Everett's war
 The 41st Infantry Division was activated September, 1940, and the National Guardsmen were stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. After the attack on Pearl Harbor they were shipped out. To fool any spies, they were entrained to New Jersey, where they exercised and trained and finally set sail for Australia in May of 1942. Everett was the first Sergeant of the 162nd Battalion, HQ company. He reported to Captain B.
 They got to Australia and began jungle training alongside the 32nd Infantry Division, a National Guard unit from Montana and Idaho.
After attacking Pearl Harbor the Japanese Empire began expanding like a giant balloon, spreading almost to Midway island, over the Philippine Islands, over Singapore, and almost to Australia.
In the south, the Japanese began to build an airbase at Guadalcanal in order to stop flights from USA to Australia. In New Guinea they established a base at Buna on the north of the island and began moving south. Their attempts at an end around the east coast was stopped by a combined force of Australians/New Zealanders (ANZAC) and US forces in the battle of Milne Bay. They also sent troops over the Kokoda track, a mountain trail from Buna over the Owen Stanley Mountains of central New Guinea that reached 7000 feet before descending into Port Moresby, which faced Australia. The Kokoda track was narrow and muddy and steep, but the Japanese were able to reach the top and look down into the distance at their target. They were soon met by the ANZAC army and an exhausting battle began.
 Then the balloon began to puncture. The Marines attacked at Guadalcanal, the US Navy fought the Japanese Navy to a standstill in the battle of the Coral Sea, and General MacArthur sent the 32 Infantry Division from Australia to attack the Japanese base at Buna, a plantation community with a small harbor. While the men of the 41st trained they got news of the 32nd's efforts to displace the Japanese. It was wet and hot and bloody action against a well entrenched enemy. Their progress was slow and MacArthur got impatient with the National Guard and sent a member of his own staff to oversee the action. He recommended relieving the undertrained and exhausted men of the 32nd.
On New Years Day, 1943 Everett and the rest of the 162nd Regiment got on planes and flew over the Owen Stanley Mountains to an airbase then took landing ships to Buna. Dad was airsick the whole time flying but and seasick on the landing craft, but once on land he was able to lead his men in taking over from the tired 32nd. According to many reports I heard later, his Captain climbed into a foxhole and as the bullets flew over the US soldiers he began shouting for his first Sergeant to come over and tell his what was happening. He shouted orders out of his foxhole and Dad hiked around setting up his men in position. It is just like baseball, he told them, we have trained and we know what to do, so get out there and do it. They finally displaced the Japanese from Buna. The enemy attack on Port Moresby was stopped from the front and back.
After a short rest the 162nd was sent on to Salamanau and eventually to Biak, which dad described as the hardest battle of a hard campaign. The Japanese were hidden in limestone caves atop a mountain, The hike up the mountain was steep over unsteady terrain. At one point hiking along the side of a ridge the ground gave way and the men slid down the hill in a cloud of dust and gravel. They were using Springfield bold action rifles, the more modern MI's went to Europe. Their heavy weapons were a couple of BAR's. But time after time they overcame the Japanese defenses.
 Biak, he told me, was where, unable to dislodge the enemy from the limestone caves, they poured cans of gasoline into the limestone and set it on fire. He said it sounded like bacon frying.
He made a face thinking about that. After almost a year of combat First Sergeant Squires, whom the ranks all called Pop because he was ten years older then the rest, was washing his face in front of the command tent and a colonel came out and asked him how long he had been in New Guinea. "Too damn long," he replied. "We think so too," the colonel answered, "you are going home." He hated to leave the men he had cared for and comforted. His best friend had died in his arms and he had been hit in the leg with a four inch chunk of shrapnel and he suffered from Malaria most of his days in the jungle. He nodded his head and packed his gear and boarded a ship that eventually got him back to San Francisco in December of 1944.
 After getting drunk with his sister Lela and her husband he got on a train for Springfield, Oregon to see his family. He would have more time in the Army, but his war was over.