Edmund Frodyma was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts in December 1923. 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] his mother died when he was five years old. His father was an alcoholic, and Frodyma was eventually sent into the foster care system by the state. He had one brother and two sisters. He moved in with a family in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Not longer after, the state found out that his mother had died of tuberculosis and he was sent to a sanitarium. While quarantined, he and his brother were given activities and chores to do to keep them busy. The state moved Frodyma to Belchertown, Massachusetts to live with a foster family. He remained with this family through his high school graduation and soon received orders to report for service in 1942. Frodmya befriended a boy in school that challenged the principal to a fight. Frodmya was very athletic and played track, baseball, and basketball in high school. When World War 2 broke out during his senior year, he decided to apply for air cadet school but found out he was colorblind. One month before his graduation, he received his draft notice. He and three other friends from school went to Fort Devens [Annotator’s Note: For Devens, Massachusetts] for induction, and then he was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Edmund Frodyma was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for basic training for 13 weeks. He was given training in driving and was assigned a truck and given an assistant. Frodmya had never driven in his life before his training and had to follow a checklist. After the ninth week, he felt comfortable driving a truck and pulled a 155 howitzer [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer; nicknamed "Long Tom"; heavy field gun]. He recalled an incident where his air brakes went out going down a hill, but was able to stop by going up a hill. His commander reprimanded him for getting out of line. When he was able to go on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he and his friends stayed in Raleigh [Annotator’s Note: Raleigh, North Carolina]. Frodyma was selected for ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; 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] and after his graduation from basic training, he remained at Fort Bragg for an additional month awaiting assignment. The government canceled ASTP, and Frodyma was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland and continued in advanced infantry training. He was then sent to New York to wait for embarkation. After a week, he boarded a British ship that took him overseas with a convoy. It took 19 days to cross the Atlantic because the ship zigzagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver]. He arrived in Liverpool, England and was taken to a replacement depot outside of Birmingham [Annotator’s Note: Birmingham, England] to be assigned to a unit. Frodyma was assigned to the 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division. He trained with his battalion and was assigned to the supply room because he knew how to type. He liked his living quarters, and there was an orphanage nearby where little girls laundered and ironed their clothes in exchange for candy and food. His unit was made up of older men. One of the oldest was 40 years old. On Christmas Day 1943, his unit invited the orphanage girls over and had a celebration with them. They gifted the girls presents and had Santa some and visit. There was a guy in his unit named Herbert Smith who pained a mural in the local canteen to honor the British troops. Frodmya and his unit stayed in England from September 1943 to June 1944 when they made the invasion in Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944].

Edmund Frodyma was in England with his unit, [Annotator’s Note: 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division] as they prepared for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. On 24 June, his unit boarded LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and Higgins Boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] and made the landing on Omaha Beach [Annotator’s Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. As he ran up on the beach, he saw lots of debris and dead bodies. The Germans were located on the high cliffs and shot down at them. The tanks and other equipment arrived on a different vessel. After a few days on the beach, his unit moved inland and reached the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] where they met resistance from the Germans. His unit was trapped in the hedgerows for a while until someone came up with the idea of putting a plow in front of a tank to dig a ditch through the earthen walls that were blocking the open fields. Frodmya floated around his unit. One week he was in a tank, and another week he was with the M7 guns [Annotator's Note: M7 Priest; 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M7; self-propelled artillery vehicle]. His unit participated in come engagements during the battle of Saint-Lô [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Saint-Lô, France; 7-19 July 1944]. When his unit left Saint-Lô, they headed West to meet up with the British. Frodyma’s unit went around Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] and did not go into the city. As they moved across France and captured Germans, they handed them off to MPs [Annotator’s Note: Military Police]. The German prisoners looked tired and scared.

With his unit [Annotator’s Note: the 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division], Edmund Frodyma reached Belgium. As they crossed the border, they saw a train with German tanks loaded on it. His battery was given orders to stop the train and take over the town. Frodyma’s unit then crossed into Germany and settled in Stolberg for some time. He saw a Catholic church with nuns, which he was surprised to see because American propaganda told him that Germans were atheists. As winter of 1944 came in, the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] commenced. His unit moved back into Belgium to stop the Germans. They held them in a small town for three weeks. The weather was very cold and the sky was snowy and cloudy. He thought his feet would freeze off. His unit was lucky and did not lose many men at this time. While his unit was fighting in the Hurtgen Forest, he commented on the Germans 88mm artillery. The shells were so big that when they hit a tree, the tree would explode on impact. One morning, he woke up and could not get his shoes on because his feet had swelled so bad. He came across some British soldiers. They did not believe that Frodyma was an American. They walked him back to Stolberg where all the village people knew him and could identify him as an American.

Edmund Frodyma [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division], stayed in Stolberg [Annotator’s Note: Stolberg, Germany] while his unit waited for orders. This gave his unit a chance to resupply and rest some. Frodyma and his unit headed west towards the Rhine River, which they crossed with pontoon boats. There was a German plane that flew by, but he was able to cross the river successfully. His unit headed east towards Paderborn [Annotator’s Note: Paderborn, Germany]. When they reached the city, they rolled the tanks into the center and faced the guns in every direction. Then Frodyma made the new replacements man the guns while everyone else ransacked the empty city. [Annotator’s Note: Video blacks out from 1:02:38.000 to 1:04:44.000.] As his unit headed to the Elbe River, they came across some German Tiger tanks [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger]. Frodyma was hit with shrapnel in his face. He was taken to an aid station and then transferred to a field hospital. He was then flown to Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] for a month. His cousin was stationed in Paris. His cousin could not take him around, but introduced him to a girl that could tour the city with him. The war in Europe ended while he was in Paris. He returned to his unit to find that his personal equipment and effects were turned into the military. His division was preparing for the invasion of Japan, and they were ordered to go through several cities looking to capture SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] officers.

Edmund Frodyma [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division] moved to Frankfurt, Germany. He was in Frankfurt when he heard that the Japanese had surrendered in August 1945. Parts of his unit began to break up. Many of the men is his unit had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to go home. Frodyma was transferred to another outfit and reported to Stuttgart, Germany. He found a lumber town in a forest where his unit established an outpost and lived in a castle. They found a well and drank the water, which made them sick and they had to stay in the hospital for a week. After getting enough points, he was sent home on a ship. He departed from Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France], and was told he could not bring home foreign money. Frodyma went and bought several souvenirs before leaving France. On the way home, his ship went through a hurricane, and practically everyone got seasick. Frodyma and his unit were put on guard duty. His ship landed in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts] and he was discharged at Martha’s Vineyard [Annotator’s Note: Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts]. The foster parents that he lived with had moved away, so he did not have a home to go to. Frodyma reenlisted in the military and decided to join the Army Air Corps, which later became the Air Force. He served for four more years. He joined the Reserves and found civil service work. He had may close calls throughout the war, too many to count. The Germans may have won the war if they had had enough supplies for their military.

Edmund Frodyma is proud to have served in the Army and Air Force. He believes that America did not learn anything from World War 2 because of the current wars the country is in right now. The war changed the mentality of the American public because it gave servicemen the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. The country also brought the best German scientists over to build space rockets. The World War 2 generation spoiled their children too much because they did not want them to go through another Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Frodyma’s unit crossed the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] before it had been cleared of mines. He had great respect for General Rose [Annotator’s Note: Major General Maurice Rose, commanding officer of the 3rd Armored Division, was killed in action in Germany.] and was saddened to hear of his death near the end of the war. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because people need to be reminded of the sacrifices and efforts of his generation.