Personal Narrative-War Soldier

I yawned and changed into my normal clothes. I saw it. I smiled and grabbed the teddy bear. I ran to the living room.

If there was anything more terrifying to a shy, introverted, teenage girl than the idea of being a in crowded room full of strangers, it would to be actually in one. Yet, there I was, surrounded by a numerous amount of impatient, jet-black cars that illuminated the dark streets, rows of musicians rehearsing their piece by playing a dissonance of sounds, and the expectant, motley crowd of people lining up on the sidewalk for the veteran’s parade.

turning my head again I saw Simon dive to my aid. He did not utter a

With no vision or plan to enter the civilian life and no idea what to do with my life, I still had severe scars of the year in Iraq. There wasn’t a priority or a drive, but however, I did have some responsibility I had a wife and three children. In a desperate move, I attempted to return to the State where I was born as I think about it this may have been some comfort zone. I would send my two new children back home to their state while I attempted to land a job. My first interview would be in Cincinnati as a Retail Manager in a large company. Confident that I had some stability, I couldn’t avoid the heavy drinking or my violent outbursts I would eventually succumb to leaving my wife and two children to find myself in this lost world, which later I regretted. My focus was to leave everything behind and start a new life this would

The year was 2007 and my brother Eric had just returned home from deployment to Iraq and the mood was ecstatic around the house. My dad was welling up with tears, finally being able to see his oldest child returning home from service. Mom was also very happy as well, repeatedly fondling over Eric as soon as he entered the house. Eric and I had always been close, even though there was a decent age gap between us of 15 years. We talked for hours about what his time was like in Iraq and in the military; he seemed open to talking about it even though he witnessed some fairly nightmarish experiences. Eventually I got the bright idea to challenge him to a wrestling match on the lawn even though he had 120 pounds on me. He tried to talk me out of

Going into Country Manor I thought that many of the residents there would be happy and excited to see us and play games with and the staff would be helpful. While at Country Manor I mostly played games and delivered mail with residents. The first few times I went I played games like Jenga, dice, and crazy 8’s. I played with individual residents, groups of people, and with some of the kids from Kids Country. Many of the residents I played with really enjoyed the games and the social interaction with new people. One gentleman I played Crazy 8’s with was a Vietnam War veteran who enjoyed hunting. My dad is a veteran and my grandpa is a Vietnam War Veteran so we talked a lot about Vietnam. We also talked about hunting and fishing and shared many

We approached the factory, and we were all frightened. We saw soldiers, rallying the workers. The soldiers came to us, and they talked to mom. When mom told them that she was the owner of the factory, they arrested her. The soldiers realized that we were mom’s children, so we were also arrested. I recall how scared I was during the arrest, yet I tried to remain brave. The soldiers did not hesitate; they took us to a train station. Everything happened so fast. One second I was with my family, the other I was on a train headed to an unknown destination. At this point I wasn’t with my family anymore, for they were separated from me at the train station. The train was very claustrophobic, many others were in it. I was merely a child, and everyone else in

I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.

this is the Final day of the Hitler youth we were woken up at dawn and were to get in line and march to the mess hall we all sat down at the table the food that was offered for breakfast was delicious, after breakfast we all went outside and went for a hike up a mountain it was difficult to keep my balance the rocks were wet from the night before and a lot of the rocks didn’t stay in place and when I grabbed them they would fall out of place and tumble down the mountain when we got to the top we took the path back down, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon when we got back, the boys were then separated into 2 groups that were taking to 2 different locations, the group that had Bastion in it went into a tent which I headed music coming from it

It all started when I got of the bus and walked in to Auschwitz labor camp. We entered from the left side. In the distance you could see ten buildings, each one, had 2 floors

It’s late April 2015, not long after my 65th birthday and I woke early after another night of not sleeping well. Not unusual for the past 46 years. I lay in bed looking at the clock having a hard time reading the extra-large display but as my eyes focused; the clock illuminated the time at 3:30 a.m. I closed my eyes and repeated the names of everyone in the platoon who’d died while in Vietnam: “Tufts, Ramos, Reynolds, Ofstedahl, Swindle, Wellman, Ponce, Mitchell, Anderson, Carey, Morris, Kidwell and Matson.” For most a familiar face appeared when saying the name, but for several of the platoon members, I couldn’t remember what they looked like, only a shadow instead of a face. I can’t forget the fallen, and don’t want to forget! They deserve

Being thrown into Auschwitz as a 19 year old boy is beyond words. Having a simple community and family life was all I ever known growing up. The fields were green as all day and the people that maintained those fields could have lit up the sun with their joy and compassion. Now, I’m surrounded by a very bleak and industrial containment camp. I look around at the buildings and see no artistic means like those of my homeland. The people are frail and knocking on death’s door. For me the question is not what if, it’s when is it going to come for me? I’m not Robert from Holland, I’m a number 7344 or 11,340. Quite possibly I am the last one to be killed off. I have no idea what day I might fall into on this systematic genocide that was thoroughly

Now that I’ve grown up, thoughts about war has changed. War was always a game, until I felt the true feelings war, filling you up with pain. War changes your life forever.

“Stop, Rose!” The shrill scream cut the air like a knife cutting all the way through my heart.

I went along after eating onto a different road, which I didn’t know. Oh well. It looked like I was in Frankfurt, Germany because of the Mainz River. No boats were on it as I suspected there should be, the river was sparkling as the waves gently brushed the side on the banks.I walked to a long wooden dock. Just as I was going to get into one of the boats on the river a man came up to me said I needed to get out of here before the German’s put me in a concentration camp. He said he was John Ashbury Leysath. My last name was Leysath. He was a past relative. He asked me to come inside quickly. I did what he said. We went up to the loft. Suddenly someone burst through the door asking to show where we are. He gave me the shush signal.