Your WWII experiences certainly out-weigh mine. I remember Pearl Harbour. It was sometime after one o’clock, central time, when John Charles Daly came on the radio and announcing that Japanese naval and air forces have bombed Pearl Harbour.
I went to the kitchen and asked Grandma, in my mind the fount of all knowledge, where Pearl Harbour was. To my surprise, she did not know, but asked me why my question. I answered that, Well, wherever it is, the Japs just bombed it. This, of course, got everyones attention, and we all spent the rest of the afternoon and evening listening to the radio.
I was seven months into my Fifth year at the time and never again did I ever wonder where Pearl Harbour was. Some things are never forgotten.
Two Uncles served (both in CBI) and one Aunt (in the WACs). My Dad was killed in 1938, so he missed the Big Show.
Particularly for the pacific war there was a never ending list of questions. Nobody have ever heard of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Tinian, Bougainville, etc. In fact even now when I used the spell check, it had never heard of Tinian.