Fussell attended Pomona College from 1941 until he was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 1943. He landed in France in 1944 as a 20-year-old second lieutenant with the 103rd Infantry Division, was wounded while fighting in Alsace, and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Following the end of the war in Europe, Fussell returned to the United States where he was assigned to the 45th Infantry Division, which was preparing for the invasion of Japan. Fussell's recollection of hearing the news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while waiting stateside to deploy, would later form the basis of his essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb."