The year was 1945 and I was living with my parents and my cousin Sam. We were 19 at the time and all our time was spent hanging out with each other and our best friend Vince. Every day we would meet up after work and go shoot my Dad's rifle. One of us would throw various items into the air and we would shoot it while it hung in the sky. These skills would one day serve us and our country.
The young men and women in our town were joining the war effort and we decided that it was our turn to join the military. When we told our parents they didn't take it well but that wasn't going to stop us. Vince's parents were fine with it but our parents disapproved so we had to sneak out very early before daybreak. The next morning we got up and noticed Vince was outside our window and already had a rope for us to climb down on. We left a note and took the bus down to the recruitment office. They immediately transported us to the nearest military base. Our tent was the third on the left. As we unpacked our bags, a military officer came in and told us to stand at attention and wait for the General's arrival. There we stood for what felt like days, waiting for the general until finally he showed thirty minutes later. He welcomed us to the base and informed us of our first drill, target practice.
As we headed to target practice we walked in perfect harmony not to step out of line. Everyone grabbed a rifle and as they were learning how to load it Sam, Vince and I had already loaded and cocked our guns. When it came to shooting, Vince was the best shot although Sam and I weren't that far behind him. We emptied our clips and the general had saw our shots. He called us over and proceeded to say " I see you boy's have good aim and know how to handle your rifles so I think you guys could skip the target practice as we have nothing to teach you". So we got to skip most of the training and all that was left was the deployment orders.
As we walked towards the camp directory building we shivered with excitement, hoping we would get a cool battle ground to fight on. We met outside the building afterwards to find out that we were all going to be in the 107th infantry leaving for Germany. After loading the plane everyone took a seat and strapped in for a thirteen-hour flight I was lucky enough to be as far away from the window as possible as I am deathly afraid of heights. The flight felt like it took days, with every bit of turbulence I thought we were going to plummet thousands of feet to our doom. But eventually we landed and we were already briefed on the plane so we had ten minutes to get into position. Vince was equipped with a sniper rifle so he climbed up in a tree to provide cover. Sam and I ran up the side trying to stay hidden and get behind the Nazi troop's. There was a pair of opposing soldiers that were doing the same thing, Vince shot one of them then I took out the other one. With our hearts beating faster than they ever have, we trekked on making our way up the battle field taking out the occasional soldier, while alternating who did it so we all got some action. The day went by fast enough while losing only a few men, but that was enough to make us realize how close we actually were to death.
Everyone was tasked to dig a hole big enough for a pair of soldiers. Once all the holes were dug everyone picked partners to share with. Vince and I shared and Sam found another partner. We all had dinner then took turns watching for movement of the opposing force. Vince had to wake up half an hour earlier and sneak into a tree up ahead to scout. We woke and were ready to fight, but Sam was nowhere to be found, then I heard the Captain yelling at someone. "I DON'T CARE SOLDIER, GET UP AND GET OUT THERE, YOUR MOM CAN'T SAVE YOU THIS TIME". The Captain was yelling at Sam, 'I don't want to do this" said Sam. I knew the only way out was to win so I convinced Sam to keep fighting and we started moving up. Suddenly bullets started flying, the Germans were already waiting for us to pop out of our holes.
Where we were fighting there wasn't a lot of Nazi troops so we had already thinned out the pack down to roughly one hundred men. Sam and I were right at the front behind cover when someone snuck up behind Sam and shoved a grenade down his vest. Vince shot the enemy but it was no use because Sam couldn't get his vest open. I ran towards him but was too late. I fell to my knee's as everything around me froze and went silent. I kneeled there covered in his blood, I tried to make out his body through the blurry vision of the blood flowing down my eyes like a river of despair. Eventually through the silence I heard Vince coming, Vince started shaking me saying that it was clear, we had won........
Six months later at Sam's funeral,
The saddest day in my life was watching Sam die on the battlefield along with every memory or idea he ever had. As I stand here talking to you, all his friends and family here today to remember who was one of the most important person in my life. Let us all take a moment to pray for Sam and every other fallen soldier. That this is the last war anyone will ever be a part of. So that we can protect what is important to us and stop parents from burying their kids.
