Bill Hosking remembers a woman coming to their house and telling his family that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and he didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was on the map.  Never heard of it!  How soon the Bill and the rest of the United States would learn about Pearl Harbor.

Like so many other young men from Pittsburgh, bill was drafted into the war.  As part of the 10th Mountain Division of the Army Mountaineers, he trained for ski patrol and when he was sent to Europe the fighting was all uphill, he recalls.

His unit had close calls during the war and some members were killed.  He remembers that there were “good guys” who made some “bad shells.”  These duds, fortunately, were the ones that landed close to his barracks and his fellow mountaineers, including Senator Bob Dole, whom Bill knew casually.

When the war ended, it took a while for Bills division to get the news, and then it was quick transition back to the states and post-war life– where Bill eventually went to college and raised a family.  Like many WWII veterans, Bill humbly discusses the war years.  He received a Bronze Star, but says others did more than he did.