Chapter 2- U.S. Soldiers circa WWII

"He [Roland Weary] has every piece of equipment he had ever been issued...bulletproof Bible, a pamphlet entitled "Know Your Enemy," another pamphlet entitled "Why We Fight," and another pamphlet of German phrases in English phonetics...." (Vonnegut 40).

American G.I.s (part of the thousands of young men who enlisted in WWII for the U.S.)

In Chapter Two, Roland Weary is depicted as a young, striving, and slightly pitiful U.S. soldier trapped behind German lines as a result of loss at Battle of the Bulge. He carried every single piece of equipment he has been issued, including blunt pamphlets about Germany and the cause of fighting. Interesting? Yes. The purpose of a soldier is to fight for the United States in all her glory, to put down the enemy in the name of freedom. So, if young men were to enlist, shouldn't they know their purpose for fighting before they left their homes and joined a long line of cadets? Shouldn't they be already educated about the Germans before being sent out to the country itself? These ideas were usually nonexistent during WWII. The average American soldier was male, 26 years old, U.S.-born, and read at a middle-school level. A sizable percent of them were completely illiterate as a result of a deemphasis on education during the Great Depression. Christianity was a prominent factor in the lives of some, such as Billy Pilgrim, who served as a chaplain's assistant, and he "had a meek faith in Jesus which most soldiers found putrid" (Vonnegut 31). While many men did not know much about the deep entanglements of the war or the country they were about to enter, they volunteered by the masses for the sake of U.S. freedom and victory. Many men were just out of boyhood and wished to make a name for themselves by honorably fighting and laying their lives down for the U.S.A. While the army was not as technologically advanced and the average soldier was not as educated or prepared as today, the millions of men who valiantly gave their lives and time for the U.S's sake did not do so in vain.

source: www.wikipedia.com