He went from mowing FDR’s lawn, to the Battle of the Bulge, in the artillery — 240mm M1 howitzers. His story of WW2 is vivid, and astonishing, I hope you read it (past the link)

Ralph J. Osterhoudt, now 96, was 15 when World War II began. 

His family’s farm in the Hudson Valley was just a bicycle ride away from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s estate, where Osterhoudt worked summers.

 Though a schoolboy, he stepped up to serve, first as a volunteer in the Ground Observer Corps in a lookout tower, which was organized to alert military authorities should enemy aircraft penetrate American skies.

When the Ground Observer Corps was deactivated in May 1944 , he volunteered to be a U.S. Army replacement for Europe’s frontlines, in the artillery — 240mm M1 howitzers, and he trained with the 82nd Division

His brother Irving was on the battleship Missouri for three years. 

https://shop.historynet.com/blogs/new-the-latest-from-historynet-com/he-went-from-mowing-fdr-s-lawn-to-the-battle-of-the-bulge-one-man-s-wwii-odyssey