Pvt.

“I, Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik, 36896415, confess to the desertion of the United States Army…” it began.

A general read aloud the order that Pvt. Eddie Slovik was to be executed for the crime of desertion.

He was in a drugstore on a lunch break when he chanced to see a book titled The Execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik.

Pvt. Eddie Slovik was the bravest soldier that one World War II veteran says he ever encountered.

Using fingerprints, one was identified as U.S. Army Pvt. James Bowman, who had been in the turret of the car next to Gordon.

That is what makes poignant the story of Pvt. Fred Lang; like a singed cat, he was better than he looked.