While fighting on Guadalcanal, 'we didn't even know it was Christmas' WWII vet recalls
Retired Marine Master Sgt. Carl "Bud" DeVere spent his first holiday season away from home as a 19-year-old who had just graduated high school, but he wasn't in a dorm room at college or with a friend's family, he was in the jungle of Guadalcanal. Amid one of the fiercest battles of World War II, DeVere said many of his fellow Marines had totally forgotten about the holidays while fighting in the humid South Pacific climate.