WAR WITHOUT MERCY

Don Dencker was in the Philippines, getting ready to fight again, when peace came. He was one of only seven of 187 men in his company to survive unscathed through nine months of fighting (50 were killed). His reaction, and the reaction of his buddies, was "relief, just plain relief," says Dencker, who went home to be an environmental engineer in civilian life. "It was the lifting of a death sentence."

WITH WALTER ALARKON

© 2005