Roger Bowers was born in May 1924 in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania. His father worked part-time for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a machinist. Raised during the Great Depression, he left high school in his junior year to join the Army. He volunteered on 2 April 1943, but would have been drafted anyway the following June. As he describes it, all of his friends were joining, so he volunteered early. He had no particular reason for wanting to join the Army. He and some 40 others from his hometown went to Altoona, Pennsylvania to join. His parents had no say in his decision; he simply went off to join. He had two siblings [Annotator's Note: brothers], one of whom was working loading coal, the other had been working in Virginia, but joined the Navy.

Roger Bowers entered the Army from Pennsylvania when he was 18 years old in 1943. He was sent to Ft. Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, where he was administered an aptitude and intelligence test. Having no particular medical background or experience, he was then sent to Camp Grant, Illinois for 6 weeks medical basic training. The training was conducted by noncommissioned officers and junior officers. Following this training, he was assigned to the 28th Infantry Division, where he received additional, combat-focused training. His medical gear was very limited; it consisted of two pouches containing bandages, sulfa powder, sulfur pills, iodine and morphine. The medics' primary task was to stabilize the injured in preparation for evacuation from the front lines. He comments that he really had no idea of what to expect in actual combat. In late September 1943 his unit [Annotator's Note: 103rd Medical Battalion, 28th Infantry Division] sailed for England aboard a very crowded cargo ship. Many troops became seasick, but he never did. During the crossing, he recalls the ship changing course numerous times to avoid u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarines]. The ship ultimately docked in South Wales, England, after which his unit conducted amphibious training to prepare for the European invasion. He was not especially excited about the prospect of the invasion since not much information was available. His life was lived day to day and he felt that this was due in part to the experience of the Great Depression. He put in for leave numerous times, but something always came up that prevented him from taking it.

By 5 June 1944, Roger Bowers's unit [Annotator's Note: 103rd Medical Battalion, 28th Infantry Division] was at one of the staging areas; while they knew shipping out was taking place, they had no idea when they would actually leave. When they finally did ship out [Annotator's Note: the interviewee does not specify a date or time], he was on a British ship crossing the English Channel. The crossing took approximately two hours, after which he transferred to an LCV [Annotator’s Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] which took him to the beach [Annotator's Note: Bowers does not specifiy which landing beach]. He describes a very chaotic scene with numerous barges and landing craft destroyed. He remembers lots of activity in both directions - fresh troops arriving and casualties being evacuated. He still recalls very vividly that day, and the thought at the time that he knew there would be many casualties. The beachhead was taking fire and he recalls his unit being in hedgerows soon after landing. He remembers numerous details - sounds, barrage balloons, etc. even today. His unit got off the beach around midday and proceeded inland.

Roger Bowers and his unit [Annotator's Note: 103rd Medical Battalion, 28th Infantry Division] spent their first night about one mile inland and continued the next day. After they had traveled some five miles, they began to take enemy artillery fire. Bowers describes small fields that had hedgerows all around with small openings. The hedgerows had foundations of stacked stone and rocks with foliage on top; they were too tall to see over them. As a front-line medic, Bowers accompanied the night patrols that consisted of 12 to 14 men. The patrol's mission was to proceed forward two to three miles, conducting reconnaissance and then returning. An aid station was set up to prepare for any casualties, typically as close to the front line as possible. An ambulance pool was established approximately three miles behind the line.

Roger Bowers's first experience with a casualty occurred about three days after entering the hedgerows; one soldier had a bullet wound in the shoulder and another suffered a shrapnel wound in his side. He describes being not that confident with the first couple of casualties, but after that his confidence increased and he became hardened to the sight of wounds. He recounts that the priority for treatment was friendly troops, civilians, and enemy troops, and that he had occasion to treat some of the enemy. He discusses being bothered by the fact that there were times when he simply could not do anything for the casualties due to the severity of the wounds; all he was able to do was administer morphine to ease their suffering. He recounts he would like to talk about his experiences with current day soldiers; whereas today a casualty is likely to be evacuated very quickly, in his experience it may take two to three hours for an ambulance to arrive at an aid station to evacuate the wounded. He feels that many men were likely lost as a result of this delay. Afterwards, he never knew what became of any of the casualties. In the beginning, he knew many of the casualties, but as losses were suffered and replacements arrived, he didn't know them as well as those with whom he had originally trained. He says that even though he was only 19 or 20 years old at the time, with minimal training, he did what he had to do. He briefly discusses combat fatigue and that he did have some experience with it, but he just treated them like anyone else. He has no idea as to the actual number of casualties he treated while in the field. He never dwelled on the experience, his focus day to day was to ensure he had enough supplies in his kit.

By December 1944, Roger Bowers and his unit [Annotator's Note: 103rd Medical Battalion, 28th Infantry Division] had arrived in Clervaux, Luxembourg. In the days leading up to what would become the Battle of the Bulge, he recalls it being very cold. There was a foot or two of snow on the ground and they often were being shelled day and night. There were lots of frostbite injuries due in large part to the unit having inadequate cold weather clothing; he wore the same gear with which he had embarked earlier in England. Due to the shelling, days were mostly spent in trenches. Aside from frostbite, most calls were for shrapnel - trees would splinter when hit by artillery shells. By his estimate, he treated eight to ten casualties per day and he recounted that the experience caught up with him days, weeks, months, and years afterwards.

At the time, Roger Bowers had never considered the idea of being captured. On 16 December 1944, right after daybreak, German shelling began and he could see German tanks. He had been living in an old castle and was supposed to be on R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation; a period of leave] when he was awakened by the shelling. Throughout the day, the roads in and out of the town were cut off by the Germans and many casualties were suffered, including civilian men, women and children. By the end of the day, all that remained were wounded and medics and supplies were running short. At approximately ten o'clock that night, the shelling stopped and the Germans secured the town. Having no idea of what to expect, he and some 200 other prisoners began walking the following morning to Frankfurt, Germany. After five days, they arrived at a freight yard where they were put in boxcars in groups of 70 to 80 per car. They remained there for seven days during which time the USAAF [Annotator's Note: United States Army Air Forces] bombed the freight yard. After this time, they were transported to Stalag IX-B (Annotator's Note: in Bad Orb, Germany] where they were processed in. Bowers comments that the Germans knew their unit prior to their capture and that he wore the same uniform from 13 December 1944 until 02 April 1945 when the camp was liberated. During this period, the only personal materials he had were a spoon and fork and a Bible that the Germans allowed him to keep.

Roger Bowers describes the camp guards [Annotator's Note: at Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, Germany] as mostly SS troops [Annotator's Note: Shutzstaffel, a separate para-military branch of the Nazi military] who had been wounded and were recuperating prior to returning to frontline units. He comments that he weighed around 220 pounds when he was captured and was down to 100 pounds when released. Other camp guards were older, up to 60 to 70 years old. He describes the SS guards as cruel, for example, during roll call in the morning if a prisoner had died, the entire remaining group was made to stand out in the cold for another hour prior to another roll call. In terms of attempting escape, he comments that the camp had three rows of barbed wire fencing, guard dogs, guard towers and lots of mountains in the surrounding area, so escape wasn't very viable. Bowers describes the camp barracks as unheated, Quonset-style huts with sheet-metal roofs. The only source of heat in the hut was a small stove and each prisoner was issued only a single blanket. Prisoners ate in the barracks; food was poor with prisoners subsisting on bread made from sawdust and leaves. During his time as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war], he recalled only receiving one Red Cross package and that the Germans had removed "all the good stuff." The camp had poor sanitation conditions with rudimentary facilities. He recalls one or two deaths in his barracks; most deaths in camp were due to pneumonia. The single camp doctor only had aspirin and iodine for medications. He received no letters from home; he describes sending one letter home, but he beat it home once he was released. He was captured 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 2944] and learned later that it was at the end of February that he was reported missing in action. During captivity, the thing that bothered him the most was the loss of freedom. For activities, prisoners talked a lot about food and activities they would pursue once released. He comments that people do not understand the concept of hunger; when he was released he was malnourished and had numerous health issues as a result. He was liberated 2 April 1945. Once liberated, they went to a field and threw all their clothes into a pile to be incinerated. They were sprayed with DDT [Annotator's Note: an insecticide] and then went to shower and get cleaned up. Following that, they were given clean fatigues and taken to a hospital. The next day, he boarded a cargo plane and was taken to Camp Lucky Strike on the coast. He was a POW for approximately 115 days. He recalls hardly recognizing himself and that it took about two weeks before he could get any food to stay down. As far as this wartime experience he comments that he'd still do it again, but perhaps not be a medic and certainly not be captured. He'll never forget those experiences; when he helps out a local history teacher, he calls himself not a hero, but a survivor.