My grandfather was a little too young for the meat of WW2, but he enlisted as a paratrooper as soon as he could as it provided a good paycheck vs getting drafted. He was sent to Japan to help hold down the fort after the surrender.

He did some, well, awful things. He worked in a big mess hall and he would steal food and sell it on the black market. He made enough money to buy a house. The previous owner included his daughter in the deal with the house.

Of course he needed transportation to move all his stolen goods so he also stole a truck from the base. But that's where it got interesting.

He had to hide the truck, right? So he found an orphanage run by nuns that took care of the GI babies. He hid the truck there, and in exchange, every time he dropped it off, it was full of food for the orphanage to use.

After some time he was told he would be sent back home. But what to do with all this money and this house, etc? The mess hall employed a local Japanese man to be a laborer, and the men apparently were fond of him. He gave the man a footlocker full of ill-gotten cash and presumably the house as well. Because wtf, it's not like he can sneak it all home, right?

He came home to the rural midwest, impregnated my grandmother outside of wedlock (and so my dad was born), and enjoyed 50+ years of marriage with her before passing away at age 75.

We have letters that the nuns sent home to his mother, telling them about what a blessing he was for their mission, etc etc.

At his funeral the local VFW (of which he was the commander for many years) gave a lovely speech about how faithfully he served his country. I couldn't help but smirk through it.