Bernard Norman Marcantel was born in July 1923 in Oberlin, Louisiana, the youngest of four sons. The children of their neighborhood entertained themselves and mostly played sports; Marcantel liked basketball best. During the Great Depression his father bought and sold frogs and muskrat pelts, and finally settled in to selling hats as a traveling salesman. During the summer before his senior year at Oberlin High School, Marcantel accompanied his father on his routes all over the state of Louisiana. He was in college at SLI [Annotator's Note: Southwestern Louisiana Institute] in Lafayette when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. His brothers all felt it necessary to participate in the war so one went into the Navy, another went into the Merchant Marine, and the third joined the 82nd Airborne [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division]. On 15 August 1942, Marcantel traveled by train to Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana] and volunteered for the Army Specialized Training Program at SLI, which was supposed to allow him to stay in college until he earned his degree in accounting and economics. But the following April he was called up, and reported for training at Camp Fanning, near Tyler, Texas.

Remarkably, Bernard Marcantel claims, he went through three basic trainings: after Camp Fanning, in Texas, he was transferred an ordnance company in Kansas for several months. Marcantel decided to apply for a position in the Army Air Corps and was accepted, so he was ordered to Biloxi, Mississippi for further training. But the number of casualties associated with D-Day changed things. Marcantel remembered being called into an auditorium and told that General Hap Arnold, who was in charge of the Air Corps, knew that all these red-blooded young men were anxious to “clash with the enemy as soon as possible,” and Marcantel and his fellow cadets were all transferred to the infantry and moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. He was assigned to the newly organized “Fighting 69th” Infantry Division as a technician (T5) and worked in supply. In November 1944 he sailed over to England, amidst German U-Boat threats, in a ship that was leaking. Marcantel recalls being in the hold trying to pull mailbags out—trying to keep them dry—and having to drop out of the convoy. But the Division made it safely to Basingstoke, near London, where it billeted intact, and eventually was shipped to the Ardennes Forest for the Battle of the Bulge.

At the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications built by Germany in the 1930s], the western wall of Germany, Bernard Marcantel first experienced combat. He said they were living in holes in the ground that they covered with trees. The firing was heavy from both sides. Marcantel said it got to be a game: the Allied rounds would just bounce off the concrete German bunkers and the enemy would come out and wave "Maggie's drawers," a red flag that indicted a miss, then they would fire back. On 6 January [Annotator's Note: 6 January 1945] the Americans finally broke through, and then, Marcantel said, "it went fast." The division [Annotator's Note: 69th Infantry Division] destroyed a jet airbase at the town of Torgau, and Marcantel recalled that it was a patrol from his regiment that was the first to make contact with the Russians. The 69th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and it was there that Marcantel saw his first jet engine fighter plane [Annotator's Note: likely a German Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter aircraft]; it was strafing the road ahead of them. The action startled him, and he jumped into a ditch for cover, losing his helmet in the process. When he got the order to go again, and was getting into a transport vehicle, a German civilian ran up to him, called him "Comrade, Comrade," and returned Marcantel's helmet. The gesture amazed him, and made him realize that war was "stupid." The Division moved from mission to mission until it reached Leipzig, Germany, one of the last holdouts for the Germans. The Division secured Leipzig, and was there when the war in Europe came to an end. It was in early March 1945 that they got word that President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died. Marcantel said the news had everybody "all shook up," because no one knew what was going to happen next. Scuttlebutt [Annotator's Note: slang term for rumors] had it that they were all going to Japan, but Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] took over, and the American forces dropped the atomic bombs, bringing the war to its close.

"Stuck in Europe," Bernard Marcantel applied to attend the American University in Biarritz, France where American professors were conducting classes. He was accepted and enjoyed the experience that earned him six credit hours toward his college degree. Marcantel was then sent up to a base near Paris to wait for shipment home; he was discharged from Camp Shelby, Mississippi in March 1946. Back in Lafayette, Louisiana, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to finish his studies [Annotator's Note: at SouthWestern Louisiana Institute, or SLI]. The day after graduation, Marcantel married his long standing fiancé who had worked as a radio announcer for NBC in Washington D.C. during the war. Marcantel said the government education program was a "great Godsend," because it enabled him to enroll in the University of Chicago's law school. After earning his juris doctorate, he taught economics at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana while he took courses for another doctorate and certification in Louisiana law. He opened his own law practice in Jennings, Louisiana, and after three years was elected district attorney for Allen and Jefferson Davis Parishes. He spent 26 years in the DA's office, and was elected city judge in Jennings, Louisiana, in 1964. He also served as a temporary judge for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1992. Marcantel claimed he never retired from his work in law.

Of his World War 2 experiences, Bernard Marcantel said that the one that stands out the most in his mind is of shells crashing down around him during his first combat mission. It was freezing cold and snowing, and it was difficult to dig a foxhole. Marcantel's burrow was only deep enough to lie down in, and it was covered with brush, so he had to crawl down into it. He burned his hand on the only source of heat, some burning charcoal, so he quit trying to stay warm. He has also never forgotten getting strafed and he clearly remembers that when the German army collapsed, the civilians wanted nothing to do with the Russians who were living off the land, stealing their livestock and attacking their women. He also recalled whole platoons of German soldiers walking up to the side of the road to give themselves up. He pointed out that when his Division [Annotator's Note: 69th Infantry Division] took Leipzig, the German civilians were waving American flags. Marcantel said he found it hard to believe that the German people really wanted to follow Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler], and asserted that his regime depended on brute force.

After his discharge, Bernard Marcantel signed up for the reserves. He was afraid he would be called up during the Korean War but that didn't happen. His growing work and family responsibilities dictated his finally leaving the Army altogether. Marcantel said his war experiences broadened his perspective, and directed the course of his life. He feels the war "doesn't mean a thing today," and he doesn't see the younger generation honoring anything that made this country great. Marcantel feels we are living in perilous times. His own best times were those spent with his daughter and three sons; he tried to teach them self respect and confidence. He has a grandson who chronicled Marcantel's military service. Marcantel has lectured about the end of the war at The National WWII Museum, and thinks it very important that the institution continue its outreach and education on the war. For people who see this interview in the future, is message is to live with purpose.