My sister, Linda, recalls that my parents met at a dance at a tavern in Milwaukee. My mother was with another man at the time, and my father pursued her after that, bringing her a corsage for each date. He was in the National Guard at the time. Yes, he was in the 32nd Division. He trained troops in Louisianna and he was also in Oklahoma. Linda said my dad was never in Italy. He was in France and Germany. He was wounded in the leg and received some sort of medal. He was also in London . . .

The above was relayed to me after I had found Robert's "enlistment" record. His "enlistment" corresponded exactly with the activation date of the 32nd Division. I used this date to guess that the marriage occurred just before going on active duty rather than one year later. (The family knew the date but could only narrow the year to one of two consecutive years.) As a part of this I did some research on the 32nd Division.

All Wisconsin National Guard Units were apparently units of the 32nd. The Red Arrow Division (32nd) was deployed in the Pacific Theatre. However, Robert was in the Artillery. When the division was "modernized" from a quadrangel to a triangle organization, some of the artillery units were reassigned. Most of them merged into an artillery unit that fought in Italy. However, a few fragments landed elsewhere.

The oral tradition above suggests that Robert landed elsewhere. The shoulder patch in his 1st sargeant picture looks like the "Communications Zone, European Theatre". This appears to be consistent with an assignment in England and Northern Europe.