"At the free dance for us, held at the Phoenix Ballroom Saturday night, I asked a brown-eyed lass to dance with me. She managed very well to keep me off her feet, especially in the slow ones." And that brown-eyed lass is why a soldier began to write the story of his role in the second global war, better known as World War II. 2nd Lt. Earl S. Wilson Sr. started this journal after enlisting in the U.S. Army in April of 1942. He finished it just three months before he died in March 2, 1984 after his youngest child visiting for the holidays found his writings and asked why it was not complete. His final chapters began with "Forty years and seven kids later...." He had a story to tell and he had a legacy waiting to hear it. Figuring he would be serving in the war in some form, Wilson decided to chart his own course and enlisted. What he wrote is the story of one soldier's journey from a small town in Texas to the jungles of the Pacific. But before he faced the war, he met and wooed that Irish lass. He'd marry her in the throes of pneumonia in Spokane, Washington and then shipped off with his comrades to places unknown. Over the next three years he would write this journal to share with her and unbeknown to him, his seven children, who were not yet even a twinkle in his eyes. Many years later they would read this story and see a part of this man that they never knew existed and would begin to understand who he was in all his brilliance and his faults. Earl Stanley Wilson Sr. was born in Post Oak, Texas on August 30, 1912 and grew up in Jacksboro, Texas. He attended Texas Tech University for two years. After his sister Jewel died in a car accident he dropped out of school. He then went to work for the Texas Pipeline Company. For 8 1/2 years he was a member of Battery F, 131st Field Artillery Texas National Guard. In April 1942 he enlisted in the U. S. Army and became a member of the Corp of Engineers. He kept his war journal from April 1943 until his discharge in October 1945. Using the G I Bill he returned to Texas Tech and obtained his Civil Engineering degree. Upon graduation he moved with his wife Gertrude to Wichita Falls, Texas and raised seven children. He returned to his job at the Texas Pipeline Company and worked for thirty five years. He died March 2, 1984. This is his story of his experiences during World War II.