Hal Urban was born July 16, 1924 in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  He remembers growing up poor in the midst of the Great Depression, and with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the coming of the war, Hal and so many of the men of his generation enlisted.  Training took place at Camp Callan near LaJolla, California, where Hal was briefly a drill instructor.  When an opportunity to go overseas came along, Hal and a friend took it, and they were assigned to the 575th Antiaircraft Battalion.  After additional training they made their way to New York, and they boarded the troopship bound for Liverpool.  In short order they crossed the Channel and landed in Cherbourg, France in December 1944.  They crossed France and went right into the Battle of the Bulge, where Hal was wounded by shrapnel.  After 5 weeks in hospital he was returned to his unit on the front lines, where he renewed his efforts in the halftrack and on the anti aircraft guns, and he and the crew took down two Me109s.  They ended the war in Austria, where they passed the time in Hitler’s onetime hunting lodge and conducted occasional patrols in the mountains.  They also liberated the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, where Hal saw the dark side of humanity and sights he would never forget.  When the war in Europe ended in May, Hal and the other men were expecting to go to Japan, but the dropping of the atomic bombs obviated that possibility.  Hal returned home on a Liberty ship, and he and the men of his generation fell into the rhythms of civilian life.  Hal Urban was interviewed over zoom by Scott Masters and Zach Dunn in January 2025.