In August of 1944 he was shipped overseas to England, where he grew closer to Vernon. He saw Vernon a couple of times in Europe, but Vernon was wounded and sent home. They connected again back in the US. Vernon was Van Loon’s best man at his wedding, and they remained friends until Vernon’s death in the seventies. Ironically, Van Loon’s two closest friends in the war died of heart attacks at a very young age. “I’m the survivor,” he wrote (Van Loon 3). Van Loon crossed the English Channel into France in December of 1944. His first combat was in January of 1945 in Bastogne, Belgium. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge on December 27, 1944, where his normal company of 250 men was reduced to fifty by January 16, 1945. He came out with no injuries, not a scratch. His captain stated, “There are twenty-five vehicles for fifty men – two men to each vehicle. So, let’s get the hell out of here.” (Brady 2). He also fought in the Ardennes Forest area of France and Belgium and the Battle of the Rhineland in Germany. In Luxembourg waiting for replacements, his Division was divided into three battle groups: two in the front, one in the back. Being in the front was scary, but he just used the best of his training to survive and tried not to do anything stupid. Although he was “the kid of the outfit,” he commanded a squad through Europe, where he saw many replacements do stupid things (Van Loon 3). He would tell them “If I can keep you alive a week by listening to me, you’ve got a good chance of seeing the end of this war,” (Van Loon 3).