"Disregarding the piercing pain of the shrapnel embedded in his arm, the rain of gunfire and mortars, and the deafening sounds and pungent smells of battle, Richard Berkey tended to what fellow soldiers he could, while dragging other wounded men off the battlefield. He later logged in his journal about that morning in Germany in 1945, "Why I wasn't killed during that hour or so I do not know." Nor does the spellbound reader. Waiting for Peace is a walk in the footsteps of Richard Berkey, beginning as a pre-med student at Indiana University and ending as a war-hardened soldier who finds his way home and into the arms of his small town Indiana family. Berkey, an infantry medic, faithfully documents the experiences in between, carrying the reader along his World War II journey through Germany and France. Author Karen Berkey Huntsberger has skillfully compiled a complete record of Berkey's wartime experience. Berkey's journal and letters to and from home tell the story, making the work both engaging and accessible. Yet, Waiting for Peace demonstrates true scholarship, exhibited in a bibliography which boasts extensive historical research. Berkey's accounts are validated by military maps, unit rosters, morning reports, and other official documents. Huntsberger weaves both versions into the chronology, paralleling Berkey's journals and letters with the army's historical records. Richard Berkey's experience as a battlefield medic makes Waiting for Peace a unique World War II story. Expertly supplemented by descriptive footnotes and fabulous photos, this soldier's story gives the reader a glimpse of army life from an infantry medic's perspective. Having experienced fear, wonder, loneliness, and grit alongside him every step of the way, the only issue with Waiting for Peace is that Berkey's story must end. Yet, his voice, his emotions, and his battle weary boots stay with the reader far beyond his last words." - Elizabeth Terry, author of Oysters to Angus: Three Generations of the St. Louis Faust Family and Ethnic St. Louis.