Walter Stitt was born July 24, 1924 in Marietta, Ohio, and he grew up in West Virginia and lived for many years in Indiana before moving back to Springfield, Ohio.  His early years were spent mainly in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression.  Times were tough, and the family had to make do with hand-me-down clothes and the occasional meal of “City Chicken”.  The Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 would change Walter’s life – and the lives of so many men and women in his generation.  He graduated high school in May 1942 and was waiting to be called to duty, which happened in March 1943.  His father – a Great War veteran who had dealt with soldiers impacted and killed by the Spanish Flu – was unhappy with Walter’s decision.  Training at Fort Polk ensued, and in short order Walter was on his way to Britain on the Queen Elizabeth; he would be there about a month before he crossed the Channel and found himself in France by mid-July.  He was assigned as a replacement to E Company of the 33rd Armored Regiment of the 3rd Armored Division.  Walter would go on to serve in three Sherman tanks; in the first he was a loader, a job he held until that tank was destroyed, with two of the crew killed.  In the second tank he was promoted to gunner, and he served with that crew until the tank was destroyed in a minefield.  Walter went into a third Sherman, and this time he found himself in the Battle of the Bulge, pitted against Peiper’s SS troops.  This tank was destroyed by a German panzerfaust, and this would prove to be Walter’s final moment in combat – the tank commander was killed, and Walter was hit in the head by shrapnel.  When VE Day took place Walter was in England, and when VJ Day took place he was on a train in Pennsylvania.  He returned to college using his GI Bill benefits, and soon enough he met a young woman named Betty, and they went on to marry and raise a family and find their place in postwar America.  Walter Stitt was interviewed over zoom by Crestwood students in May 2025.