William Splichal was born in May 1924 in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father worked for the city and his mother raised the five children. When she was 80 years old, she worked in a hospital. They were poor, but did not know it. They got along well. They did not really know about the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s], other than that things were hard to get. He went to high school and played trumpet in the band. The war started when he was a senior in high school. Everyone wanted to enlist. He was 17 years old when he heard about the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Then he heard about the draft. They were not drafting anyone under 19 years old. Splichal was drafted when he was 18 years old. He wanted to go because all the other guys had already gone. His older brother was already in the Army.

William Splichal was sent to North Carolina after he was drafted. He was put into the infantry for six months. He went to see if he could be in the Army band, but he was rejected. Then he was sent to Sicily, Italy. Every day he would look on the board to see if he would be shipped out. He was put into the 78th Infantry [Annotator’s Note: 78th Infantry Division] band. He was a member of the band for three years. He wanted to be a pilot, but he was put back into the infantry. He went back to the band. They all thought they would not see the Statue of Liberty again when they went by her. They landed in England and spent two weeks preparing for the invasion of France in October 1944. D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] had happened prior to that in June. His brother was in D-Day with the 90th Division [Annotator’s Note: 90th Infantry Division]. Splichal went into combat that October with headquarters. His main job was to protect the two-star general. They landed in Le Havre, France. Then they went into Belgium where they saw their first combat. They could hear all the guns going off and did not know which way they were going. Then they were in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945].

William Splichal remembers the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. They could hear the tanks. They could hear the Germans coming. It was snowing, overcast, and cold. The 106th Division [Annotator’s Note: 106th Infantry Division] was next to them. The Germans killed or captured seven thousand men from the 106th Division. Splichal was with headquarters. He saw many of the men coming back. They were wounded. He knew the men marching forward were headed into hell. He was next to a graves registration unit as well. He knew they were losing a thousand people a day. He saw rows and rows of dead Americans. They would load the dead onto trucks. They would wrap them in mattress covers and stack them onto the trucks like logs. They shot down planes. He saw a pilot lose his head as a plane crashed. The German 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] were coming in all the time. He did not get wounded. He said prayers all the time. They had V2 bombs [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile] go over them.

William Splichal was right in the war room. It was full of bright lights. There were maps all over the wall. They had to help the general when he would come out of the room. Splichal remembers seeing two sergeants from his basic training in the field. They were battlefield commissioned to lieutenants and they were killed that same day. [Annotator’s Note: Splichal becomes emotional.] There was a field hospital next to headquarters. When a soldier died, they would put him outside to freeze. The Rhine River was full of dead German soldiers. Splichal wrote letters home, but they were censored. He tried to ship packages home later in the war. Everything was broken when it reached home. They used to use newspapers to keep their feet warm by wrapping them over their boots. Splichal did not smoke, so he traded his cigarettes for candy bars. His family sent him cookies, candy, and cheeses. They had K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] and C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food]. They put out cans of marmalade. The clothing was not warm enough for the cold. They sent them sweaters. It was miserable weather.

William Splichal would write down the dates and towns of the places he went to in his diary. He went to Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] after the war. He was discharged from the Army in January 1946. He went to college and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in music. When the war ended, the band got their instruments back from England. They left their instruments in England when they went into combat. When the war ended, they played in parades. The Stars and Stripes [Annotator's Note: United States military newspaper] was the main newspaper. They immediately started getting ready to go to Japan. They were in Germany and they did not have a large celebration. When they went to Paris and England there were celebrations. When they were in England the war ended with Japan. They were happy that Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] ended the war. They were forbidden to fraternize with civilians. They were occupational troops in Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany] at the end of the war in Europe. They got to go home if they had a certain score [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. They shipped the men with the highest numbers home. Splichal was in the band for his entire tour. They played for General Patton’s [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] funeral. They had new uniforms and new instruments for the event. They played a funeral march. Patton was great to the soldiers. Patton was free with his language. He was ready to get out. He went to the University of Nebraska [Annotator’s Note: in Lincoln, Nebraska]. He helped start a National Guard band. In 1948 he got married. In 1949 he had his first child. He was sent to Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] in 1950.

William Splichal played in the Army band in Alaska for two years. They had many USO shows [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations]. Splichal was the bandmaster. When his parents met him to pick him up, he hardly recognized them after three years. His father was grey. Being a member of the 78th Infantry [Annotator’s Note: 78th Infantry Division] band was his best experience. They convinced him to make music his career. He has fond memories and he has been a guest speaker many times. He has lost all of his friends, during the war and now after. He went from a private to a CWO4 [Annotator’s Note: chief warrant officer]. Splichal gives speeches on patriotism. He thinks people will not remember the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2] or the war and the things they had to do or go through.