d's Payroll: From the Depression Era Prairies of South Dakota to the WWII Islands of the South Pacific and Back is the compilation of over two hundred handwritten personal stories of the unique and full life of Arno W. Schroeder. Arno's life, told through his own words, reflects his deep personal faith in God, formative years far different than those experienced by today's youth, and a life filled with unique experiences, including those of a twenty-year-old Marine fighting and surviving the frontline battles of Okinawa during WWII. Taken individually as they were written, the topics of the stories are broad and wide-ranging--from historical, informative, and humorous to serious, silly, and reflective. But assembled as a collection, the individual stories become a book of the history of the Great Depression; the crazy antics of a restless, overactive young farm lad (who said of himself, "...when I think of all the silly, dumb, stupid, crazy, unexpected and unusual things I always seemed to be doing, maybe I was all the entertainment my family could handle"); the lifelong impact war has on those that have fought to defend America's freedoms; and the vastly different life experiences between individuals of the Greatest Generation and subsequent generations, just to name a few.