With America’s entry into World War Two and the likelihood of Koch’s being drafted as soon as he graduated from high school in 1943, he attended the University of Cincinnati for training in meteorology that spring in hopes of a safe job in the military. However, Private Koch eventually went to fight in the Pacific with the 96th Division Army Infantry. Despite losing his glasses, Koch fought from a foxhole in the battle of Leyte, but a case of hepatitis kept him from being deployed to Okinawa, where most of his division suffered very heavy casualties. (Koch would not write about his war experiences unt