I first watched it during one of its many 24+ hr marathons where they played every episode back to back and started over when completed a few times over a period of days.

Also, I never had a clue what a relatively small man he was physically. He seemed so much larger as he'd come out with his commentary before and after each episode.

His war experiences are so much like my Dad's aside of him being in Japan while my Dad was in Europe. Both got Bronze Stars for bravery ( my Dad got 2). Both were saved in the last seconds by a fellow soldier shooting the enemy about to kill them. Both were assigned to essential, but high kill missions. Both watched the horrific deaths of men very close to them. Both were forever changed by it.

My Dad was older (24), married with 2 of my eldest siblings. As the "old man" and a Sergeant, he led a platoon (?) of younger, mostly "green" soldiers, many of whom died because they made newbie mistakes under fire. The most traumatic of so many deaths he witnessed was a 16+ year old soldier, Eddie, whom my Dad was particularly fond of and looked upon as his own "little brother", being the same age as Dad's younger brother, Teddy.

Their mission was to be ahead of the rest of their group (I have no clue about army group names) to take out German snipers found in just about every town on their way through liberating France as the Germans retreated, always leaving behind snipers and traps to kill as many Americans as the could, and to slow them down from reaching Germany.

Like Serling's assignments, it was definitely one of the most dangerous assignments, with high death counts, especially with so many inexperienced soldiers under his command, but absolutely essential for the liberation of France as they all headed staight into to Germany. The closer they got, the more snipers to take out.

As they tried to get a fix on where the sniper was hiding, poor Eddie stuck his head up to have a look and the sniper blew his head off of his shoulders and he fell onto my Dad who had tried to teach him to NEVER lift his head up from behind their cover.

There's a much longer part of this particular story that could have been a great Twilight Zone episode, but I've already wandered off topic with this part.

So, getting back on topic, like millions, I always marveled at the cleverness of the scripts and the clear messages they sent while still being interesting and entertaining. Nothing was ever normal there, always unexpected events that made people think about what's real and what could be out there.

Every episode was insightful as it peered into the human psyche and the insanity of life and the unseen/unknown that could be lurking rightvoutside our doors.