Summary: MEmories of Heaven, Memories of Hell

            Memories of Heaven, Memories of Hell is about George J. Trebonyak, a man from Southwestern Pennsylvania, who got drafted into the U.S military to fight in World War II.  The book starts with the author explaining his family; he had 4 brothers, 3 of which got drafted before he did, so he knew that he probably would be drafted.  Once drafted, he then went to basic training, meets Newt (who gets chosen into his platoon, and becomes his best friend), and chooses which branch of military he would like to go into, Trebonyak chose Army.  He then got shipped off to Normandy, where their platoon had their first encounter with war, and fast.  It was a long, grueling battle, at one point, Trebonyak was shot in the head.  Luckily, he only got a minor concussion, because his helmet stopped the bullet.  From there, they met up with several other platoons, due to all the deaths the platoons suffered.   After a long march, his platoon reaches the Hurtagen Forest, Germany where they would receive the Presidential Unit Citation Award, for marching more than 3,000 yards in the freezing cold weather, with heavy artillery and machine gun fire.  They moved to help many other platoons surround more than 20,000 German soldiers.  After that, they move into Gurzenvich, Germany, where they move into an abandoned building to sleep.  When they wake up, they find out that numerous Germans are moving in, and it’s too late to move.  Trebonyak and Newt go outside and try to fend off as many as possible, but after a while, Trebonyak got shot badly in the leg.  He blacked out, and when he woke up, he was on a stretcher, and off the battle lines.  He then recovered from the wound and moved back home.  After, Trebonyak moved to Detroit to become a security guard at Ford Motor Co.  He met up with his general one night at the bar and asked how Newt was.  The general told him that Newt took blame for him being wounded and went mad.  In that same battle, Newt died in an explosion.