Robert Joseph Blatnik was born in Cleveland, Ohio in February 1920. He was the fifth of sixth children with two brothers and three sisters. In 1929, Blatnik's father contracted tuberculosis and bronchitis, so he was sent to live in a sanitarium until he died in 1931. His father's death left the family without any source of income, and he was forced to search for food in trash piles during the height of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. To make some sort of income for the family, Blatnik passed out thousands of flyers on the streets of Cleveland for ten cents per day. When he was slightly older, he hauled old tires down to a factory where they would be retreaded. Blatnik's older brother got a job working with the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration], while his mother rented the second story of their home as an apartment. In 1936, Blatnik saw a soldier walking on the streets and was inspired to leave home to seek a fortune and lessen the economic burden on his mother. With her blessing, Blatnik left home and hitchhiked to East Aurora, New York where he spent the night in a police station. The next day he was picked up by a farmer who offered him a job as a farmhand. The farmer's wife fed him well. He wrote to his mother to let her know he was alright. All of the farm work was done by hand. Blatnik returned home to visit his mother in 1937, she was shocked by his transformation from a small teenager into a strong man. Blatnik gained 30 pounds of muscle in just over a year on the farm. In 1938, Blatnik left the farm for good to join the Army. He and a neighbor from Cleveland went to Fort Hayes in Columbus, Ohio to be inducted. The neighbor was rejected because of flat feet, but Blatnik was inducted and sent to Plattsburgh, New York for training. Blatnik was assigned to a combat intelligence team and became proficient in map making. As the regimental rifle champion, Blatnik earned five dollars extra pay per month. Blatnik enjoyed mapmaking and was assigned to work in a county clerk's office making topographical maps. The Army Corps of Engineers became aware of Blatnik's work and attempted to hire him away from the Army. After talking with his captain, Blatnik declined. After a year and a half in the Army, Blatnik was chosen to map a bivouac area [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary camp] for the 1st Infantry Division during maneuvers. He was acknowledged for the perfect work he did, and the general gave him a decoration. During these maneuvers, Blatnik had the chance to see President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. Blatnik reenlisted in 1941, just a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was tickled to death [Annotator's Note: slang for happy] that he would get the chance to protect the country in war. Soon after, Blatnik and the rest of the 1st Division began practicing landing exercises for several months.

In August 1942, Robert Joseph Blatnik boarded the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Mary] bound for England. The ship was loaded with 20,000 men but had been designed to hold just 3,500. He would get in the chow line for breakfast, eat, and get right back in the line for lunch. He stayed below deck when he was resting. Once in England, Blatnik, then a Sergeant Major with the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, was assigned to comfortable barracks. After training for a few months in England, Blatnik boarded a ship and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar [Annotator's Note: the Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa] before landing at Oran, Algeria on 4 November 1942. While in Algeria, General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, III] formed a close relationship with him and made him his direct line of contact with the rest of the 26th Regiment. The two landed at Oran together under heavy small arms fire. After the combat in Algeria, they lost contact. From Algeria, Blatnik moved into Tunisia for a brutal seven month campaign. Blatnik led a battalion combat team consisting of a tank company, a signal company, and other units, when the Germans launched a ferocious counterattack. Communication was challenging. While running to take cover behind a truck, a mortar shell exploded, sending shrapnel into his leg and foot. Blatnik took cover in a cactus patch and began to dress his wound, eventually wrapping it with his t-shirt. The next morning, Blatnik emerged from his hiding place and began searching for his unit. He ended up in a British field hospital and was told his foot would have to be amputated. After much pleading with doctors, Blatnik's foot was allowed to heal rather than be amputated. Blatnik was sent to an American replacement depot. The American doctors wanted to break Blatnik's foot in order for it to heal correctly, rather than allow this and miss more time with his unit, he modified his shoes so that his feet would not rub them the wrong way. After three weeks in the hospital, Blatnik returned to his unit and was placed on light duty. Near the end of the Tunisian Campaign [Annotator's Note: also called the Battle of Tunisia, 17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943], Blatnik was scheduled to return home, but was then reassigned to take place in the invasion of Sicily [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943; Sicily, Italy]. On 10 July 1943, Blatnik landed on the Italian island under heavy German opposition. Unlike in North Africa, the Germans were ready for this invasion and the casualties began to mount. While on the landing beaches, Blatnik ducked into a ditch with his legs in a concrete culvert. A bomb exploded over the ditch, trapping Blatnik's left foot under the culvert. Blatnik taped his foot up and stayed with his unit rather than return to a hospital ship. Blatnik's captain thanked him for returning to the unit and instructed him to hold an opening near a minefield that would allow others to advance safely through it. After 30 minutes of this, a mortar fell nearby, sending the two men with Blatnik running for cover. Blatnik placed his carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] between his knees and held on until the shelling stopped. He woke up sometime later in an anti-tank ditch with the flesh of his arm torn from his wrist to his elbow. Blatnik knew he was in rough shape and allowed himself to be taken to a nearby field hospital. After he was patched up, Blatnik snuck away from the hospital and returned to his unit in the field. On another occasion, Blatnik was riding in a jeep at three o'clock in the morning coming back from Palermo [Annotator's Note: Palermo, Italy] when the driver was blinded by an exploding German bomb and flipped the jeep. The jeep landed on top of him, crushing his chest. He was severely wounded and immediately sent to the hospital. He was in so much pain he could not move. He rehabbed in an Italian hospital.

Upon his release from the hospital [Annotator's Note: in Palermo, Sicily], rotation orders were cancelled and Robert Joseph Blatnik [Annotator's Note: with the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division] was sent to England to begin preparing for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. On 6 June 1944, Blatnik led 900 men across Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. He saw thousands of German installments on a ridge as he advanced up the beach. He commanded the men forward and would not allow them to dig in. Bodies were flying everywhere. The next morning, while advancing across a field, two shots rang out and two guys in his command dropped dead. He realized the shots had come from a lone tree and ordered his unit to open fire on the tree. A female Japanese sniper fell from the tree. Some Japanese agreed to work with the Germans. The 1st Battalion [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division] made it the farthest inland of all allied troops that day and stayed near Caumont, France for 41 days until the breakthrough at Saint-Lo, France [Annotator's Note: Operation Cobra, 25 to 31 July 1944; Saint-Lô, France]. The advance through France was met with limited difficulty. Along the way, they would capture German soldiers and make them march with them. One German soldier was complaining because his feet were bleeding. They never stopped marching, and even marched in their sleep. Upon arriving in Liege, Belgium, civilians warned Blatnik of approaching German soldiers. He assigned some men to a position on side of the main road through town to await their arrival. Three soldiers arrived and were taken prisoner. One was Russian, another Slovenian, and the third German. He spoke with the Slovenian in his native tongue and learned that he and the Russian had been forcefully conscripted when the Nazis had invaded their home countries. The prisoners were sent to the division's intelligence company and gave up an advancing Panzer Corps who they were going to join. A blockade was set up and Blatnik's forces were prepared to destroy the approaching Germans. When the Germans saw the blockade, they emerged from their tanks and surrendered. A truck loaded with French money was part of the captured unit, he took about 5,000 Francs and wishes he had taken more. He soon found himself in a cafe with some others drinking cognac. A lieutenant general had been a part of the Panzer Corps and was taken prisoner. The lieutenant general was housed in comfortable quarters and was treated very well as a prisoner, which he thought was a shame.

Robert Joseph Blatnik and his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division] proceeded from Liege, Belgium to the German border. He formed a friendship with a Jewish soldier who knew the area and the locals. He often gave the people money. Since he was an older man, Blatnik was able to arrange to get him a discharge and return to the United States. At the border, Blatnik's unit met up with free French forces who were making nightly raids into Germany. One night Blatnik, his First Sergeant, Terry Kosha [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], Paul Monahan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], and another friend accompanied the French across the border into a German camp. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview and there is a video break at 0:50:20.000.] They slit the throats of the Germans and disemboweled them before tossing grenades to cover their exit and returning to their camp. They returned half drunk and were disciplined by their commander. They were forced to stay separate from each other. While waiting to advance into Aachen [Annotator's Note: Aachen, Germany], each platoon in the battalion was given a five gallon can of rum to share. Blatnik's platoon only had five men, so each got a gallon to themselves. They mixed the rum with orange flavored powder and got loaded [Annotator's Note: slang for very drunk]. On the night before they were to cross into Germany, some German civilians came to seek their help in delivering a baby. Because he could speak some German, Blatnik went with a group of men to help deliver the baby. He felt good to help the German people. Upon arriving in Aachen, Blatnik used a camera he had confiscated from the prisoners in Liege to take some photos of the destruction in the city as well as photos of himself and others in front of an Aachen street sign. The photos he had taken of himself, and his men were returned to him, but the photos taken of the Germans and those of the destruction were kept and declared classified. Blatnik was shocked that a ball bearing factory inside Aachen had been undamaged by Allied bombing raids. He later found out this was because the factory was owned by American and British interests. Blatnik's unit then proceeded to Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany or Köln, Germany]. He was advancing towards the city, firing his weapon when he was knocked unconscious. He woke up four days later in a Belgian hospital. He had no idea what had happened. He was completely naked and was missing his dog tags. His body was all torn up and he was unable to leave his bed. When he was finally able to walk, he was unable to go anywhere by himself and someone was assigned to guard him 24 hours per day. Although he did not know it at the time, he was suffering from severe post traumatic stress. After some time in the hospital, Blatnik was transferred to the hospital ship USAT St. Mihiel for transport back to the United States. He kept pleading with everyone on board to be sent back to his guys in the field. The ship hit a reef off the Bahamas [Annotator's Note: Bahama Islands]. After four days, Blatnik was transferred to a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and sent home. [Annotator's Note: Blatnik gets emotional.] He argued with a sailor assigned to guard him and became violent with him. He threatened to throw the guy overboard and hit him. He was chased down by a group of sailors and forcefully sedated. He woke up in a tiny cell and demanded a toothbrush to wash the taste of the sedative out of his mouth. A female nurse managed to calm Blatnik down. She was the first to explain to Blatnik what was happening to him. She told him his mind was still in combat.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Robert Joseph Blatnik was transferred from a hospital in South Carolina to one in Cleveland [Annotator's Note: Cleveland, Ohio] where he was treated for seven months. Blatnik went before a medical review board who declared him unfit for service and issued him his discharge. A defiant Blatnik was devastated and returned home to his mother. He longed to be back in the Army and did not know what to do with himself. After joining the American Legion [Annotator's Note: nonprofit organization of American war veterans], Blatnik had hoped to return to active duty and become a career soldier, but he was never allowed back in the Army. After many years of being unable to speak of his military experiences, a family doctor sent Blatnik to a Veteran Affairs [Annotator's Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs; also referred to as the Veterans Administration] hospital where nurses brought him to the world of the living from the world of the dead whioh had been caused by trauma. Blatnik was awarded a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for going under enemy fire to move two ammunition trucks off a flaming field [Annotator's Note: Blatnik does not say where this happened.] Blatnik became, and remains, very active at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Dallas, Texas where he has logged 10,000 volunteer hours. His volunteer service has helped him get over some of his war pains, although he still carries them around. Blatnik has a prayer list for all the different people and prays every night. [Annotator's Note: Blatnik begins to pray and sings "How Great Thou Art", a Christian hymn based on a poem written in Sweden in 1885, from 1:16:52 to 1:19:35.000.] Blatnik believes that every American should serve in the military for one year. He loves his God and his country. His whole family served in the military, including all his children. He is proud of his military family.

Robert Joseph Blatnik's most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he captured three soldiers in Liege [Annotator's Note: Liège, Belgium] which led to the capture of a lieutenant general who had been part of a Panzer Corps [Annotator's Note: armored corps or tank corps]. Blatnik fought to see his enemies defeated. He had a desire to kill as many enemy soldiers as he could to avenge the losses at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. His vengeance led him to become a more peaceful person as he grew older. It helped him to love his enemies. He prays for all his enemies, his friends, and family. He wants peace on earth and good will to men. He is thankful for his service and that he was able to help. He hated to leave his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division] when he returned home. His mother went to work in an ammunition factory after he left for the Army. He is proud of his mother and thinks she was a wonderful woman. She was strong bringing up six children after his father died. She was a peace loving citizen. His mother convinced him to stop smoking and he did, which he believes saved him from an early death. A lot of people he talks to say that he helped save our country. People come up to him and want to shake his hand. He believes there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. People do not understand what combat servicemen sacrificed. He would have gladly stayed until the war was finished, but he was forced to go home.