When nineteen year-old Ralph E. Bittner joined the U.S. Army in 1942, there was no way for him to foresee the soldier's life he would live. In A Soldier's Vignettes of World War II, Bittner shares his experiences through twenty-two very diverse narratives. From the amusing, sometimes harrowing basic training, to futile instruction in motorcycle maintenance, the chronicle includes his being shipped to France, where he finds himself in the throes of danger with Patton's 3rd Army and the 1st Army under General Hodges. The war ends in Europe, but relief is short-lived: he discovers that his next stop is the war in the Pacific. The reader is carried along on a journey from one adventure and war-related mishap to another, with no small dash of courage and irony thrown into a very interesting mix.