Edward Zarger was born in March 1926 in Hagerstown, Maryland. His father was a farmer. His mother was an organist. Times were tough and she would change churches if they could pay her more. He had one teacher for his first eight grades of school. His two older brothers went to war and Zarger had to run the farm. Zarger was drafted on 4 August 1944. It upset his father. They had a large farm. Zarger went overseas on the USS General W. P. Richardson (AP-118) on 1 January 1945 with the 2nd Infantry Division. They landed at Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] and went to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England]. A lot of the men got seasick on the ship over. They went to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France]. They walked and walked. Somewhere in France he ran into a soldier he knew. Zarger's basic training had been cut short due to the breakthrough [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The breakthrough was 16 December and he first got shot at 18 January. He was with the 9th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division] as a replacement soldier.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Edward Zarger what he remembers about the first day he was shot at by a German, 18 January 1945.] They were going through a break in the forest. Zager got halfway across and a bullet went right by his nose. He saw where the shot came from, shot back, and the soldier fell. Zarger got across the field as the soldier rose to shoot again and he shot him. That was his baptism of fire. Zarger was a sniper and first scout sharpshooter. In basic training, he had out shot everybody using the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. On 2 February [Annotator's Note: 2 February 1945], an 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] came in on him. A big chunk hit his back, and another broke the stock off his gun. He went to the aid station and as he walked away the pillbox was blown up. He did not get his Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] and Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: a Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] until 1967. He was wounded in the leg 6 April [Annotator's Note: on 6 April 1945 in Veckerhagen, Germany]. He did not enjoy being the sniper. He was out in front of everybody going through the towns. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Zarger if he ever got used to it.] You do not think about it because you do not have time. He hurt his neck taking cover once and he had headaches afterwards. He went to a chiropractor in 1952 or 1953 and got it fixed.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Edward Zarger what his worst battle was.] The day he was wounded in the leg, 6 April [Annotator's Note: 6 April 1945 in Veckerhagen, Germany]. The day before he was scouting a clearing and heard a sound. His second scout had been hit. The bullet from a sniper had hit his hand grenade and ricocheted into his kneecap. Zarger shot the sniper out of the tree and he surrendered. They ran into three or four Germans. They all stood looking at each other for a bit. The Germans surrendered. They ran into more as it was getting dark. He and an enemy soldier had their gun barrels in each other's bellies. They turned out to be Hungarians and they surrendered. On 6 April, just after midnight, Zarger and his men were surrounded in Kassel, Germany near the Weser River. They were going there to guard the bridge. A German lieutenant came out with a white flag and wanted a truce to take care of his wounded. Shortly after, three American trucks with men in American uniforms and with American guns came down the road. They could smell they were Germans because of the food they carried in their clothes. Their BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle] man put 20 rounds in the first truck. Not many of the Germans got out before surrendering. They had run out of ammunition. Zarger was wounded in the firefight on 6 April. He put sulfa powder [Annotator's Note: group of synthetic drugs used to treat bacterial infections] on his wound. The bad part at the hospital was when he went to get operated on, he was not unconscious. The doctor said he could not take the bullet out for fear of paralyzing him. In 2007, he went to a doctor and got an x-ray. That doctor said there was no bullet in him. Every year until then, the military had been taking x-rays.

Edward Zarger's brother was killed on 16 September 1944 in Mountain Home, Idaho when a B-24 bomber [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] crashed. When Zarger got to the Rhine River, he saw his first German jet airplane [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft]. The ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] was coming down around them and exploding. They crossed the Rhine by paddling. A buddy of his in the 69th [Annotator's Note: 69th Infantry Division] was shot and never went to the doctor. After the war, he worked for Zarger who sent him to the Veteran's Administration hospital for the first time some 30 years later. [Annotator's Note: Zarger talks about the man visiting him some years later.] Zarger's father had written to him to tell him where he was so he made up a poem and wrote back. He figured it out. After they crossed the Rhine, they walked and got shot at a couple of times by snipers. They had 12 to 14 miles to walk in the dark. They would walk and sleep leaning on the man in front of them. They got on the autobahn in a couple of days. Some tanks were going too fast and the tracks came off. Some men were killed. One day they saw a German coming along the tree line who surrendered. They came across cages of rabbits once and ate one.

One day, Edward Zarger's outfit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division] got a new Lieutenant, Bill Amling [Annotator's Note: Army First Lieutenant William H. Amling] from Illinois. He asked Zarger why he did not salute him. Zarger told him what he needed to do to not get shot. Amling sent Zarger a Christmas card every year from 1947 until 2007. The Germans had started retreating. In some towns, the Germans had kids do some shooting to slow the Americans down. When he got to the hospital after being wounded [Annotator's Note: on 6 April 1945], a Captain started giving Zarger trouble about how dirty he was. They did not get along. Everybody was hunting souvenirs. Zarger took the pistol and watch from the German who shot him. Zarger put the German's pistol against his head but could not shoot him. It seemed silly [Annotator's Note: the German had surrendered]. Zarger had a hard time keeping track of the pistol in the hospital. He was there three weeks. Before he left the hospital, he got to take a bus tour of Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] in April 1945. He recalls seeing an airplane fly under the Eifel Tower. He was in the hospital for V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] and Roosevelt's death [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States; died 12 April 1945]. After leaving the hospital, he went Pilsen, Czechoslovakia [Annotator's Note: 7 May 1945]. There were about 200 German SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] troopers to guard. There were some getting away every night. He does not know how.

Edward Zarger was in basic training with two men who had been in prison for life. They were told if they completed basic and then survived the war, they would be free. They got in trouble all the time and everybody was afraid of them. In February 1945, the Stars and Stripes ran a story that said that Company A, 9th Regiment [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division] captured 250 German prisoners. Those two men had stolen a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and went up ahead. The Germans surrendered to them. They got up to Pilsen [Annotator's Note: Pilsen or Plzeň, Czechoslovakia; now Plzeň, Czech Republic] and one of them went down to a chicken farm. He called for a stretcher as he had broken his leg. Zarger never saw them after that. The 2nd Infantry Division was the first to leave Europe to go to Japan. They were in Texas and they did not go. They were made a show outfit after that and they paraded all over the country.

Edward Zarger did not talk about his war experiences for the first few years. He would start to shake, and he found that the more he talked about it, the less that happened. He had ulcers when he was in Europe. When the snow started melting, there was a 30 acre field of tree stumps. Watching them after a while, they would start to move. It was in his head. It is endless pressure. When he came home, he would buy six cases of Mylanta [Annotator's Note: brand of medicine for stomach issues] at a time. He now takes pills for it. He does dream about it once in a while still. He carried two bandoliers of ammunition with a grenade stuck in them on patrol. A man hollered grenade and they all went down. The soldier had accidentally pulled his own grenade pin. It killed him but he did the right thing by letting them know. Zarger thinks of those things more. He remembers the face of the man who shot him. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Zarger if he has any regrets.] He does not want to go through it again. He had some people ask him what it was like to go to war. He said the war he was in was kill or be killed. On 4 April [Annotator's Note: 4 April 1945] they went up to a castle. The Germans were gone and there were American and British prisoners there. One was a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] pilot and he returned with Zarger to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. They were on a DC-3 [Annotator's Note: Douglas DC-3 commercial airliner] and the pilot was the one who got sick. Zarger could never figure out why he was sent to Veteran's Hospitals for x-rays on his leg after the war, after his regular doctor told him he did not have a bullet in his leg.