To Jerry Enders it was one of the best days of the only good war we had, but V-E Day didn’t necessarily mean Home Alive in ‘45.

Enders expected re-assignment to the Pacific.

Still, the fall of Germany 50 years ago prompted a toast.

“After all the crap we took - we’d been to Africa, Italy, Sicily, France and Germany - it was a very happy day,” said Enders, a retired colonel from Spokane who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

A lieutenant at headquarters of the 1st Armored Signal Battalion, Enders was in Germany - just where he’s not sure - when he “found out by word of mouth” that the war in Europe had ended.

“There was no big celebration,” he said. “We still had (communications) teams out in the boondocks. We did manage to find some cognac. It was a belly up to the bar sort of thing but nothing wild.

“One lieutenant took off out of the barracks shooting his .45 in the air but the MPs picked him up.”

If V-E Day was a moment of a lifetime, it was tempered by the unforgettable.

“I had nothing to do with the liberation of Dachau but I was there the night after (the camp was liberated). They still had prisoners hanging on fences. The ovens were smoking. Bodies were stacked up. Even talking about it today I can smell it.”

He was still in Germany when he learned of Victory over Japan.

“Thank God for Harry S. Truman,” said Enders, 76. “The buck stops here. I’m still convinced the two atomic bombs he dropped saved millions of lives.”

Enders served in Japan after his tour of duty in Korea.

“My wife and I were in Sendai, about 80 miles north of Tokyo,” he said. “We met this English-speaking guy who told us about tunnels in that area. He said, ‘Americans would have much trouble getting in.’

“I believed him. They would have knocked the hell out of us for a while.”

Looking back a half-century, Enders said, “I don’t know how the hell we took it. It’s amazing what an American can do in a war or a crisis.

“WWII was the only good war we had. I think about coming home, into New York harbor on a troop ship. People were lined up. Girls were singing ‘Sentimental Journey.’ I want to cry right now thinking about it.

“When we got back from Korea into Seattle we saw big signs saying ‘Well Done, Well Done.’

“When we got home from Vietnam we were half in the bag from all the free drinks on the commercial flight. We walked into the terminal and saw signs that said ‘Murderers. Baby Killers.”’