Book excerpt: Here is Company K's account of more than one hundred days of combat, from the Siegfried Line through the Battle of the Bulge to meeting up with the Russians on the Elbe River. Thirty-six men of the company were killed in action. And nearly two hundred replacements came into the company - most were evacuated with wounds or illness. This is a book about ordinary men as told by ordinary men, the Willies and Joes of real life : what it was like for men on the line - men coming to terms with themselves and their buddies in trying circumstances. It is also the story of life on the home front : the wives, girl friends, and families who waited for their men to return, and when they returned, resumed the fabric of their lives. The men of Company K is a vivid portrait of the men and women who are the heart of America. --from inside jacket.