Howard Genrich was born in 1925 in Algona, Iowa. At the time he was born, his parents were living with his grandparents. They had farm animals to tend to and there was no running water. They moved to town after selling the farm. His parents bought rental property with the proceeds from the sale of the farm. The family had a good existence with the rental income. Genrich was impacted by the Great Depression. Most people were poor but did not feel they were poor. They made do with what they had. Genrich was drafted and went into the service in September 1943. Everyone was helping with the war effort so he knew that he would help also. The family had an A ration card [Annotator's Note: the A ration card allowed civilians limited purchases of food or other items that were in short supply during World War 2] so travel in the car was limited unless they could find a gasoline station that would sell bootleg gasoline, usually at a premium cost.

Howard Genrich qualified for ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program] training. Before ASTP, Genrich went to infantry basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Having grown up with limited ethnic diversity in his home town, it was a new experience coming in contact with such a diverse group in training. Following Fort Benning, Genrich was assigned to the University of Cincinnati. That was far better than infantry duty. The ASTP was disbanded in March 1944 in anticipation of the Normandy landings in June. Genrich's ASTP unit at the University of Cincinnati went to the 14th Armored Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Genrich was assigned to a unit with .30 caliber machine guns. After going overseas, he was then assigned to a halftrack with a .50 caliber machine gun. It was difficult to lead airplanes properly to hit them. That was particularly the case with every fifth bullet being a tracer, and the pilot anticipating where the machine gunner was aiming.

Howard Genrich had an accident while disassembling a .50 caliber machine gun. His finger was caught in the bolt and he lost a nail. It took six months for his finger nail to grow back. This event happened while his unit [Annotator's Note: 19th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Armored Division] was waiting to go into Marseilles. Once in France, Genrich's unit was detached to reinforce a paratrooper unit which had captured an area near the Italian border near Nice. When they stopped momentarily, Genrich stopped to wash his face in a horse trough. While washing his face, he stepped on his glasses and broke them so he had to wear sunglasses until he was able to get new glasses. Getting a shower and his regular glasses back was an accomplishment. While trying to get to the train station for the ride to Nice, Genrich saw a black Algerian soldier in army clothes at the train station. He mistook the African soldier for an American soldier. He could not communicate with him because the Algerian spoke no English. Genrich was finally able to locate the train. The rail cars were World War 1 era 40 and 8s, meaning they held 40 men and eight horses [Annotator's Note: 40 men or eight horses]. With 40 men in each car, the cars were overcrowded. The trip from Marseilles to Nice took about three days. After experiencing multiple delays, Genrich's unit arrived at its destination which was about 20 miles south of Strasbourg, Germany on 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1944]. They got off the train and mounted their halftracks.

Howard Genrich experienced his first battle on 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1944] when they captured a town about ten miles north of Strasbourg [Annotator's Note: Strasbourg, France]. The enemy ammunition was deficient in many cases. Shells would land nearby but not explode. Enough were exploding that Genrich's outfit [Annotator's Note: 19th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Armored Division] did have severe casualties. One of his fellow soldiers spoke German which pleased the local population. They were not pleased when that soldier spoke Yiddish when he continued to communicate with them. While looking over a five foot fence near a poorly held German town, Genrich spotted two German soldiers riding bicycles away from him. Wanting to use his new rifle, Genrich fired tracer rounds at them but they disregarded the incoming fire. Their lack of reaction disappointed Genrich. Entering the town, Genrich broke into a home with the butt of his rifle. He found a civilian lady at the entry of a house. He told her to avoid injury by going to the basement. He tried closing the door but it would not close. He had to jam the screws back into the hinge so that the door would close. An officer knew that Genrich had tracers in his M1 rifle. He took the rifle from Genrich and fired into a barn where a German sniper was suspected of hiding. The barn burned down as a result. Genrich spotted a cow with a burned patch on his back the next day. After the first battle, Genrich and his unit were evacuated.

Howard Genrich was assigned to guard the Combat Command Headquarters because they had suffered casualties in their first battle. On Christmas Day 1944, Genrich observed large formations of aircraft overhead. The airplanes were headed in the direction of Berlin. Genrich never knew there were so many airplanes. The Battle of the Bulge was heating up and Genrich's unit [Annotator's Note: 19th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Armored Division] was sent to a town about 30 miles from Bastogne. They were to rescue some troops who were surrounded in the town of Hatten in Alsace in France. When Genrich's outfit neared the town, the Germans fired mortars at them. One shell exploded near Genrich. He was wounded slightly in the foot and calf. He used his first aid kit to bandage the wound. All night Genrich worried about incoming artillery fire from the Germans. He crawled toward the town the next morning. He was loaded into a halftrack for evacuation to a medical center. He was one of the first of the wounded to be removed from the fighting in that area. He was taken to a medical unit about ten miles from the front. At that location, he saw a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] lady walking from wounded soldier to wounded soldier singing for them. Her dedication impressed Genrich since she was so close to the front. His wound was cleaned and stitched up. He received a penicillin shot every six hours. The injections hurt. Genrich went to Nancy, France where he met men from Bastogne. From there he went to Paris for a few weeks of recovery, and then he was flown to England.

Howard Genrich was on a stretcher when he was loaded onto a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 cargo aircraft] transport aircraft going to England. It was raining and Genrich was concerned about the flimsy airplane, but there were no problems. When he arrived in Salisbury, England, he was given a single room. It had a heater that burned coal. He played cards for entertainment. He had a Parker pen that he bought for too much money because he did not know the exchange rate between dollars and pounds. From Salisbury, he went to Scotland where the local people fascinated him. From Scotland, he was flown to New York City. It was his birthday and he got a free telephone call. He called the mother of a buddy who had been killed at Hatten. Of the over 200 men in his company that had entered Hatten, only 67 survived. From New York, Genrich flew to Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln, he learned of the end of the war. Genrich was discharged from the Army on 7 September 1945.

The trip home after Howard Genrich was discharged is a little blurry to him but he recalls hitchhiking and riding buses to get home. He made it back in time to start the next semester at Drake University [Annotator's Note: in Des Moines, Iowa]. He became involved in fraternity life at Drake. Contacts made during his time at Drake made a difference in his future life. Genrich used the GI Bill and the Rehab Bill for college. The Rehab Bill provided a little more money for him. He graduated in 1949 as an education major. He was very interested in biology but most of his family had teaching experience. With few jobs available for new teachers in Iowa, he sought a job in Yuma, Arizona. A fellow fraternity member helped him get the job. His first year of teaching was very difficult. He wanted to teach in California because their methods were favorably looked upon by fellow teachers.

Howard Genrich went overseas in October 1944. Information about the progress of the war was available to him. He was at Camp Campbell, Kentucky in the summer of 1944 prior to shipping out. There, he volunteered to be a typist for the motor pool. Typist duty sounded better than infantry drills. Once he entered combat, he felt invincible as a strong, tough 19 year old young man. He felt discouraged when he was in combat and heard the fast firing German weapons. When he was in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, it was like Iowa in the winter. He had no strong feelings against the Germans or the Japanese enemies. Algona, Iowa had a German prisoner of war camp outside the town. One of the cement creations that the German prisoners created is still on display in the city of Algona. In remembering the atomic bomb, it was a wonderful thing because of the Japanese intent to fight to the death. Many Americans and Japanese would have been killed had the bombs not been used. It was beneficial for both sides. Genrich's most memorable experience of the war was the mortar shell explosion in front of him and the million dollar wound [Annotator's Note: million dollar wound is the term American soldiers used to describe a wound that was significant enough to necessitate evacuation back to the United States but not bad enough to kill or permanently disable] he received. Had he not crawled to Hatten and been evacuated, he might have been one more of the many who did not return from that engagement. Genrich also remembered entering the Mediterranean Sea at Gibraltar during the trip to Marseilles. It was rough seas and terrible. He and some buddies would have fun by running forward to aft on the ship to escape the waves. They got two meals a day and a salt water shower aboard ship. When they arrived in Marseilles, he saw several submarine periscopes. He feared the Germans would torpedo his ship before he got off, but it turned out to be American submarines. Genrich served in the war because he was drafted. He was initially in the ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program] which was better than the alternatives. The war provided the GI Bill to help him through college. Many young people today do not know the chronology of America's wars, let alone the details of those wars.

Howard Genrich believes that his generation had more sense of duty to the country. World War 2 brought America out of the Great Depression and brought changes to the workforce. This is especially true with women entering the workplace and fighting for equal pay. Other social and business changes came as a result of the war. Memorials to the war are important to keep the memory alive. World War 2 has limited coverage in today's school textbooks. Other wars also have limited explanations in today's history text books. Some remembrance is needed for veterans. Genrich remembers a high school friend who was a fatality in the war and he pays tribute to him when he can.