The beginning of World War II. It is September 7, 1939. Today is day one and we step into the battlefield in an hour. I am scared but ready to protect my country. I have my German Shepherd with me. His name is Captain and we have been training for two years together through the scariest of times. Today is the day when I might die, but I couldn’t think of a better way to go out then with my dog, saving my country. I am ready to fight with my brothers and sisters until I die in this horrible event in time.
As we start to head out I feel ready but scared, my family at home hoping I come home. I have two sons and two daughters, and I don’t want my husband to have to raise them alone. I will come home for them. I will not die in this battle. My sons’ names are Luke, 12 and Liam, 7. My daughters are Lily, who is 10 and Luna, who is 4. I won’t let them down, I will come home for them.
I walk into the battlefield with my dog Captain by my side and wait for something to happen. We are waiting in the trenches sitting here. I thought we would be getting shot at as soon as we got up here, but there’s nothing. I then see a grenade. I pick it up before it explodes and throw it as far as I can and scream “Get down!” I heard it explode. I don’t know if any one got hurt, but if they did it couldn’t be as bad as it would have been. We start firing through the wall of fog. We know they are there, but we don’t know where. Then bullets start coming at us. We lift our guns up so it’s just the gun and our hands exposed. Then suddenly the loud sound of the guns and bullets flying by us stopped.
We looked over and saw at least 500 men walking through the wall of fog. We keep firing but they don’t stop. They also have guns and are shooting at us. I get hit in the shoulder, then I see my friend get hit in the leg. I see them coming and they’re going to kill us all. I tell Captain to get down and play dead. I pulled the guy next to me onto both me and my friend. He got shot in the head. Everyone around us are all dead or injured. We stay as still as possible, hoping they don’t see that we are alive. They walk down the trench and right by us. We talked about it and we decided we will wait until dark.
Now that it is dark we can start moving. We sit up and I ask Finn, my friend that got shot in the leg, if he could walk. He said “I will try” so we got up. I put my arm that didn’t get shot under him and started on our way back to the base. As we slowly make our way back we see someone. He is moving around so fast, dragging injured people. We follow him but we can’t keep up. Then he stops and starts tying a rope around this guy. We see him drop him off the cliff, we jump. What is he doing? He turns around and sees us and starts running towards us. We know we can’t out run him but then I see he is wearing an American uniform.
He gets to us and helps me get Finn to the cliff. He tells me he is a medic and there is an American base at the bottom of the cliff. I help him lower Finn down, then Captain and I ask him if he is coming before he lowers me down. He says, “No, I am going to help others get help.” I never found out who he was. He lowered me down the cliff. Once I got down I was rushed to the medical tent. They said they were going to send me and Captain home after my arm healed.
When I got home my town welcomed me back as a hero, but the real hero is the guy that saved me and so many others. Now that I am home and alive I always wonder who the guy is that saved Finn and I. I have nightmares about me getting to the bottom of the cliff and looking up and seeing him getting shot. I think Captain also has nightmares; I sometimes wake up to him whimpering in the middle of the night. I really hope the guy that saved us made it out alive.
Right now in 1949, the war is over and my kids are growing up. Captain is dead now, but he was 12 when he died. he will live forever in my family’s hearts. Luke, my oldest son, is 22 and is in college. Liam is 17 and is in his last year of school before college; he wants to become a medic in the army. Lily is 20 and decided to go into the military, and Luna is 14, still young and is now in school. She says when she gets older she is going to be a vet. My husband and I did a good job raising them.
