Richard "Dick" Willhour was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in December 1924. He had a younger brother who served in the Air Force during the war. They stayed in Tulsa during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. His family did not realize they were poor. He had a great time. His family had returned from church and sat down to lunch when they heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It did not make much of an impression on young Willhour. Even President Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] speech [Annotator's Note: Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress, 8 December 1941] to Congress requesting a declaration of war the next day was lost to him. A friend named Dick Schindler volunteered for the service and was killed at an early age. After graduation from high school, Willhour attended TU [Annotator's Note: The University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma] and volunteered for ASTP [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] in the fall of 1943. He was called up in January 1944. ASTP basic training was in Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. It was fun because he was physically fit. In March, ASTP was cancelled and Willhour was sent to the 100th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. The 100th had transferred all of its privates and PFCs [Annotator's Note: private first class] to Italy as replacements. Although the division had completed its preparation for overseas deployment, they stayed long enough to train the newcomers. Willhour had been accepted for medical training in ASTP. After Fort Bragg, the division shipped out of Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: in Central New Jersey] for Europe on a ship called New York [Annotator's Note: likely the SS Tuscania, renamed Nea Hellas in 1930 and SS New York in 1955]. The quarters were jammed, and meals were limited to twice a day. It took 15 days to reach Europe. The ship was in convoy landed in Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France]. The men climbed down ropes from their LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry]. They were welcomed to France by a German observation plane overhead and a radio broadcast recognition from Axis Sally [Annotator's Note: Mildred Elizabeth Gillars].

Richard "Dick" Willhour landed in Marseilles, France [Annotator's Note: with the 100th Infantry Division] and moved out to bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary camp without tents or cover] about ten miles outside the city. While passing through the city, a lady played the United States National Anthem for the marching troops. Overall, the French were glad the Americans had arrived. Willhour was a member of a heavy weapons company. He had to clean the heavy machine gun which was coated in Cosmoline [Annotator's Note: name for petroleum-based corrosion inhibitors]. On the way to the front, Willhour observed many destroyed German vehicles left behind by the retreating enemy. The cities did not seem to have suffered extensive destruction except for the harbor of Marseilles. The troops proceeded through mountain country in the rain and cold weather. During a night in Dijon [Annotator's Note: Dijon, France], the men visited with some young French girls. Moving forward to Baccarat [Annotator's Note: Baccarat, France], they rested a few days. Flashes in the distance were thought to be enemy artillery fire. The company's adjutant officer was first thought to be a pain for the troops. Later, when he was promoted to company commander, he took care of the men under him. The veteran 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division was relieved by elements of Willhour's 100th Infantry Division. They took over the 179th's emplacements and remained for a few days. The 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Division had been committed first and sustained casualties due to Schu-mines [Annotator's Note: Schü-mine 42, Schützenmine 42, English: rifleman's mine model 1942]. The division advanced on Raon-l'Etape [Annotator's Note: Raon-l'Étape, France]. Machine gun fire hit the Americans. Germans were positioned in zig-zag trenches. Shelling from probably 88mm guns [Annotator's Note: German 88mm, multi-purpose artillery] fell on the GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier]. Willhour's outfit had to retreat. It was their baptism of fire.

Richard "Dick" Willhour retreated from German emplacements at Raon-l'Étape [Annotator's Note: Raon-l'Étape, France with the 100th Infantry Division]. The Americans dug in and received harassing fire during the night. It did not take long for regimental, battalion, and platoon commanders and even his squad sergeant to be either killed or withdrawn due to suffering from combat trauma. Captain Bradley [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], the company commander, was a great guy. He and his radioman were killed by mortar fire. Company personnel was decimated. Willhour was armed only with his sidearm. Later, when the GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] passed through the German position, they observed that about six Germans manned machine guns in those trenches. They had thrown back the American attack. The 100th Division reached Raon-l'Étape. Willhour was able to sleep in a town and not in a hole. In Senones [Annotator's Note: Senones, France], they observed a line of American tanks coming up. When British Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] strafed a nearby hill, Willhour knew to stay low. On the way to Saint-Blaise-la-Roche [Annotator's Note: Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, France], they enjoyed fresh turnips in a field. When German troops in the town attempted to surrender, some idiot in the company started shooting at them and they fled into the nearby woods. Germans ran out the back doors as Americans entered through the front of the homes. It was house to house fighting. Machine gun fire cut down beautiful horses that were caught in the crossfire. Willhour lost a friend to mortar fire in the town. A machine gun position was established in a post office. The local postmaster pointed out a stack of packages in the corner. They were addressed to locations in Germany. The Americans opened the packages thinking they would have riches and bounty in them. Instead, they contained basic necessities of life bound for the German home front. It indicated how desperate things were for German civilians in the homeland. The company commander sent Willhour and a couple other men to a rest camp. He managed to send Christmas cards home at that time.

Richard "Dick" Willhour returned from a rest camp as the outfit [Annotator's Note: 100th Infantry Division] was moving on Bitche, France. The members of the 100th became known as the "Sons of Bitche." On the way, he received mail including an angel food cake that was hard as a rock. Another package arrived for him that contained a shoeshine kit. [Annotator's Note: Willhour laughs.] Captain Focher [Annotator's Note: spelling uncertain, unable to identify] notified Willhour that he received the Combat Infantry Badge [Annotator's Note: Combat Infantryman Badge, military decoration awarded to infantrymen who fought in active ground combat]. While advancing over hilly terrain, the men discovered that the Germans had felled trees to create obstructions. That night, it rained and Willhour's hole filled up with water. As the Americans advanced up a hill, a group of Germans fired on them and then immediately surrendered. The patrol sent to escort the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] to the rear never managed to get them there. [Annotator's Note: Willhour laughs.] The Germans fired 88mm artillery [Annotator's Note: German 88mm, multi-purpose artillery] at their positions. Willhour dug a shallow hole by the time the fire grew heavy. A tree burst resulted in him being hit in the foot and ankle. Later in the barrage, he was hit in the knee by shrapnel. It did not hurt that bad. It was 2 December [Annotator's Note: 2 December 1944] and his combat experience was over. He had only been deployed for about a month.

Richard "Dick" Willhour was withdrawn from the front after being wounded [Annotator's Note: in Bitche, France with the 100th Infantry Division]. He walked to the aid station and taken to a collecting station for transport to a field hospital. He was placed next to an injured German soldier who had gangrene [Annotator's Note: tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply]. He did not think too much about the proximity of the former enemy. Ultimately, Willhour was sent to the 136th Field Hospital at Dijon, France. His leg was operated on there on about 10 December [Annotator's Note: 10 December 1944] just before the Battle of the Bulge started on 16 December [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Hospital patients who could walk were sent to resist the German advance. The wounded Willhour was not selected by the surgeon to go to the front. Willhour feels good about his time and treatment in the hospital. That was a little different than the time at the collecting station. He was hungry and then given Sodium Pentothall [Annotator's Note: trademarked name of sodium thiopental, a general anesthetic] prior to his surgery. His recovery was tough. The established rule stated that if recovery took 120 days or more, a soldier would be sent to the ZI or Zone of the Interior. He had a million dollar wound [Annotator's Note: military slang for a non-fatal, or non-crippling, wound serious enough to be remove a soldier from combat] and was going home. While in Saint-Blaise-la-Roche [Annotator's Note: Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, France], Willhour stepped into a basement, fell several steps and hit his helmeted head. Luckily there were no Germans still in the basement. Transiting on to Glasgow [Annotator's Note: Glasgow, Scotland], he boarded the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: the RMS Queen Mary] to return to the States. He was not ambulatory, so he was given a stateroom with five other men. They had their food brought to them. It was a fun, first class ride home. His wound was minor, so he was lucky. He stayed in several stateside hospitals including Fitzsimmons General [Annotator's Note: Fitzsimmons Army Hospital, Aurora, Colorado] where more surgeries were performed on him. After a couple months, he was sent to a rehab [Annotator's Note: rehabilitation] center at Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: now part of Joint Base San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas]. He was there when the bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] was dropped. It seemed like something not intended by God. In August, he was sent to a rest camp in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He became a chaplain assistant to help veterans understand benefits they were entitled to after discharge. When that camp closed, he was sent to Camp Fannin, Texas for a month. He was promoted to sergeant major and ran a group of 20 civilian women and 20 GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] working for him. He was discharged at Fort Chaffe, Arkansas and returned to Tulsa [Annotator's Note: Tulsa, Oklahoma, in May 1946].

Richard "Dick" Willhour had no transition problems returning to civilian life. He attended college on the G.I. Bill and used Public Law 16 [Annotator's Note: Public Law 16 emphasized vocational rehabilitation and quick reentry into the labor market] which afforded more money per month for wounded troops. He graduated from TU [Annotator's Note: The University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma] in 1948 in business management. He learned on the job that he had to work to learn how to manage. He worked for an oil distributor. They became partners. After his partner died, Willhour took the business over. George Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] said war was an adventure and it certainly was for Willhour. He had it easier than many combat veterans. Although it was difficult and tiring, it was not something he could not handle. Young people today do not understand what Willhour, and his fellow veterans went through. Older folks do better understand what happened. Willhour is glad that Ambrose [Annotator's Note: Stephen E. Ambrose; American historian and author; founder of National D-Day Museum, now The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] started that [Annotator's Note: the Museum] down there.