How the Book – One in Two Million Came to Life
When Covid came, I found myself with two extra hours per day (no commute to North San Diego, where I used to work!). I used this time to fulfill a dream that I had for many years: to write a book about my father’s experience during World War Two. The book turned into more of his lifetime memoir (once removed since I wrote it).
Approximately two million Allied soldiers were fighting in France during the war. Many people, like me, have no idea of what it was like for their fathers or grandfathers in the Army during that time. Memoirs about WWII France are hard to come by. So I wrote this book. It’s a GI’s story before, during, and after the greatest war.
Read it to Learn About:
– Life in the US Army during WWII,(including Iceland, Ireland, & France),
– Patton’s Third Army,
– The 5th Division, and,
– Following a soldier’s footsteps
My dad was Casper Jack Alagna (1921 – 2020). He was born in New York, lived most of his life in the Chicago area, and spent a good part of his retirement in Sun City, California. His life was defined first by his family, who went through the depression, then by the time he served in the US Army and WWII, where he fought bravely from July 10 through December 13, 1944. He was a Communications Sergeant (HQ Company) in the First Battalion, Tenth Regiment, Fifth Division under General George Patton.
I matched up his official war record with at least 40 other rare books and stories from France in WWII. His war record was barely saved from a federal records warehouse fire in the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, that occurred on July 12, 1973. By matching his record with these other books, I was able to determine, with great accuracy, where my dad was all through his time in the army. The result is a 350-page book that documents his life before, during, and after the war. It is available on The Bookpatch website.
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The book is also available in an e-book format for only $2.99 cents.
