My Honor Flight Read Free Page A

under that brush, I
saw them setting up them two big guns.  I knew you guys were screwed.  I didn’t
know if I should try to weasel out of there, or if I should hunker down and
help from the inside.” 
     “But them
fucking Jerries wouldn't stop moving around!  They were walking by on patrol
ALL THE TIME!  It was really pissing me off, because I was getting hungrier,
and I was about dying of thirst.  I ended up laying around like a rabbit, not
moving.  I figured I’d just have to wait until dark to get out of there.”
     “Just then!”
He put his hands up in fists, and started shaking them. “Them big guns lit up,
and they was like thunder!  They was only about thirty feet apart, and there I
was right between them and a little behind them.  So all the krauts are
watching you boys in the foxholes.  I counted them.  Eleven!  And none of them
guarding the forest.  Well, you boys know what a great baseball player I am,
right?  I had two grenades.  That was it, just two.  So I knew if I was gonna
use them, they had to be perfect.  I pulled the pins on both at the same time,
chucked one left and one right.  With all the noise, they didn’t even hear them
roll in right next to them. I hit the dirt.”  He paused for a minute.
     “Then it got
crazy!  Those grenades went off.  Boom!  One went off.  And before all the
shrapnel sprayed, boom goes the other one!  I didn’t even look—just crawled
back into heavier brush.  It went quiet, and I could hear them Jerries
talking.  I thought it was strange that their voices were all coming from the
same area.  I peeked, and there were five of them all huddled up together real
close.  Real close.  I didn’t even think.  I just pulled my rifle and fired. 
Hell, I bet I only moved the barrel a few inches because they were so close
together, and I emptied my clip.  Then I hit the dirt again.  I don’t
understand why they were standing so close together.  Maybe they thought the
grenades came from you guys?  They sure acted like rookies.  Anyway.  I was
scrambling around in that brush, in case anyone saw me.  It was real quiet
again.  I knew there was at least two more guys, because I saw them take off
running when I gunned down the other five.  They probably thought I had a whole
company with me!  So then it was cat and mouse for about fifteen minutes.  I
ended up catching them behind a tree.  They didn’t even see me coming, so I
knocked those two Jerries off and grabbed their rifles.  I ran back to the machine
guns and counted the bodies, just to make sure I didn’t miss anyone.  Sure
enough, it was eleven.” 
    The whole
company burst out talking at the same time.  Everyone was complimenting Oily,
or talking with each other about what he’d done.  Cap walked up and slapped him
hard on the shoulder, nodding at him.  Then he shook his hand.  We all started
taking turns walking up to Oily and shaking his hand, congratulating him and
thanking him.  For the first time ever, he actually got modest, and was even
speechless for a while.  That was it for the celebration, though.  We knew
krauts were in the area, and we’d lost three men.  But at least later on,
Chartelli got a Silver Star for that fight at the bridge.
    Most of the
guys were in pretty good spirits, but me and Morelli were pretty sad.  I
couldn’t speak for Morelli, but I had that image in my head of Paul Taylor
laying dead in the foxhole, and I couldn’t shake it.  Death was getting closer
every damn day, and now it was touching people that were close to me.  It felt
like we were on a suicide march.

Chapter 2 - The Card Game
    When I came
home from the war, everyone always asked for war stories.  I used that battle
at the bridge as my main story.  Kind of a canned story that I whipped out at cocktail
parties or barbecues to entertain people.  I didn’t tell all that personal
stuff about Paul.  They just wanted to hear something exciting or heroic, and
it was