Seventy one years earlier, on his 18th birthday, Mossner enlisted in the armed forces as the war in Europe raged on. A farm boy raised in the Saginaw area, Mossner explained his choice between the U.S. Army or Navy was an easy one.

Mossner didn't know how to swim. ._.

After joining the Army, Mossner was shipped off to California for basic training with the 41st Tank Battalion.

Along with the battalion's 11th Division, Mossner traveled across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the HMS Samaria. Arriving in South Hampton, England, he was finally assigned a role and with it, his very own M18 Hellcat, a light weight, fast and powerful tank.

There was only one problem; Mossner had never seen the massive tank, much less driven the behemoth. Luckily, he learned to drive tractors on his family's farm at 5-years-old, and his commanding officer informed him it would be easy to learn.A few laps around the English countryside was all Mossner needed to get a feel for the metal monstrosity.
Inside, Mossner was joined by four other operators, managing the tank's weapons and navigation systems. For his role, Mossner's head remained perpetually peeking outside the tank, his eyes straining to see any potential threats.

Significantly lighter and faster than the favored M4 Sherman tank , Mossner's M-18 was used in an entirely different capacity. Instead of trying to slug it out with German Panzers or Tigers, which were much more heavily armored and equipped, Hellcat crews thrived on cunning.

"We were sneaky," Mossner recalled.

"We'd always try to get behind German tanks because they could only pivot their gun from side to side."

Under the motto of seek, strike, destroy, Mossner and his crew ambushed numerous German tank crews, striking their unarmored components as well as the tank tracks.

With the allied counter-offensive in Europe in full swing, Mossner's unit was folded into Gen. Patton's 3rd A

With the allied counter-offensive in Europe in full swing, Mossner's unit was folded into Gen. Patton's 3rd Army. Clashing with the German 6 th Panzer Army, allied forces pushed through France and into Belgium. Along the way, Mossner remembers the dangers weren't limited to just enemy tanks.