In 1942, Virgil Westdale was a successful young flight instructor then the government ousted him from the Air Corps and demoted him to army private. Having grown up as a Japanese American midwestern farm boy, Westdale had his first taste of Japanese culture when he was sent to train with the all Japanese American unit, the 42nd Regimental Combat Team. He was ultimately transferred to the 522nd Artillery Battalion, where, as a member of the Fire Direction Center, he helped push the Germans out of Italy, rescue the "Lost Battalion” in France, and free prisoners from Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.

After the war, Westdale went on to pursue a career in research and development with large corporations. He received twenty-five U.S. patents and earned an international award for his work with photocopier components. In retirement, he has been working for the TSA, returning to the worlds of aviation and national security. Written for the lay reader as well as the history buff, Westdale’s stories of World War II challenge preconceived notions of what we think he know about a soldier’s life in Europe and offer images that go beyond the history books.

Virgil W. Westdale is a World War II veteran who fought with the 442nd Regimental Combat team, the most decorated unit for its size in U.S. military history. The son of a Caucasian mother and a Japanese father, he grew up on Midwestern farms, earned a pilot’s license, and became a commmercial pilot instructor. In four months a Federal Agent confiscated his pilot’s license due to his Japanese ancestery, and the War Department transferred him from the Air Corps to the Army infantry as a private.

In 1995, at the age of seventy-seven, he returned to work, this time in ariport security. He retired yet again in July, 2009 from the Transportation Security Administration. Virgil Westdale lives in Grand Rapids in his own home and enjoys tap and ballroom dancing, coin collecting, and giving classroom presentations on World War II to students and adults.

Stephanie A. Gerdes completed her master’s degree in reading and language arts in 2000 at Grand Valley State University. She has been teaching third grade at Kenowa Hills Public schools for the past fifteen years.