Steve Sivak was born in February 1922 in Morgantown, West Virginia. He had one older sister. His parents raised him in western Pennsylvania. His father worked as a coal miner during Sivak's adolescence. One of his friends from early in his life went on to become a scout for the military. Sivak and this friend often discussed what they wanted to do when they got discharged. His friend was an avid hunter and died because of a tragic hunting accident. The military sent Sivak to many different schools and programs. He worked as a quartermaster [Annotator's Note: supply support for soldiers in the field], allowing him to fulfill some of his service in Virginia. Sivak's was a Private. The people that he enlisted with went together to various other camps for training. Sivak was sent by himself to Camp Lee, Virginia [Annotator's Note: now Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia]. At Camp Lee there were different schools for training, and this is where Sivak was trained in the Quartermaster Corps. The Army gave him the rating of Quartermaster Clerk. Camp Lee was not far from his hometown, but it was a completely new experience for Sivak. Shortly after getting his rating, Sivak stayed at Camp Lee for basic training, and then completed advanced basic training focusing on supply. The Army promoted him to the rank of sergeant upon completing supply training. Sivak first learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] when he was leaving a movie theater. As he walked down the street, he heard people yelling about the attack. Sivak had just moved to Cleveland, Ohio for full time employment but enlisted in the Army because he knew that sooner or later, he would be drafted. Sivak could not join the Marines due to his poor health in his childhood. He joined the Army because he believed that he could excel there. After Sivak's four weeks of boot camp and six weeks of supply training, the Army intended to place him based on his prewar career. He did not really have one to speak of as he had just graduated high school.

In February 1942, Steve Sivak was in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] about to ship out to Europe. The Army allowed soldiers one phone call before they left. Sivak used his call to tell his older sister that he was going to go overseas. The Army loaded him on to the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth] and he arrived in Scotland after five days at sea. There was no escort for the troop ship during the journey. The Queen Elizabeth sailed east towards the Azores [Annotator's Note: autonomous region of Portugal], and then corrected north towards England. Upon arriving in Scotland the soldiers were put on trains to Birmingham, England. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] had just finished a campaign in Africa and then was reassigned to Scotland, doing work that he did not enjoy. Patton was assigned command of the newly formed 3rd Army, which Sivak was assigned to [Annotator's Note: a supply clerk for the 72nd Publicity Service Battalion, 3rd Army, 12th Army Group]. The D-Day Invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] allowed for a foothold to be established in mainland Europe. The 3rd Army fought through France, often engaging in battles that revolved around the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. They advanced all the way to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], but Sivak did not go into the city. French General Leclerc [Annotator's Note: Free-French General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque] advanced towards Paris through Marseille [Annotator's Note: Marseille, France] and met the 3rd Army outside of Paris. Once organized, the Army assigned Sivak to be a supply clerk. This assignment was due to his quartermaster training and how he performed on an aptitude test.

Steve Sivak landed with the 3rd Army [Annotator's Note: s a supply clerk in the 72nd Publicity Service Battalion, 3rd Army,12th Army Group] three days after the D-Day Invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France]. Sivak and the soldiers he was with did not know the specifics of what was happening, only that there was to be an invasion and they were to play a role in it. Sivak was seasick on the transport while other people played cards. After the D-Day Invasion the French moved inland away from the coast to find shelter. The 3rd Army accompanied them, and on the way Sivak saw equipment left by the Germans. He saw the body of a German soldier who was scorched by a flamethrower. Everyone had their own jobs to do and were moving around constantly. This was the first time he pitched his own pup tent [Annotator's Note: a small tent for two persons]. The first morning that they camped in France, a German scout plane that they nicknamed "G.I. Charlie" flew overhead. He saw this plane every once in a while, moving through France. They did not know where they were headed, but they figured that it was towards Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. The first city they saw was Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô (Saint-Lo), France]. The hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] were littered with gliders left from paratroopers. The gliders held several people, and they would find an open space in between the hedgerows to land in. Sivak came in by glider. It was extremely disorienting experience because of the rough landing and his unfamiliarity with the area. Sivak carried a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] as his primary weapon in France. He took two years of French in high school, so he had an advantage when dealing with the French civilians. Two days after the landing, they had a setback when some of their munitions were damaged. When the 3rd Army made it to Paris, they did not go in. They waited for General Leclerc [Annotator's Note: Free-French General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque] to enter the city. With their first mission complete, they waited outside the city to be reassigned. They made their way to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg where they found a place to be billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily]. Sivak was there when he first heard about the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945].

Steve Sivak [Annotator's Note: a supply clerk in the 72nd Publicity Service Battalion, 3rd Army] made his way from Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France], to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], and then to Luxembourg when the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] began. The Germans pushed through the American lines, forcing all soldiers present to take up arms to fight back the Germans. After beating back the Germans, the 3rd Army pushed into German territory to a town named Plzen [Annotator's Note: Plzeň (Pilsen), Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia)]. The Germans retook the city from the Americans, pushing them back out. A group of Americans the 3rd Army was supposed to meet with were in Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], then went south towards Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany]. Nuremberg was a significant town for importing and manufacturing. Originally it was crucial to the Nazi war effort. Now the munitions factories were all bombed out, and much of the city lay in ruin. As the 3rd Army continued south, George Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] moved his forces to Tegernsee [Annotator's Note: Tegernsee, Germany]. Patton went north, and Tegernsee became the home of the soldiers for the next six months. At Tegernsee, Sivak learned that the war ended and that he would be going home. Many thought that they were going to be moved to the Pacific to participate in an invasion of Japan. Because the invasion of Japan was unnecessary, they instead returned home. One of Sivak's best friends also returned home but died in an accident. Sivak did well for himself in the military, making Staff Sergeant. He had absolutely no desire to continue in the military. Before leaving to serve in World War 2, Sivak worked in a plant that made parts for the war effort. Due to the war ending, the plant closed down. The Army told recently discharged soldiers to seek employment closest to what they were doing before the war. Sivak's previous job no longer existed, so the Army told him that he could be a shipping clerk or go back as active duty in the military. Both of these options were unappealing to him.

Steve Sivak's most memorable experience during the war was during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He suffered a self-inflicted bullet wound to the foot, which had to be removed as it lodged into the bone. After the war, Sivak could never go back to Pennsylvania to live. He explored other avenues of what to do with his life. Moving west to California was always in the back of his mind. After the war, he turned down a job offered to him and went to Houston, Texas to work as a department store clerk. The department store was not finished, and he was running out of money, so he decided to leave and head west. He traveled to Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] and from there he decided that he would go to California. Sivak has no real strong feelings about his service in World War 2, he felt called to duty and did his part. He feels that everyone played a role, did their job, and had different experiences to show for it. Sivak believes that educating the youth through institutions such as the National World War II Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. He feels that if similar circumstances arose again, young people would react the same way that his generation did.