Quote from Don Burgett's interview: "No matter how intense the training it is very traumatic when the moment of first truth arrives and one finds himself face to face with an enemy he must kill. If that moment arrives in milliseconds one reacts to the intense military training and pulls the trigger before he has time to think or evaluate the situation. If the enemy approaches and one watches his arrival for moments or minutes, his home training since birth of "Do good unto others" is very strong and a mental wrestling of "do or don't" takes place, and could get one killed. Once past that first infinitival mental adjustment the job becomes easier. I no longer shot at or killed people, just uniforms. If one had a round helmet, he was a friend. If one had a square helmet, I killed that uniform, not people. Before my time in Normandy came to an end my attitude was that of the hunter and the rabbit. I was the hunter and the Nazi was the rabbit. I hunted him and he was running and hiding from me. I kept that attitude to the end. In returning home there is little or no adjustment of "Kill or be killed" that attitude is shed with the uniform and loved ones take the place of what had to be done.
I never heard it stated so accurately and correctly before. Specially the last 3 lines.
Of all my WW 2 local friends I cant recall one having any "post traumatic stress" that
we could not handle without "counseling etc.". Maybe just having lived through the
big depression "hardened " us a bit.