Veteran's Day Musings

Today I was remembering being in Leyte, Philippines to practice landings. We had to go over the side of the ship into a landing craft which was a really scary procedure. It was one of the very few times in the service that I was truly frightened. (When you're 20 you mostly think that you are fucking invulnerable and will live forever.). We climbed up and down on Jacob's Ladders which were rope. As you climbed, they slammed ever so little against the slightly rolling ship. Every so often some poor son of a bitch would slip, fall and drown with his back pack, rifle and shoes that weighed a ton. Yeah, it was plenty scary, but God takes care of drunks and fools so I was okay.

The other time that I was scared out of my mind was when I was flat on my back in a hospital tent after being hit waiting to be transported to a hospital ship. The Japanese planes flying back overhead were plenty fucking unnerving. Enough to make a grown man piss in his pants from fear. But my pants had been cut from me so I was okay. Nothing to do for those few seconds (which seemed like a life time) but be bone chilling scared...

There were more scary experiences. I was in a hospital/recovery facility on Saipan and had been assigned to a desk job in a tent/office. The Japanese hadn't been totally cleaned out and there were some still holed up in the hills. Every so often they would come out of their caves and attack some American troops. Those bullets from the hills would come into the camp. Everyone scattered and I was under the desk. I had learned by then that bullets could raise hell with me. And every so often, waiting on the Coca Cola line, those bullets would start raining down on us and we would "fly" into the ditches. We all knew by then, after being hit once, that we could get hit again. Getting back to our units was the prime drive. Very few thought of going home and getting out.