Some of my earliest memories of childhood are of the nightmares that came all too often , and lasted into my High School years. Having been born in the early 1960's my Mother , and step dad really never delved into the cause of the termoil. This left me to try to figure out things on my own.
I grew up on farms and ranches, and from the time I was 5 years old I had to dig a foxhole everywhere I lived, including one at my grandparents place, and had my own .22 rifle by age 6, and was quite comfortable with a rifle in my hands.
I was also reading above my age level, and had no use for childrens books.
The day I died, I have placed in the time frame of August 1944, I wasnt part of the D-Day landings and was not around to see the liberation of Paris. I was a U.S. Army 2nd Lt. and was
in southern France walking along a tree lined hard packed dirt road. I was with a roughly platoon size group(36-40 persons)
they were walking in two colums allong the road sides, so as to be able to take cover quickly, and each man was 30ft or so from the one in front of him. I was walking near the center of the roadway talking to 3 soldiers in a gun Jeep that was idling along with me. We saw several P47 thunderbolts fly over us at a couple of hundred feet high. We thought little of it until
we seen them start to circle back....then point thier noses at the lenth of our patrol, in a shallow dive. before I could even
yell "cover" there were bright flashes along the first ones wings as the 8 .50 caliber machineguns each had began to fire.
I remember the dirt being thrown up as the slugs hit the road
I saw a couple of the soldiers mangled before I was hit in the throat and fell beside the drivers side rear wheel of the jeep
I was holding my throat with my left hand as I layed there drifting away.
and to this day I still clutch my throat when I'm stressed or tired. I never felt like I was a Kid when I was a kid, and now at 46 I feel a little bit at a loss..more than a bit of "dang, I never lived this long before, what am I suppost to do now???
It effected my views of religion through out my life, as I went to a Babtist church as a kid of my own accord, but never felt it totally fit.
Im still trying to find the words to desribe it all.
I grew up on farms and ranches, and from the time I was 5 years old I had to dig a foxhole everywhere I lived, including one at my grandparents place, and had my own .22 rifle by age 6, and was quite comfortable with a rifle in my hands.
I was also reading above my age level, and had no use for childrens books.
The day I died, I have placed in the time frame of August 1944, I wasnt part of the D-Day landings and was not around to see the liberation of Paris. I was a U.S. Army 2nd Lt. and was
in southern France walking along a tree lined hard packed dirt road. I was with a roughly platoon size group(36-40 persons)
they were walking in two colums allong the road sides, so as to be able to take cover quickly, and each man was 30ft or so from the one in front of him. I was walking near the center of the roadway talking to 3 soldiers in a gun Jeep that was idling along with me. We saw several P47 thunderbolts fly over us at a couple of hundred feet high. We thought little of it until
we seen them start to circle back....then point thier noses at the lenth of our patrol, in a shallow dive. before I could even
yell "cover" there were bright flashes along the first ones wings as the 8 .50 caliber machineguns each had began to fire.
I remember the dirt being thrown up as the slugs hit the road
I saw a couple of the soldiers mangled before I was hit in the throat and fell beside the drivers side rear wheel of the jeep
I was holding my throat with my left hand as I layed there drifting away.
and to this day I still clutch my throat when I'm stressed or tired. I never felt like I was a Kid when I was a kid, and now at 46 I feel a little bit at a loss..more than a bit of "dang, I never lived this long before, what am I suppost to do now???
It effected my views of religion through out my life, as I went to a Babtist church as a kid of my own accord, but never felt it totally fit.
Im still trying to find the words to desribe it all.
