It’s December 8, 1941, my father got a letter in the mail. He was shocked! He called me down and it was then I realized I was drafted. I looked back on the past two days and how eventful they were. My father and I were hunting in the woods outside our house. ¨How was your 20th birthday?¨ father asked ¨Great!¨ I replied. Little did I know that the next day would my life would change forever, but we will get into that later. Father and I were very politically involved. We had heard what happened overseas with Germany invading Poland. The United States was booming as we were still trying to recover from WWI and The Depression. So as a nation, we decided not to get involved in WWII. We finished hunting because we didn't get anything but we had a good talk. The next day, I woke up to find my father in shock and awe! Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese fighter planes. Now, I knew to help the Allies in the war was inevitable.
The next day when Franklin Delano Roosevelt said we would become an active member in the war, I was happy that we were going to defend our country and would do anything to contribute to the war effort as long as I was not on the battlefields myself. See, I wasn't the biggest person. I was skinny but I knew how guns worked.I would go hunting often but I was n4ot fit for the war. I was drafted so, I had no other choice. My father was scared and so was I. My first mission was storming the beaches of Normandy. I remember the landing ships being shot at and hearing the bullets ring off the metal. The small bridge at the front of the boat lowered and it was appalling!!! My brothers in arms next to me were immediately hit by bullets!. I jumped out of the boat into the water and tried to find cover, joining some other soldiers. They were trying to blow a hole in the cover so we could push forward. We lost people a lot of good men and I was sick to my stomach to see the severity of their wounds. I keep pushing forward. We made it! It was a group of 3 men. Finally, we pushed forward by blowing up the cover stopping us from advancing. We got into a small gunfight with the Nazi soldiers. One of our men were injured but we were able to defend the beach and make an outpost. Later, I would find out that more 200,000 people died in what we now know as D-Day.
It was June 7, we had been walking for hours after taking the beaches. We were able to get reinforcements. Those four men I met on the beach were Johnny, a young man from North Dakota our Sargent Patterson a stuck up person but he was good at what he did, Russman, my soon to be a best friend after he got patched up, he was ready for action and the fourth being me. Our next mission was to take out anti-aircraft guns ¨How you doing Russman it looks like you healed well¨ said, Johnny. ¨You three stop messing around we got our orders to go with Squadron B and take down those AA guns so are flyboys can move forward¨ said, Sargent Patterson. we all hopped on a tank and begin the ride to the Nazi outpost that had the AA guns. ¨Our mission is to...¨ said, Sargent Patterson. One of our tanks was hit by a German fighter plane. ¨RUN! PUSH TO THE BARN!¨” said Patterson. We were ambushed by the Germans we held our position returning fire till our tanks could arrive and about 15 minutes later are tanks came and finished the job we pushed forward to the AA guns I placed the thermite in the AA gun and boom my ears ring for about 5 minutes after that we had to deal with German reinforcements but they were an easy clean up with our tanks. We rested but we should have known better ¨SNIPER!¨ Russman yelled. a young man was hit by a sniper and was lost we were pinned down and had nowhere to move. Our sniper couldn't find where the enemy was.
¨We need to push¨ forward said, Patterson. ¨Its suicide we can not move we will die¨ I responded. ¨Are you abandoning orders son¨ said Patterson ¨no sir¨ I responded as we pushed out of the aboded house we where in I spotted the sniper and I grabbed my rifle and took the shot, I hit him we made our way up towards him and took him back to camp for integration he didn't speak but when we searched him we found a note of a German convoy making its way to a stronghold and then are squared and three others equaling about 30 men where on hills under bridges and in bushes waited and we heard the signal we jumped out and began firing on the Germans and it was a success we had supplies that could last us a few days at this point I was in war for 4 years I really only got along with 1 person and that was Russman we talked about our lives before the wars he had dreams of being an actor I always told him not to keep his head in the clouds but he never listened. Patterson was becoming more reckless every since the sniper ambushed us he was the knight and we were the pons I tried confronting him this led to us getting into a fight and almost got me in big trouble but I avoid it.
We were in the last few months of the war and our next mission was to take the Rhine bridge that was protecting the last land the Germans controlled ¨Men this is what we have been waiting for and it's the last mission on are agenda let's take this bridge and the next fight well get in is with are wifes¨ said, Patterson, we pushed the bridge and we took out the mg and boom a fighter plane hit the bridge we kept our balance and pushed forward ¨I've been hit¨ Johnny was shot by a german and we could not save him in time we lost one member of are squadron but we had to push forward I threw a thermite and blew the AA guns and now with are tanks we pushed forward but I heard a shot and I turned around and saw a german soldier I took the shot hit him and killed him at first I thought I was hit by a bullet but I looked to the ground and say russman he was shot in the stomach and was losing blood fast so I ripped my uniform and tied it around his wound and carried him to the medic and for three days he fought for his life with me right beside him and he passed peacefully he took a bullet for me and I'm the one that lived I couldn't live with myself but we won the war but I lost two friends, two great friends,. ¨Thank you for doing this I'm sorry to ask but what happened to patterson¨ the interview asked. ¨He died of old age¨ I responded as I walked out of the room I felt a pain in my chest and fell to the ground and for a couple of seconds Russman, Johnny, and Patterson smiling and waving I herd Russman say one thing ¨Keep your head in the skies Daniel¨.