Marv Eichen joined the Army Air Force in June 1942, less then 6 months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri before completing overseas training in Kerens, Utah. He was trained as a propeller specialist.
In 1943, Eischen arrived in New Guinea. The conditions on New Guinea were horrible. It became pretty desolate that he recalls one soldier became so disheartened that he shot himself. As a member of the air force, he also remembered multiple planes crashing or 6-10 planes going out on a mission and only 2 coming home. (Laura Hillebrand's book, Unbroken backs up that claim when she discusses the fact that the majority of casualties from the AAF that occurred during World War II occurred more from malfunctions, getting lost, or crashing after missions.)
Eischen would go on to serve in Australia and Okinawa, Japan. He would come back to Algona in 1945.
In 1943, Eischen arrived in New Guinea. The conditions on New Guinea were horrible. It became pretty desolate that he recalls one soldier became so disheartened that he shot himself. As a member of the air force, he also remembered multiple planes crashing or 6-10 planes going out on a mission and only 2 coming home. (Laura Hillebrand's book, Unbroken backs up that claim when she discusses the fact that the majority of casualties from the AAF that occurred during World War II occurred more from malfunctions, getting lost, or crashing after missions.)
Eischen would go on to serve in Australia and Okinawa, Japan. He would come back to Algona in 1945.