in the first-season episode number nine, "a feud is a feud", andy mentions being in france during wwii. this statement is ambiguous, however. at the moment it is uttered, andy is trying to outwit two mountain men intent on murdering each other. it is possible andy is simply telling a "white lie" to befuddle the two feuders. however, if andy did indeed see france, he couldn't have seen action on a battlefield because he graduated mayberry union high in late spring 1945 and the war in europe was over in may 1945. he also mentions being in france "during the war" in the episode, "ellie comes to town". he also later mentions being in africa and that he was a first sergeant. (president harry truman declared an official end to world war ii on the last day of 1946-thus andy could have indeed been in world war ii but too late to see any action.) just to make matters more confusing, in season 6 episode, "the return of barney fife", it is claimed that barney is coming back to town for andy & barney's high school class reunion, class of 1948. so evidently the producers of the show did not create a timeline for this character and stick to it.