EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series published each Monday between Memorial Day and Veterans Day honoring local veterans. To nominate a veteran, email metro editor Marly Kosinski at mkosinski@ tribtoday.com.

HUBBARD — Art Kourian of Hubbard was 17 when he graduated high school in Queens, New York, in June 1945, and wanted to join the military — even though he wasn’t old enough.

So, he “doctored” his birth certificate.

Germany’s Adolph Hitler had already died in April, and Germany formally surrendered May 8, but the end of the war against Japan didn’t take place unitl Sept. 2.

“My neighbor was the director of the draft board, so when I submitted my birth certificate to the draft board, he didn’t question it. So, I was drafted in August of 1945, at Fort Dix, New Jersey,” Kourian said.

He was there about a week before being sent by train to Spartanburg, S.C., and to the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Camp Croft outside of Spartanburg.

“I was in the last infantry training class because the war against Germany had ended, and they had dropped the atomic bombs” on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, Kourian said.

“In August of 1945, I was taking my basic training. Once the atomic bombs were dropped, we were being prepped for the invasion of Japan as infantry soldiers. So when the bombs dropped, they closed down the infantry training centers.”

He was back home for Christmas in 1945 on a pass and then went to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey and was taken by train to Staten Island, where he boarded the troop ship Webster Victory, which took him to Le Havre, France, just after Christmas.

“We were now officially members of the Army of Occupation at that point,” he said of his role in Europe. That service led him to get the Army of Occupation medal, as well as the World War II Victory medal.

He remained primarily in France, although the Army of Occupation also consisted of other war zones.

“We were in occupation from January 1946 to December 1946,” he said. “I was a guard patrolman in the Army of Occupation. And we were stationed at a huge depot outside of Rouen, France,” he said.

Wartime materiel such as tanks, Jeeps, trucks and material for building barracks were brought to the depot from all over Europe, like Germany, Belgium and France. “And they were beginning to bring all of this materiel back to an engineering base depot, and our job was to guard it,” he said.

About 1,100 German prisoners of war were held there, and Kourian and other guards kept watch over them.

“They were our cooks, doing our laundry, dry cleaning our uniforms, pressing them and doing a lot of menial-type labor around the depot, driving our Army trucks. They were very helpful to us at that time. This was 1946, after the war was over, and they were waiting to be freed.”

Kourian, who was a corporal; his buddy, who was a private first class; and a first lieutenant put the German POWs in freight cars and took them by train from Rouen, France, to Berlin. Six Polish guards also assisted on the seven-day trip in December 1946.

He said it was a “revelation” traveling into a train station in Frankfurt, Germany. “Everything was bombed out,” he said and the train rails, except the ones his train were using, were were twisted. “Complete destruction.”

The German prisoners were all from the Berlin area and were placed in stockades in Berlin until a decision could be made on what to do with them.

“They were young fellas — teenagers to us senior citizens — German soldiers, and at the end of the war, the Germans had conscripted just about everybody who could carry a rifle to ward off the Americans who were coming from the west and the Russians coming from the east.”

He said there was no trouble between the guards and the Germans, many of whom spoke English. “They just wanted to get home,” Kourian said. “We actually befriended a number of them because they were young guys like ourselves. I was 18. A lot of the German POWs were in their early 20s. Some were guys in their 50s and 60s.”

“We met a lot of Russian soldiers at that time on the way to Berlin, friendly. That was before the Cold War, so there were no problems between the Russians and the Americans at that time.”

He and his fellow guards were stationed near Brussels, Belgium, and Kourian later was stationed in Berlin. He was sent home on a troop ship from Bremerhaven, Germany, and returned to New York City the first week of January. He was discharged honorably from Camp Kilmer in February 1947.

“Basically my entire military career was served as a teenager. I was 17 when I went in; I was 19 when I was discharged,” he said.

“It was hard to believe I went from high school to Hitler’s backyard,” he said.

During his time in Europe, he and several other soldiers visited four capital cities — London, Brussels, Berlin and Paris.

“It was during peace time. We had a lot of free time,” he said, adding that he had a “beautiful picture taken of the five of us standing under the Arc De Triomphe in Paris” while they were on a pass.

Kourian retired to Hubbard nearly 30 years ago after having lived many years in Conoga Park, Calif., and worked as a technical writer in the aerospace industry.

Art Kourian

AGE: 92

RESIDENCE: Hubbard

SERVICE BRANCH: Army

MILITARY HONORS: Army of Occupation medal, World War II Victory medal

OCCUPATION: Retired technical writer in the aerospace industry

FAMILY: Wife, Phyllis Kourian; daughter, Sarah Kourian; and stepdaughters, Amanda Marcello and Courtney Helmlinger.