William Lutz was born in March 1920 and raised in Reading [Annotator’s Note: Reading, Pennsylvania]. He had a good life all his life. He had three older sisters and four brothers. His father served in World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, a global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918], and his grandfather was in the Civil War [Annotator’s Note: the American Civil War 1861 to 1865 fought between the Northern Union Army and the Southern Confederate Army]. Lutz went to work as a duster boy, then the war started. Lutz was in Guam and his friend, who was a Marine on Tinian, was killed. When Lutz first tried to get into the service he only weighed 98 pounds. The first place he was sent to was Georgia. He was drafted in 1942. He tried to enlist in 1941 when the war started. For a year, he was in a CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] camp. He received 30 dollars a month. Most of the money went home.

William Lutz liked boot camp because he got a rifle. He liked the firing range. He became a gunner after basic training. Lutz would take an artillery company and they would march. They would walk and then double time. They trained to climb the ropes getting off and back on a ship. They went to Hawaii where they had special training for island landings at night. They had a lot of night training. When they got on the ship, they were told where they were going. [Annotator’s Note: Lutz was headed to Guam.] When they got there, they unloaded the ship and got onto the landing crafts [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. The first thing he saw when he hit the beach was someone’s hand spread out on the beach. When they got to the woods, they stopped. Then they started up the mountain. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were hiding up there. There was no firing that night. Lutz saw Eddie [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling, no last name given] get hit. He got hit by a Japanese bunker. Lutz could not fire down at the bunker because he would have hit his own men. Lutz did not hear a tank come up behind him. His sergeant had to pull him out of the way.

William Lutz thought there would be more firing of weapons. He sat behind a machine gun. It was different from the riflemen. He was in the back. He was never up at the actual front. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were ready to die for their emperor [Annotator’s Note: Emperor Shōwa, Hirohito, the 124th emperor of Japan] and the Americans were ready to live for their president. If the Japanese got hit by a rifle, they would keep coming at him. There was no time to be frightened. Lutz had a friend on the island of Tinian [Annotator’s Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands]. After Guam, they went to the Philippines. They landed at Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines]. They were at an airport. It was a small battle. One night, a Japanese soldier crossed their line. Lutz did not want to open fire toward his own men. Someone with a rifle shot the Japanese soldier. Lutz was given his saber [Annotator’s Note: A saber is a type of backsword with a curved blade].

William Lutz remembers the battles on Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] were not bad. One man got out of his foxhole at night to warm up. The lieutenant woke up and saw the man walking around and killed him with his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. Lutz got bit by a centipede and he thought he was going to die. When they left the Philippines, they went to Aoshima Island [Annotator’s Note: Aoshima Island, Japan]. The Japanese had kamikaze [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers] boats loaded with TNT and they would ram the ships. When they got to Aoshima, they had some fighting to do. They wanted a base that could fire on Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They went on to take the next two islands. When Lutz went to get on the boat, a wave caused his leg to get smashed. He had to be treated in the ship’s hospital. After that, they went to Okinawa. When they got to Okinawa, the fighting had advanced inland. Lutz blacked out. When he woke up, he was in the hospital and there was something wrong with his arm. They sent him to a hospital in Guam. The bone in his arm was cracked in five places.

William Lutz went into a cave on Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan] and there were fleas everywhere. It was rough over there. He does not know how his arm got cracked. Waiting was the bad part. They went up there to relieve the 96th [Annotator’s Note: 96th Infantry Division]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were not shooting at them right away. There was shelling happening from both ways. They never rushed Lutz on his machine gun. He saw Japanese charge riflemen. He did not get scared. The worst part is sitting and waiting. Their first sergeant was walking along and a tank came up beside him and fired. The sergeant blacked out and it broke him mentally. One guy took his rifle and shot himself in the foot. They would use a bulldozer to seal the caves shut. They would take gasoline and pour it into the caves and close all the holes except one. Then they would try to smoke them out. They had no pity for the Japanese. They would take prisoners out and shoot them.

William Lutz hear about the Japanese torturing the Americans. When he returned home, he read about the atrocities committed during World War Two. The biggest part of the book was about the Germans and the Japanese. The Germans and the Japanese were being beaten. When Lutz was in the hospital, he had enough points to go home [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. If he did not have enough points, he would have gone on to Japan. The most memorable moment from the war was when he fell between the ship and the boat. The little islands did not have a lot of fighting. The first dead man Lutz saw was on Guam. The guy was propped up against a tree and he was dead.