John H. Canfield was drafted into the US Army in 1943 and found himself trained as a frontline medic. He then volunteered to be a paratrooper with the very real prospect of jumping out of airplanes in front of-and behind-enemy lines. Canfield experienced a wide breadth of training, including combat, and felt he was prepared enough-or lucky enough-to have survived to tell his war stories. While his time in combat was short, his experiences were vast.