Edgar R. "Ross" Forman was born in October 1923 in Camden, New Jersey, and would serve with the 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, of the 94th Infantry Division. He enlisted around March 1943 and was discharged in January 1946 with four campaign stars [Annotator's Note: Service Star; device worn to denote subsequent awards on medals and ribbons; also called campaign stars or battle stars, the Victory Medal [Annotator's Note: World War II Victory Medal], and the Army of Occupation Medal [Annotator's Note: awarded to those who had performed occupation service in either Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan or Korea]. He had two brothers and a sister. His father worked for the RCA Victrola Corporation [Annotator's Note: now RCA Records, part of Sony Music Entertainment] since 1915 and stayed there his entire life. Forman went to public elementary school in Westmont, New Jersey and then to Haddonfield High School where was a member of the orchestra and loved it. He wanted to go to college to be a chemist, without knowing what it was all about. After getting out of the service, he worked at the Cramp shipyard [Annotator's Note: William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] in an apprentice program with the machinery group which gave him credits. He also attended night classes at Drexel [Annotator's Note: Drexel University] in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. At Drexel, he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He had had a scholarship to Juniata College [Annotator's Note: in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania], but his father did not have enough money for board.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman was at home when he learned about Pearl Harbor Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He knew there would be a war but thought it would be over in six months because of a low opinion of the Japanese. Germany then declared war on America. He was at the dinner table when they heard the news and could not believe it. Forman was in an apprentice program at a shipyard and was going to get a deferment [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] because of that. When he got out of the Army [Annotator's Note: after the war], he went to night school. Before the war, engineers usually came from families with money and were rare. But after the war, they were common. Forman got a master's degree from Drexel in business administration. His father was on the draft board. In spite of the fact that he worked at the shipyard, he was drafted.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman completed basic training at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He did most of his freshman term in the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Maryland [Annotator's Note: in College Park, Maryland] and from there, went to Camp McCain [Annotator's Note: now Camp McCain Training Center in Grenada, Mississippi] where the 94th Division [Annotator's Note: the 94th Infantry Division] was trained. He ended up as a clerk [Annotator's Note: in the 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division]. His First Sergeant was a German man who had immigrated to the States after the First World War. Forman's unit was deployed to England first, to pick up equipment, and then went into France 94 days after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], landing on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France] in September [Annotator's Note: September 1944]. He had been sent over on the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth]. Having worked in a shipyard before, he realized that they were zigzagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] and that they had no protection at all from enemy submarines. From Utah Beach they went to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont [Annotator's Note: Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Normandy, France], seeing knocked out German tanks along the way. While at the University of Maryland, he roomed with four men. They all ended up on Company A [Annotator's Note: Company A, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division] together. Once in France, they were never told where they were going.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman [Annotator's Note: with Company A, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division] never thought he was in danger, although he was. They were sent into France, around Lorient [Annotator's Note: Lorient, France] where German submarine pens were. The Germans were cut off from Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] at this point. There was a standoff between the Germans and the 94th, so it was pretty calm. Four engineers had been captured and assumed killed. Services were held. Later on when men were killed, there were no services. The nearest town was Plouay [Annotator's Note: Plouay, France], which was a kind of safe harbor. The four men who had been captured were eventually traded for German prisoners of equal rank. There were casualties, but few deaths in his outfit. Suddenly, they were going to be replaced by the 66th Division [Annotator's Note: 66th Infantry Division] and sent to the front lines. They passed Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] and ended up in Alsace-Lorraine [Annotator's Note: historical region of France, now called Alsace-Mosell], which had previously been occupied by the Germans. They arrived in Kirschnaumen [Annotator's Note: Kirschnaumen, France]. They were near the infantry, but not right in the battle. Once, after walking back to the house he was living in with a French family, a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] began firing on the road he had just gotten off of. He could have been there and been hit. They then went to a village called Besch [Annotator's Note: Besch, Germany], where the Germans would shell from time to time. He was walking down the road when he heard a "swish" sound, caused by a German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery], and hit the ground. Forman was staying in a house whose roof had been blown off and would hunker down next to the stone walls and hope he did not get hit by artillery. One night, I Company [Annotator's Note: Company I, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division] ran for the cellar next door, causing Forman to panic. He was always afraid of shelling after that.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman [Annotator's Note: serving with Company A, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division] stayed overnight outside of Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], and could see the Eiffel Tower. They could not put a tent up because the ground was too frozen. There was an unwritten rule that you could not go into Paris. After the war, they were honored at a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe [Annotator's Note: Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, monument in Paris, France]. Forman was normally in the command post with the captain and 1st sergeant, a German man who had immigrated to the United States after World War 1, during combat. Many of the men disliked him because of his German accent, and because of his role as 1st sergeant. He was later killed in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. Forman corresponded with him for some time. Forman was responsible for getting mail to the troops. He enjoyed playing cards. During the combat phase, they reached the Saar River [Annotator's Note: near Serrig, Germany] and were going to take it on the fly, without much planning, as the Germans were on the run at this time. Everyone, even the cooks, were held in a room to prepare to replace frontline troops. His unit experienced its first casualty at this point, but the river was crossed.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman's unit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division in France and Germany] aided in the crossing of the Saar River [Annotator's Note: near Serrig, Germany]. This was such a feat that General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came to see it. The whole company was sent on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Luxembourg, but it was cut short when they were sent back on the line where the Germans were fleeing. They chased the Germans into Germany and eventually into Ludwigshafen [Annotator's Note: Ludwigshafen, Germany] on the Rhine River. Forman was lucky, as the engineers were responsible for transporting equipment and stayed in the villages. They captured an area where there were 600 pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns], blowing them all up. They ran out of dynamite and began using C2, a plastic, stronger than dynamite. In training at Fort Belvoir [Annotator's Note: Fort Belvoir, Virginia] they had learned to calculate the specific amount required according to the volume, but in combat they would throw a whole case in. The quartermaster scolded them, because it was very expensive. They lost some men in this area. Around this time was the first time Forman ever saw a tank attached to their outfit. He knew they were in good shape then, because the tanks would cut right through on their way to the Rhine. They were then sent north to the Ruhr Pocket [Annotator's Note: battle of encirclement April 1945, Ruhr Valley, Germany], where the Germans were supposedly fanatically fighting back, which turned out not to be true. They entered Baumholder [Annotator's Note: Baumholder, Germany], where Goering [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command] had lived when he was young. There were Italian slave laborers there who had seized the commandant of the camp, planning to kill him. A US captain told them that they could not, that they had to treat him as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] according to the Geneva Conventions [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war]. The Italians likely went back and killed him anyway.

Edgar R. "Ross" Forman [Annotator's Note: with Company A, 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division in France and Germany] headed north [Annotator's Note: from Baumholder, Germany] and were attacked by German jet aircraft. They stayed at an architect's office in Krefeld [Annotator's Note: Krefeld, Germany], then moved up to Dusseldorf [Annotator's Note: Dusseldorf, Germany] and Wuppertal [Annotator's Note: Wuppertal, Germany]. He was in Wuppertal when the war ended. He did occupation duty in Czechoslovakia to keep an eye on the Russians there. Forman remained in Europe until the end of December 1945 and was discharged about a month later. When he got back home, he would wake up in the night choking his brother. When he was in a fraternity, he warned his roommate that he could be dangerous at night. During fireworks show, he had the urge to dive under the grandstand. He did not know what post-traumatic stress disorder [Annotator's Note: also called PTSD, a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed] was at the time.