My father was in New Guinea very early in WWII. A farm boy joined the National Guard to help pay for college, but of course when Pearl Harbor happened, they were the first to go. The 32nd Division was scheduled to go to Europe and actually travelled to the east coast before reversing course for hurried training in Louisiana and then on to the west coast to board commandeered Matson liners to travel to Australia. At the time the largest single move of an entire division intact. Those battles in New Guinea didn't get the same press as the Marine landing at Guadalcanal which was happening at the same time. He never talked about it much, except the silly and stupid things they did to keep from going crazy. He talked fondly about Australia and the exceptional treatment Americans received. Several years after he passed in 2005, I found his battlefield diary. I can only read bits and pieces of it at a time, it is so intense.