Wayne Peer was born in December 1923 in Keenesburg, Colorado and grew up in Keenesburg until his teen years when the family moved to Greeley, Colorado. He attended high school there. After graduation in May 1942, he realized that he would be going into the service since the age for draft eligibility had been lowered to 18 years old. He learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on Sunday night while walking home from church. He knew then that college was not in his future. He was drafted in March 1943. He was not anxious to go but wanted to do his duty for the country. Most of his friends felt the same. That was the last he saw of many of his friends as they scattered across the country following their discharges. Peer returned to Greeley after his service.

Wayne Peer anticipated being drafted. The armed forces had few restrictions to defer service. Peer was inducted at Fort Logan in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. He was then assigned to the 8th Armored Division at Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk in Vernon Parish, Louisiana] in Louisiana. A forested area was used for the expansion of the base. For punishment, the men of the company were made to dig up tree stumps. Peer was in the camp from April [Annotator's Note: April 1943] to November. He was then transferred into the Air Cadets at Gulfport Field [Annotator's Note: Gulfport Army Airfield in Gulfport, Mississippi] and then Keesler Field [Annotator's Note: then Keesler Army Airfield, now Keesler Air Force Base, in Biloxi, Mississippi] in Biloxi, Mississippi. He took basic training at Keesler Field. Next was Moore Field [Annotator's Note: later Moore Air Force Base near Mission, Texas], Texas for flight training in AT-6 aircraft [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. He next attended college at the University of Missouri for about two weeks. Orders were issued for all personnel in flight training with former ground forces experience to return to the ground forces "without prejudice." [Annotator's Note: Peer smiles.] About 1,800 men were sent to Camp Van Dorn [Annotator's Note: near Centreville, Mississippi] in Mississippi. The 1,800 signed a petition requesting return to flight training. That was against Army regulations. A court martial of the petitioners was discussed but dropped. The group of men were split up and Peer went to Camp Howze, Texas and joined the 103rd Infantry Division. Most of the division had previously shipped out so that the majority of the men left in Texas were ex-Air Forces trainees. Peer was made a member of the I&R, Intelligence and Reconnaissance, Platoon in the Headquarters Company [Annotator's Note: I&R Platoon, Headquarters Company, 410th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division]. He was so disappointed with not making the Air Force that he did not care what they did with him. It turned out to be a volunteer outfit and the majority of the men opted to stay with the platoon. They were great guys to serve with. [Annotator's Note: Peer chokes up.] He has stayed in contact with them. Two of them were from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. Peggy and Brian's dad was one of them. [Annotator's Note: Peggy and Brian Salathe are volunteers at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Brian Salathe's father, Leonard Salathe, was a scout in the I&R platoon.] The small group in the platoon served the entire regiment. The men were trained to not fire their weapons unless they were in trouble. Otherwise, they had to be silent on their recon missions to gain intelligence on troop positions and strength while behind enemy lines. There were four or five men in each of four jeeps in the platoon when they were deployed overseas. Peer's vehicle had a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] mounted between the two front seats. Earl Parker of New Orleans was the gunner. Leonard Salathe was one of the scouts who rode in Peer's jeep. Lieutenant O'Reegan [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling and no given name provided] rode with Peer as well as, occasionally, a young man from Tennessee named Griffin [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling and no given name provided].

In all the time Wayne Peer spent overseas performing infiltration missions, the platoon [Annotator's Note: I&R Platoon, Headquarters Company, 410th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] only lost one man. That individual was wounded and sent to London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. The injured man was only hit in the knee so Peer knows he survived the hospital. The man was hit during a winter night patrol with the I&R Platoon wearing white parkas to blend with the snow. They advanced on an enemy position when the Germans sprayed machine gun fire at them and hit the unlucky individual. Peer and another man carried the wounded man through a field which they later discovered was a minefield. Records show that the I&R Platoon was the first unit to cross the Rhine River. The river was wide and the only way to tell if resistance was on the other side was to send men across, men like those in the I&R Platoon. If they were fired upon, the enemy was present. Peer and his platoon started to cross the river in pontoon boats. The bright moon came out while they were crossing. Peer felt like a sitting duck. Half way across the river, he heard a bird call that he suspected was the enemy. Luckily, the Germans had evacuated their positions. Germany was collapsing at that time. They crossed Germany and then went on to Innsbruck, Austria. Movements were fairly rapid through the end on 8 May 1945.

Wayne Peer and his outfit [Annotator's Note: I&R Platoon, Headquarters Company, 410th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] landed in Marseilles, France. They had taken the southerly route to Gibraltar to avoid submarines. They disembarked down a rope ladder into a flat bottom boat to reach the shore. They marched inland and ran into fields with anti-glider obstacles. The Germans had placed rocks in pyramids three feet apart to obstruct the aircraft from landing safely. The obstructions were an obstacle to the men on the march so the officer gave orders to muster at a location up ahead. When the men reached the location, they were issued their equipment. The front lines were hit at Saint-Die, France. Peer, like the rest of the country, felt that they were fighting the war to end all wars. He entered combat with that feeling even though he was scared. The I&R Platoon infiltrated behind enemy lines to ascertain troop strength and deployment to report back to headquarters. That information would be disseminated to the various line companies for their preparations for the opposition they faced. Fear was prevalent no matter what anyone says about it. The I&R Platoon's mission was to avoid contact unless it was inevitable. Seeing dead along the road was horrible, but an individual had to steel himself against giving death too much thought. It was the way of life for the soldiers at the front. On the way to Innsbruck [Annotator's Note: Innsbruck, Austria], his platoon spotted dead Americans along the route. It was 8 May [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1945]. They learned that the war was over when they reached the city. Peer had difficulty realizing that those dead Americans had come so close to the end of the war and not made it. His I&R platoon did not have its first mission until reaching Saint-Die. They were given topographical maps and objectives for their missions after that point. There were day and night missions. The commanding officer for the platoon was not very effective. On one particular late night mission through a wooded area, he caused misdirection and delays for the outfit. Their jeep had to be abandoned after Peer disabled it. The men walked back to headquarters because the jeep was jammed in the woods. Peer and his group arrived after the password had been changed for the outposts. They were challenged with several M-1s [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] aimed at them. With Germans disguising themselves as Americans, it took several unusual questions only Americans could answer before the sentries were satisfied that Peer and his outfit were in fact friendly. It was Thanksgiving and Peer helped cook the turkeys. He received a turkey leg in gratitude. The platoon went through France then Germany and finally reached Innsbruck at the end of the war.

Wayne Peer and his outfit [Annotator's Note: I&R Platoon, Headquarters Company, 410th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] had been making tremendous progress after the wintertime Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The Battle of the Bulge redirected American lines to prevent the Germans from getting behind Allied lines. American lines were stretched and patrols by the I&R Platoon were infrequent. On one night, the platoon went forward and discovered enemy positions and withdrew. Dressed in white parkas for camouflage against the winter snow, the Americans heard a new weapon the Germans had. It was a loud and powerful rifle that they had never heard before. It got their attention. Peer and his buddies referred to the new enemy rifle as "an elephant gun." The Americans picked up some of the rifles as the Germans retreated and dropped their weapons. They also came upon abandoned horse drawn vehicles with dead animals nearby. A cooking vehicle had dried sauerkraut for rations with some sort of gravy to go with it. When the platoon was at Mannheim, Germany, they crossed the Rhine River and found a brewery. The jeep drivers stayed with the vehicles but the others went into the brewery. A sergeant used his .45 to shoot a hole in a large cask and went about filling all the canteens they had with red wine. They returned to camp but discovered that Speyer [Annotator's Note: Speyer, Germany], a champagne capital, was nearby. A large truck confiscated a great many bottles and cases of the beverage. Enlisted men seemed to end up with more than the officers. It made for a grand party. [Annotator's Note: Peer has a hearty laugh.] On patrols, Peer would stay with the jeep to aid the outfit with a fast getaway if needed. Brian's [Annotator's Note: Brian Salathe is a volunteer at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans and his father, Leonard Salathe, was a scout in the I&R platoon and friend of Peer] dad, Leonard Salathe and Donald Smith from Providence, Rhode Island had a close call at Niefer [Annotator's Note: likely Niefern-Öschelbronn, Germany] where they were under heavy machine gun fire. They both made it back and ultimately received 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 their actions. Peer never felt personally in danger. The men trained in the United States for the specific way to conduct themselves on the I&R patrols. It was designed for self-preservation.

While in Innsbruck [Annotator's Note: Innsbruck, Austria], Wayne Peer and the men in his platoon [Annotator's Note: I&R Platoon, Headquarters Company, 410th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] tried to aggravate their commanding officer. They did not respect the lieutenant. Additionally, there was a man in the platoon who was born in Germany. The men in the outfit picked on him for that but the man would give the local citizens a bad time as he railed at them in German. After being in Innsbruck for about a month, the I&R Platoon went to Oetz [Annotator's Note: Oetz, Austria], which was a little mountain town, that was a resort. Some of the men then went to Maximilian's summer home and others went to Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] hideout. Peer had more respect for the German soldiers than he had for the English or French troops. Most of the enemy soldiers were decent men who did want to be in the fight. It was Hitler and officers who pushed them and brainwashed them. Peer can testify that there were concentration camps. His division liberated Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp in Dachau, Germany].