My Dad was in the pacific during WW2, and had some stories to tell as well.
“not pretty” is quite a euphemism.
As for World War Two stories, my father in a law wrote down one of them. (He died on Pearl Harbor Day, 2003)
I had posted this in June on FR, but here is a link to one story we found posthumously:
http://smithsk.blogspot.com/2014/06/americas-story-part-15-world-war-2.html