Contains a letter from Kimball with a brief collection of highlights from his more extensive memoir, which is also included. Memoir details his training in the National Guard, ROTC program, and his call to active duty. Emphasis is given to the training conditions and exercises performed in the desert, and his service as the battalion organist. Discusses the support he received from his family throughout the war. Provides an account of his combat experience, beginning at the Battle of Attu Island and proceeding to Kwajalein, Leyte Island, and Okinawa. Describes, in detail, the front line fighting which Kimball's battery was involved in at Leyte. Of note were the tactics devised to counter the continuous Japanese units attempting to infiltrate the American batteries at night. Includes specific descriptions of the logistics surrounding the erection of artillery fortifications and the usage of the DUKW ("Duck") amphibious vehicles during transport. Discusses the souvenirs Kimball took from different battlefields. Provides an account of Kimball's wounds, sustained at Okinawa, which earned him the Purple Heart. Collection contains Kimball's army induction and honorable discharge papers, a chronology delineating his combat theaters, decorations, promotions, and performance evaluations. Also contains the telegram notifying his wife of the serious injuries he sustained at Okinawa, miscellaneous letters from Kimball to his wife, and a talk presented at a 1992 reunion of the 57th Field Artillery Battalion. Included are two photographed newspaper articles: one citing Japan's surrender and the war's end, and the other discussing the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute. Numerous photographs show Kimball during his training years, after receiving his captain's bars, with fellow soldiers on land and aboard transport ships, with the entire cadre of the battalion's officers, and with his howitzers. Photographs also show different members of his battery unit, his wife, his hometown, and commanding officers.
