My Grandpa trained for desert warfare in 1940 and had one more month before he was released from the Army when Pearl was bombed. He then experienced the Aluetian Islands, Philippines, and Attu doing ground fighting and was a flame thrower. He never went to the desert. He got out in 1945.

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"It won't be long now until I come home, darling."
(Donald B. Greenwood - 'grampa' - in a letter home to his wife in Oct. 1943 - he came home in Sep. 1945)