I have many similar memories of men who worked for my parents before and after the war. One was my childhood hero who jumped into St. Mere Eglise on D Day with the 82nd Airborne.
Another jumped into a foxhole in the Pacific when under Japanese air attack and landed on another soldier.....his brother....whom he had not seen in two years. Another survived the Bataan Death March.....
The stories are unforgettable.........
Another story of a soldier from my hometown who somehow escaped from a Japanese P.O.W. camp with some Pinoys in the Philippines. They had contacted thru a coast watcher somehow, and got down to the beach where a U.S. navy craft managed to get to the beach from a submarine and pick them up. The Navy guy who grabbed the POW into the boat was his best friend from high school. Figure that one out.