I recently watched all the episodes of the PBS documentary, THE WAR, by Ken Burns on WWII.
My dad passed away from colon cancer 12 years ago at age 62. He never talked about his experiences in the war, though he was stationed in many areas of the South Pacific...Leyte, Phillipines, New Guinea, Japan. When he was drafted (he said to me one time that he "didn't want to go"), he met his brother returning home from his experiences in North Africa, and his brother cried for him.
As I watched this documentary, I actually, physically, reached my hand over to imagine holding my dad's hand.
I wish he had talked more about it to me, but I also realize I wasn't in the mindset to recieve it while he was alive.
Patty