Descriptive Essay: Faking His Age To Go To War

The skins on my toes are turning black. The doctor says if I stay in this trench for more than 2 days I will have to cut off my feet. It scares me that I might have to have my feet amputated but I will stay strong, as I am proud to be serving my country. The other day my best friend Johnny was sleeping in the dug out while the enemy was firing and a missile hit right behind us. The dug out collapsed and Johnny was stuck in the pile of mud. We spent 30 minutes digging him out and we were able to pull him out just before it was too late.

The average teenager experience involves going to high school football games and getting a first car, not being sent to Afghanistan and seeing death in combat. Yet, in the US it is possible for an inexperienced 17 year old to sign up for the armed forces. Seventeen is too young of an age to join the military, especially because a teenager’s brain is not fully developed.

The New York Times Bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... And Young was authored by Lt. General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. In November 1965, Lt. Colonel Harold Moore commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th cavalry at the Ia Drang Valley-one of the bloodiest battles of Vietnam. He eventually retired from the Army in 1977 after thirty-two years of service. After his military career, Lieutenant General Moore resided as executive vice president for four years at a Colorado ski resort before founding a computer software company. Harold Moore currently lives in Auburn, Alabama and Crested Butte, Colorado.

We Were Soldiers Once and Young We Were Soldiers Once and Young is a history book written by LT. GEN. Harold G. Moore (RET.) and Joseph L. Galloway. The history book is based on the Vietnam War, which took place in 1965. The Battle of Ia Drang was said

A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.

The trenches would smell like blood, gunpowder, and everything that was rotting in there. After the gunshots have stopped, and the air is filled with silence, the remaining soldiers drop onto the dirt ground, realizing they have survived another day. I always get this uneasy feeling, knowing that although I have survived another day, there is much worse to come. Even though I have survived, every shred of my sanity is gone. Before I go into another restless night, I think about my friends who have died for this war, and finally get the chance to mourn about them.

I grabbed my gear without question, with a big knot in my stomach. I knew that my mortar section was with A Company 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment to support the Battalion’s

when your 18 you can go to war and die for your country and then says that same person

We all sleep and rest and eat in the trenches, but it’s not paradise. One night, the sound of loud booms woke us up. We were being attacked by some very dangerous artillery. We could feel every boom and every crack in the dirt above us. Many soldiers were not prepared for this and got sick. The attack come out of nowhere and frightened all of us.

In the film Cold Mountain the main character Inman states, “That’s Moe Oakley’s boy. He can’t be old enough to fight.” This depicts the fact that boys under the age of 18 were serving in the war even though they were not old enough to fight.

I know what direction they landed, but it was miles away. I’m confident my men know what their objective was, so I have no worries that they are trying to find me. Hours past, and as the sun comes up, so does the heat. While walking on the hot, miserable sand, I spotted six German soldiers and they spotted me. I easily taken down the first five because those poor bastards were just kids, like my little brother. I soon see the last guy, as he sits there yelling on his radio, for what it seems to be reinforcements. I immediately take action and take him down. I always looked at war in one simple way; it's either him that dies, or its me. I started running in the direction of my men, but in no time German reinforcements surround me and I have nowhere to go or no options. So, I just surrender. They grabbed me, and as I enjoy the hell which they are about to bring upon me, they started beating the absolute shit out of me. The German soldiers take me to a nearby barn as they try to gain any information. I know about any American forces, but I won't give them any information. A few days go by and I’m still held captive at this god forsaken shit hole of what looks like to be an old pig farm. I hear shooting going on outside of the barn where two Nazi soldiers were standing guard. The barn doors burst open and I see my little brother and two more of my men. “I see you got a little lost lieutenant,” said my brother. I immediately tell my brother to shut the hell up and to untie me. I yelled at the three of them saying why the hell they weren't doing what their orders where. “Sir, you are our main priority,” one of my men said. “Alex, mom would have killed me if I didn’t get you home safe,” my brother stated. The moment I stood up a whistle noise went by my head and I knew it was a bullet. A few more whistles fly by and I yelled, “Sniper!” It was too late, my little brother was the first

These past couple of weeks haven’t so been easy for me. I know I went through a lot at home, but the stress is even worse here. The trenches are horrible, the fighting is horrible and the food is horrible! The trenches are muddy, cold and just horrendous. It smells like rotting dead bodies everywhere I go. Every hour, there’s a grenade flying over my head and I know that my luck is running out. There’s going to be a time when I am not going to be able to pick the grenade up fast enough to throw it over the trench. That isn’t even the worst of it. A bunch of my comrades and I are coming down with trench foot. Our feet are swollen, cut up, wet, cold, muddy and disgusting. I’m hoping the war will end fast enough so that I won’t have to get my legs chopped off. And you

We waited to receive the orders from the lieutenant, but in my head i was already saying my prayers. He had told us to retrace our steps. I ran with everything I had in me, the proper duckboard made it somewhat easier to run but didn't take away from the fact that i was running with about 50kg of ammunition with me. We ran and arunned until we found the sap, while lieutenant provided shelter fire. We got out of the enemy trenches and crawled through the enemy's barbed wire. In the process of me going through the barbed wire, I cut my eye. Within seconds it was swollen shut and I thought I was in a dream. Maybe all of this was just a nightmare. I was later told i was suffering from extreme blood loss. Soon i felt something pull me i honestly thought i was being taken for german prisoner. But i heard a familiar voice. It was the lieutenant telling me to wake up. With whatever strength i had left and the help of the lieutenant,i staggered across no man's land And made it to our trenches were i was rushed to the infirmary. Not to soon after we arrived to safety, well as close to safety as we could have gotten the germans released fire on us. Although my eye is severely damaged, it couldve been alot worse; I am grateful that i returned all in one piece. I miss you dearly and am waiting to see you. If i do not make it hone in time for your birthday i shall wish your blessings upon you now. I

Minors’ participation in war was first mentioned in antiquity. During 1800s, it had become a common scene for youths to serve as aides and charioteers bearers to adult warriors in the Mediterranean basin. World War I In the West, boys as young as 12 were caught up in the overwhelming tide

Cooks explores the many ways underage boys were able to join the army, some as young as fourteen. Many when enlisting lied about their age and since a birth certificate was not necessary for recruitment age restrictions placed by the government were hard to enforce. Some boys were honest about their age and consequently were told to “run around the block, think over their age and come back again” (p. 189) resulting in the creation of a more appropriate age. If a young man was turned away at recruitment, they simply had to walk to the next town until they were accepted or show up at the same recruitment facility but a different day. If a boy was sent back from the war after other discovered their actual age, sometimes through letters from home,