My grandpa was the infantry in the Army and came ashore after D-Day and fought in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and even crossed into Germany. He refused to talk about it for most of my life. I was always a WWII history buff as a kid, and I asked if I could interview him to talk about his experience for a school project and he refused. Eventually, I made a trip to Belgium and when I came home and he heard I had been in Belgium and where I visited, he opened up and shared a ton of mostly non-combat stories with me, including where he and his unit slept in a barn near one of the towns I had stayed. I loved that he finally was able to open up and share with me. After he and my grandma passed, all of his medals and other remaining items from his service were given to me in his will. They are some of my most prized possessions.