Russell Van Matre was born in March 1922 in Elsberry, Missouri with two brothers and two sisters. His grandparents were from Holland. His father was a farmer all of his life and his mother was a homemaker. They had a 400-acre oat farm with cattle and hogs. They raised just about everything they needed. The neighbors would occasionally come to slaughter and cook hogs. They all shared. A neighbor added benches to the back of a truck to take the kids to school. Van Matre graduated high school, and then worked on the family farm for a while. He married at age 21. In 1942, he enlisted for service. After Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], hearing Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] on the radio, he knew everything had changed.

Russell Van Matre enlisted in the US Army in December 1942. For the year between then and Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], he worked in a defense plant in Louisiana. He had two older brothers, one of whom, O. H. [Annotator's Note: Oliver Hazard Perry Van Matre] worked in a post office in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] and the other, Irvin [Annotator's Note: Irvin Van Matre], worked in a glove factory in Elsberry. Their parents were supportive of them enlisting. Van Matre enlisted in Saint Louis with a friend, and they went into the Signal Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Signal Corps] and trained together. First, he went to Signal Corps school in Colorado, and then into active service in 1943. He had basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was sick and hospitalized when his Signal Corps group was shipped out to Iceland. He ended up instead at a replacement depot in New Jersey, still unassigned, and then onto Tenby, Wales. He was deathly sick on the ship over. In Tenby, Van Matre was assigned to G-2 [Annotator's Note: the military intelligence staff at the divisional level] of the 2nd Infantry Division, with the Indianhead patch.

Russell Van Matre [Annotator's Note: assigned to G-2, military intelligence, US Army 2nd Infantry Division] continued training once overseas. Part of the day was spent doing calisthenics, though not infantry training, and also some G-2 training. After some time in England, the 2nd Division went into Normandy on D+3 [Annotator's Note: 3 days after D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], landing on Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. He had never seen so many ships in his life. The beach had been secured by the time they arrived. Van Matre served in the rear echelon and was paid 26 dollars a month. The division was under Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Nelson Bradley] at the time. His unit moved along with the front lines, never getting very comfortable in any one location. His group commander was Colonel Sherwood [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Arthur M. Sherwood, III]. Around Christmastime [Annotator's Note: December 1944], his unit was in Saint Vith, Belgium, prior to and during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. His brother [Annotator's note: Irvin Van Matre] got permission to borrow the jeep to visit his brother, they spent the night together [Annotator's Note: Van Matre covers his face and cries].

The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was a complete surprise to Russell Van Matre [Annotator's Note: assigned to G-2, military intelligence, US Army 2nd Infantry Division]. The Germans broke through US lines, and all troops, even non-infantry, were ordered to take rifles and go to the front line. No one knew where the Germans were, some of them in US uniforms, so passwords were used. Van Matre was in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia [Annotator's Note: now Plzeň, Czech Republic] when the war ended. The Germans did not want to be captured by the Russians, so many of them surrendered to the US. Troops were sent home based on a point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Van Matre was sent home in July 1945 and discharged in October of that year. He was ready to leave the army. He went to work for Mobil Oil [Annotator's Note: now Exxon Mobil Corporation] in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] in 1947, managing a warehouse. He later went into sales and moved to Davenport, Iowa.

Russell Van Matre [Annotator's Note: who had served in the 2nd Infantry Division in Europe, discharged in October 1945] was living in Davenport [Annotator's Note: Davenport, Iowa] when he was offered a job in the Belgian Congo [Annotator's Note: now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, working for Mobil Oil, Exxon Mobil Corporation]. Ten days later he went to New York to meet with managers who were already working in the Congo. He and his wife moved to Nigeria for around ten years. He retired in 1974. Having served in the war made him a better person, it made him grow up and mature. It was not pleasant to see the devastation war causes. He is not glad the war happened, but it did change the world. Younger generations should learn about the war, but it is so distant now that it is difficult for them to understand and relate to it. Van Matre left the army as a sergeant.