Raised and living in Independence, Edgar was drafted at the age of 23 and sent to Arkansas for training. While in boot camp an insect bite caused a bad case of blood poisoning resulting in a week long stay in the hospital. Soon on his way to North Africa to replace troop losses, he was taken from one truck and placed in another only to see his buddies in the first truck be killed by German strafing. This was the beginning of Edgar's wartime experiences. One morning he was eating breakfast when a piece of shrapnel fell within six inches of his foxhole teaching him that his foxhole needed to be much deeper, and from then on it surely was.
Edgar tells that at one point in time he was becoming more hard of hearing due to artillery, planes overhead, concussion, etc and went to the medics in the field for advice. They washed out a bunch of "black marbles" from each of his ears and he was able to proceed back to the field.
After the invasion of Normandy, he was strafed so close that tree limbs and leaves were falling on his company in their foxholes. Another time while holding out in an old school building, a German buss bomb had a malfunction, fell short, and exploded in and above the building leaving his troops covered with glass. Luckily the blankets and overcoats saved them from being cut to pieces.
Another battle Edgar mentions was when Battle of the Bulge cut off Liege. He was loading up to move out at midnight, but fortunately the tide of battle shifted. Battle of the Bulge came when his unit had been pulled out for a short rest, but that break was over almost before the troops got out of the line. Frost bitten feet, snow, cold and rough times made for a world of casualties on our side. Replacements were killed on their way from regimental headquarters as replacements to the company to which they were assigned. At one time it was attempted to have clerks working out of foxholes with their respective companies, but that idea was soon discarded since very little work was accomplished. Student clerks were then brought into service to carry down the paperwork, payroll, mail, etc needed from the front lines to headquarters. Edgar remembers having a field desk with a portable typewriter and sitting on the case as he typed. After a few months the typewriters were in bad shape so he liberated a German typewriter and learned to use it. Another one was not in good working condition, so he sent that home as a souvenir along with cameras and other items.
