Steven Weiss, was an idealistic boy from Brooklyn who enlisted at the age of 17. In the summer of 1944, Steve Weiss, aged just 18, was fighting his way into the South of France against intense German resistance. A part of the US 36th Infantry Division, these boys had been called up from Texas, trained in the outposts of Louisiana, before being dropped in North Africa to make their way by sea to the Bay of Salerno, Italy. Steven Weiss had fought on the beachhead at Anzio and through the perilous Ardennes forest, he was one of the very few regular American soldiers to fight with the Resistance in 1944. And... he had deserted.

This official US Army photograph taken in Pozzuoli near Naples in August 1944, captured Private First Class Steve Weiss boarding a British landing craft. He is climbing the gangplank on the right-hand side of the photograph. (Book: The Deserters, A Hidden History of World War II by Charles Glass)
Private First Class Steve Weiss pictured in Paris on Armistice Day, November, 11, 1945. His complex story of courage and desertion inspired author Charles Glass for his book.