortly thereafter he decided to go to El Paso [Annotator's Note: El Paso, Texas] to join the Army. He had wanted to join the Navy, but he was color blind and so was not permitted. He was shipped off to training, and went to school for communications as a radio operator initially. Then he trained sending and receiving radio messages with the Air Force. He was bored with this work so he applied for Officer Candidate School. He was accepted and spent six to eight months at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, finishing as a second lieutenant. He then spent another six months or so in Oakland, California. He was transferred into the ground forces. A few months after Pearl Harbor, the United States entered war in Europe in addition to the Pacific.

Benjamin "Dusty" Rhoads departed from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and arrived in London [Annotator's Note: London, England] and became involved in the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They spent about ten months training for that invasion. On 5 June [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944] they were ready to take off for the invasion, but orders were sent out to delay it because the weather was so bad. Rhoads' group was put on an LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Infantry]. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was in charge of everything in Europe, but Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Nelson Bradley] was the commander of the First Army. On the ship over, the sea was so rough that everyone was seasick and vomiting. They arrived around eight o'clock in the morning. They went over without any Air Force because the weather was so bad that they could not see to bomb anything. They relied instead on the artillery provided by the Navy. For the first three or four days, everything was mixed up. Seven to ten days were spent simply preparing to get into battle. In the mean time, the Germans were fighting back. German artillery hit the beach. It was the first time a lot of the soldiers were involved in war. Rhoads landed at Omaha Beach, where most of the casualties were.

Benjamin "Dusty" Rhoads went into the service in early 1942. He did boot camp and communications school near Saint Louis, Missouri. He then went to Officer Candidate School [Annotator's Note: at Fort Belvoir, Virginia]. He had requested that transfer because he did not like his communications job as a radioman. He just sat there, waited, and wrote down messages. He was shipped out to Europe about six months before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He had fun on the trip over because there were nurses on the ship and they had big parties all the way over. They arrived in southern England. Mainly, Rhoads' unit's job was to get supplies ready and get them to soldiers on the front. They were support troops. He occasionally got a weekend pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He did not socialize much with local civilians. They knew the invasion was coming, but had no idea what it would consist of. They were confined to camp in the days before the invasion. The biggest disruption was the weather. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] had to call off the invasion the day before because of weather, and it upset everybody.

Benjamin "Dusty" Rhoads went across the channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel] on an LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Infantry]. He was the second or third person off the boat and the water was over his head. He had to jump up to take a breath. Within ten minutes, 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] shells hit the boat and the remaining men had to jump overboard [Annotator's Note: this was on D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Rhoads was responsible for one platoon of 30 to 40 men, mostly doing service and supply. His most memorable experience was the first day or two. He wondered how it was going to end, and if they could keep it up. The Germans made a big mistake in the first week. Rhoads felt fortunate to have gotten by. FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] was the one who wanted to get into the war. It was amazing the number of people killed [Annotator's Note: during the initial invasion] and there was nothing he could do about it. When Rhoads first hit the beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach], he saw bullets hitting the sand coming towards him. As long as they did not hit him, he kept running. The Germans had 88s and machine guns above the beaches. They could not protect themselves from the German fire, and had no artillery. He had no idea what was happening on the other beaches [Annotator's Note: Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches, the other invasion locations]. Once the beach was secured, Rhoads stayed on the beach directing supplies. Around September or October [Annotator's Note: September or October 1944], they began guarding German prisoners. There was a breakthrough in Belgium [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Shortly before Christmas, they were moved out to stop the Nazis from taking over. By that time, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] was there and was sent to stop them. Overnight, they had to tear everything down. They drove from Normandy to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], arriving on Christmas Day. Shortly thereafter, the German breakthrough was contained and it was basically the end of the war in Europe.

The French were happy that Benjamin "Dusty" Rhoads and American forces were in France. [Annotator's Note: Rhoads was in Paris, France around Christmas 1944 after partaking in D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] Once the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was wrapped up, the Germans were pretty well contained. The atomic bombs being dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] saved a lot of Japanese and American lives, despite costing the Japanese a lot. Had the bombs not been dropped, the battles that would have ensued would have cost more lives. Once Rhoads returned home, he continued his education at Missouri School of Mines [Annotator's Note: Missouri University of Science and Technology] in Rolla, Missouri and went to work. He was discharged from the Army with the rank of captain. He did not have any trouble readjusting to civilian life, and did not suffer from nightmares. Rhoads' most memorable experience of the war was D-Day. He cannot imagine anyone going through it and not remembering it. He served because it was his duty. He matured more quickly because he was in the service. He learned discipline. To those involved in the war, World War 2 means quite a bit, but he is not sure what it means to current generations. They do not see the United States the way that Rhoads see it. He was very impressed with The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana].