*Somewhere in Europe

An explosion shook the ground. I grabbed the pack phone and dashed out of the tent. I ran as fast as I could. I could hear faint gunfire and the beating of my heart. Planes were flying overhead and rapidly ascended, ready to attack enemy fighters. I saw the trench. To avoid getting shot, I dove to the ground and landed on my side. Clutching the phone as tight as I could, I rolled into the trench. Some soldiers were shooting from the small cover that the trench gave.

Others had wounds that were being tended to. 

I unholstered my Springfield M1903 assault rifle that I nicknamed Spring. I grabbed the receiver and pressed the ALPHA button. After a few seconds, someone picked up. “Hello?” I asked. 

“This is Alpha base. Come in, Delta base.” 

“This is Delta Base. Tank assistance is required.” 

“Who ordered the command?” 

“Sergeant Bronson, sir.” After a few moments of silence, I heard a faint mutter and rustling on the other end.

“Okay, I’ll pass this down to the base commander. He’ll be on the phone shortly. We’ll ring you.” 

“Thank you,” I said and hung up. Just then, another explosion spat dirt into the trench. I started to load Spring when my friends Jackie Johnson and Benny Williams ran up to me. “Marcus, did you phone Alpha Base?” Benny asked. 

“I just did. I’m now waiting for the commander to come on.” 

“We just got orders. We’re going to the frontlines!” Jackie said. My eyes got wide. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!” I whisper yelled at Jackie. “Jackie, we can’t go. Not without the tanks.” “Fine. Let’s go to the midline. There’s less war there, and it has good cover. Michael’s there too.” “Great! Okay, John!” I said to another soldier that I was friends with. “If the phone rings, answer it! It’s about the tanks.” “Got it,” John said. I finished loading Spring. Benny and Jackie grabbed and loaded their rifles. “Come on, guys!” I yelled and I charged out the trench, with Benny and Jackie in tow. I couldn’t believe that just 2 weeks before I was being shipped out here.

                                        1 year earlier…. 

                                             Franklin, WI

I had just finished my breakfast when I heard a knock at the door. “I’ll get it!” I yelled upstairs, but my mom was already unlocking it by the time I got to the door. For a 55-year old woman, she was fast. No wonder she won most of her high school track meets. When she opened the door, a military sergeant was standing in the doorway. He wore an old cowboy hat and sunglasses. Oh no, I thought. Army recruiting. This sergeant had been recruiting all the men 21 to 45 years old in my neighborhood since I think, two weeks ago. My two best friends, Benny Williams and Jackie Johnson were drafted just last week. 

Me and my mom both figured it was only a matter of time before I was next. “Are you Marcus Dataube?” he asked. “Yes, sir”, I replied. “As you may know, I am here in your neighborhood recruiting men because of last month’s Pearl Harbor bombing. I believe you could be a good soldier. Also, two recruits spoke very highly of you and want you to come. I believe their names are Benny Williams and Jackie Johnson.” “Yes, sir. I think they were shipped out last week.” I said, beaming proudly. I did not think anyone would speak highly of me about anything, especially from an army standpoint. And these guys are my best friends. 

I never really thought of myself as a soldier either, but I could handle army training pretty easily. I hoped. But part of me knew that mom would not let me go easily, if at all. The sergeant had a small binder tucked under his shoulder. He took a sheet of paper out of it and handed it to me. It was an “Agreement to Drafting” form. “I will be back tomorrow to collect your form. I’ll have a car outside waiting for you to take you to the airport, where a plane will take you to Georgia, where the training camp is. That is, if you decide to come. Well, have a good day.” He tipped his hat and walked away. 

As soon as I locked the door, my mom rang in with her opinion. “Absolutely not!” Well, convincing her to let me go is going to be hard. “Come on, mom!” I sounded like a kid begging his mom to go do something fun with his friends. “You heard what that sergeant said about me. I could be a great soldier.” 

“There’s a difference between someone who says you can be a good soldier and you actually proving that.” 

“So, you want me to prove I can be a good soldier?” 

“Well, yes, but no. Your father died fighting in the first World War. I can’t have you dying in the second.” 

“Mom, we have better weapons than we did 20 years ago.” 

“So do those Axis Power people. That would make your chances of dying even worse.” 

“Mom, I am going to be training with scenarios like those at camp. Not to mention we’re going to be going over battle tactics to make our chances of surviving even better.” 

“Even with all that, IT WON’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT YOU COULD STILL DIE!!!” 

“AT LEAST I’LL DIE TRYING TO MAKE SURE YOU AND THIS COUNTRY ARE SAFE! JUST LIKE DAD DID!” 

“YOU’RE NOT GOING AND THAT’S FINAL!” My mom huffed, took the form, and walked upstairs to her room. 

I sat down at the kitchen table and started falling into deep thought. She’s has a lot of good points but so do I. I have to fight for this nation. I can’t let mom die. I’d never forgive myself. I took a deep breath and sighed. I’m doing this whether she wants me to or not.      Later that night, I snuck into mom’s room while she was sleeping. I found the form on her nightstand. Next to the shredder. I grabbed it and snuck out of her room as quickly and quietly as possible. I crept back to my room and turned on my lamp. I signed my name and checked all the boxes. 

Since I was 21, I did not need mom’s signature. I finished signing the form and wrote a note to my mom. Early the next morning, I slipped on my clothes, grabbed my suitcase I had packed the night before, slipped the note onto mom’s nightstand, and, after whispering “Goodbye,” to mom and the house, I snuck out the back door and headed toward town. Little did I know, it would be almost a year before I saw either of them again. After walking around town for about an hour or so, I got what I was looking for. The sergeant’s car pulled up. “Dataube, I did not know you were coming this early. Do you have the form filled out?” “Yes, sir.” I gave him the form, hopped in the car, and we drove to the airport.

When I got on the plane I saw a few other soldiers, one of which I knew. He sat in the seat across from me. His name was Johnathan Ospin. He was another guy in my neighborhood I knew but was not exactly friends with. “Hey, John!” I said. “Hey, Marcus. You excited?” “Yeah, I guess. But who’s going to be excited about going to war?” 

“I hear you!” another soldier said, and we all laughed. We started taxiing down the runway when I saw my mom’s car pull up. I guess she had found the note and realized the form was missing. I turned around because I did not want to see mom’s face. As I felt the plane’s wheels lift from the ground, a tear rolled down my cheek. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

I had run away from home to join the army and nothing could change that. That was the last thing I thought of before I fell asleep. A few hours later, I woke up. I looked out the window. I saw a huge city with lights glowing as bright as they could. At least, that’s what I heard happens at night. I started to smile when the reality of the day’s earlier events slapped me in the face.  

                                     Albany, GA

It felt even worse when the captain said, “Now arriving at Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.” I put that out of my mind and focused on why I was here: to fight in WWII. We walked for about 5 minutes when we approached the training camp. The camp was only a mile or two from the airport. We walked in and the sergeant oriented us. “Now, none of you know my name, but call me Sergeant Bronson.” “Yes, sir.” We all replied. “Okay,” Sergeant Bronson said, “I want you all to line up in columns.” We lined up as he told us.  He split us up into two groups: White recruits in one group, Black recruits in another. The sergeant stepped to the side and in front of us was a big complex. There were two doors: One marked “White soldiers,” and one marked “Black soldiers”. Me and the other black soldiers walked into our part of the complex and when we walked in, we saw a man at the front desk. I was first in line. The man handed me a small slip of paper, a key, and a list of household appliances.

“NOW EVERYONE LISTEN UP!” He shouted. “I’m going to hand you all a small slip of paper, a key, and a list. The slip of paper is your BN or barrack number. The key will be to open your barrack door, of course. The list is all the household items your barrack will have in it.” “Thank you, sir,” I said. “Please, call me Jerome.” “Okay, Jerome,” I said and walked away. After walking through the halls for a few minutes, I found my room: 217. I pulled my key out of my pocket and opened the door. When I walked into the room, I almost laughed aloud. I saw a man acting like he was ballroom dancing with an invisible girl and listening to a song on the radio. I only knew one man who danced like that. My very first friend, Benny Williams. “Benny?” I asked. He turned and saw me. He turned off the radio and stepped towards me. 

“M-Marcus?” He asked. 

“It’s me, Benny.” Benny wrapped me in a bear hug. 

“I can’t believe you’re here. Funny, I never thought your mom would let you go after what happened to your… your dad.” You had to mention my mom, didn’t you? 

“It took a lot of begging. So, is Jackie here?” 

“Yeah, he’s right next door.” Benny and I walked out of our room and bumped into John. “John?” Benny asked. “Hey, Benny.” “I never thought I’d see you here.” Benny and John started chatting, so I knocked on Jackie’s door.  I heard footsteps and Jackie opened the door. “Marcus!” Jackie said, wrapping me in another bear hug. “Good to see you, Jackie, but if I get any more bear hugs, I’m probably going to get my ribcage broke.” “Sorry,” Jackie said, releasing from the hug.  “Well, go unpack, man! We can talk at-” Jackie looked over my shoulder and saw John. “Johnathan!” “Hey, Jackie!” Now it was a party. The three guys just stood there talking. I walked out of Jackie’s room and into mine. I opened my suitcase and put all my clothes in a drawer. I only packed a few shirts and a pair of pants and a photo of mom and dad.

I put my suitcase under my bed, and I put the photo on my nightstand. I layed on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. “Welcome to army life, Marcus,” I told myself. Benny walked in and sat on his bed. “Hey, Marcus. Lunch is in an hour. We eat a mixture of good food, okay food, and prison food every day- Well, I’ll let you see for yourself.” “Thanks for the invitation,” I said sarcastically. I rolled onto my side and fell asleep. I woke up to a whistle right outside my door. When I sat up, Benny was opening the door. Sergeant Bronson was walking through the halls blowing a whistle and I heard guys scream and I heard people fall on the floor. This was a wake-up call. Literally.

Me, Benny, Jackie, and John walked to Jerome’s desk and we all said hello. He said hello too. As we walked out of the complex, Benny and Jackie led us to a smaller but still big building not far from the barracks. There were two lines:  One marked “White soldiers,” and one marked “Black soldiers”. We all walked in. When I got my food, Benny’s words rushed into my head: We eat good food, okay food, and prison food. I guess this was prison food. It tasted better than it looked. Benny forgot to mention that.

After we all ate, Sergeant Bronson said, “All right. Since some people are new I will give them 30 minutes to explore. Just so you all know, your keys can only open your room doors and not other doors, so don’t try peeking in where you don’t belong.” He let us out of the cafeteria and Benny started walking around. Jackie, John, and I followed. As we walked toward what Benny said was the firearms hall, He and Jackie started bragging about how many medals they’d get if we won and survived. Me and John tuned them out. “So, how’ve you been?” I asked John. 

“I’ve been good. I got here pretty easily. Sergeant Bronson gave me my agreement form so quickly, I think he thought I was Alvin York or something.” 

“Alvin York?” 

“Yeah, he’s one of the most famous WWI soldiers in history.” 

“Oh.” 

“Anyway, My mom agreed right away because she just wanted me out of the house.” We both laughed. After a few more seconds of walking and hearing Benny and Jackie brag, we made it to the firearms hall.

It had so many guns if Hitler had access to it, every person in Albany would die. We walked down the hall. Each gun was put in its own glass case, but one drew me in. It was called a Springfield M1903 assault rifle. Just then, a faint whistle blew. Our 30 minutes of exploring were over. We all lined up in front of Sergeant Bronson a few minutes later. Behind him was a lot, and I mean a lot of training equipment.

 “Okay, tomorrow you will be out here at the crack of dawn using this training equipment for a majority of the morning. Today is Monday. On Saturday, you all will be performing the training exercise of your choice. Then, on Sunday, I’ll announce who did the best of each exercise. Those 50 men will have Monday off from training.” We all cheered.  “But, you have to spend at least an hour reading on war history. We all groaned. “Do you understand me?” “Yes, sir!” we all yelled. “Good. Now, go back to your barracks until I blow my whistle for dinner. Is that clear?” “Yes, sir!” We yelled again.

As I lay in bed, Benny said, “You wanna listen to the radio?” “No, I’m good.” I then tried to sleep. I did. After about an hour, we ate dinner. We showered and when me and Benny got back to our room, we had clean clothes on our bed. It was a dark green shirt and sweatpants. Me and Benny put on our clothes and turned off our lights. My first day as a soldier was done. One down, a LOT more to go, I thought as I fell asleep. 

My alarm almost destroyed my eardrums. A second later, Benny woke up with a start, too. I stopped my alarm and looked at the time. I almost fell out of bed. 4:00! That’s so early! Benny flicked on the light and put on his shoes. “Come on, Marcus, it’s your first day of training.” I followed Benny out of the door. Shoes on, of course. “Why can’t we at least get up at, I don’t know, 8:00?” “That’s when we eat breakfast.” “We’re going to be training for four hours?!!” “Yep.” “Oh, great.”    As we assembled where we did just hours ago, Sergeant Bronson said, “Okay, it’s your first training day. I’ll have 5 of you use the equipment at once. Then after you are finished, another group will go and so on. Is that understood?” “Yes, sir!” We all yelled. “Good. Now I want...” he looked at a list. 

“Jackie Johnson, Jonathan Ospina, Benny Wiliams, Marcus Dataube, and Michael Hendricks.” The five of us lined up in front of five exercises: Jackie was doing a rope wall climb, John was doing battle ropes, Benny was doing army crawling, Michael was doing suicides, and I was doing firearms. “Ready, Set, Go!” Sergeant Bronson yelled. In front of me was a table of firearms. I found my favorite: the Springfield M1903 assault rifle. If I got to go to war, I’d use this. I loaded it and put on the headphones. I aimed and fired. Bullet after bullet pierced the target. After a round or two, I stopped.  Almost all the bullets hit the bullseye. I took off the headphones, admired my work for a second, and walked towards the next station: Army crawl. It was a tiny space height and width-wise, but I could easily crawl through since I was skinny. I crawled as fast as I could and when I got out, Sergeant Bronson said, “Very good, Dataube, 4.9 seconds!” I move on to the rope-climbing exercise and I did well with that too. I did all of the exercises just seconds after Benny and Jackie did.  

The rest of the training went like that.  The 5 of us and 45 other trainees got Monday off. After a few weeks, I got a letter from my mom. It read: “Hello, Marcus. I’ve been wondering about you all the time. I hope you are okay. I am worried about you. I never told you that your father did the same thing you did when the first world war started.  I’m praying that you survive and come home. Best wishes,

Your mom.” I started to cry. I couldn’t believe mom was happy about me running away. Well, she wasn’t. But she wasn’t pulling me out. I thought about what we said last time we spoke. “You want me to prove I can be a good soldier?” “Well, yes, but no.”   I put the photo away and was about to ask Jerome when lunch was, but Benny said: “MARCUS! WE ARE GOING TO THE WAR!” I almost passed out.

* The three of us made it to the midline. There was a trench there, too. When we dove into the trench, it was a horrible sight. Nurses and wounded soldiers were EVERYWHERE!! Some soldiers were dead. One soldier had an empty, bloody hole… where his heart should have been. A lookout came and yelled, “THE GERMANS ARE ADVANCING! SERGEANT OAKLEY NEEDS FIVE MEN TO GO STOP THEM!” “I’ll go,” Michael said. “We’ll go too.” I volunteered myself, Benny, and Jackie. “Hey, guys!” A voice called. John slid into the trench. “Sergeant Lionel is sending the tanks. What’s going on?” “Charlie team needs help to stop a german advancement,” I replied. “Count me in!” John said. “Alright,” the lookout said. “GO, GO, GO!” The five of us ran as fast as we could, bodies and explosions all around us. We saw a small bunker up ahead. Benny unlocked the door while me and Michael covered him. When he opened the bunker door, we all huddled inside. 

Benny and John grabbed sniper rifles and climbed up the ladder to the roof of the bunker. Jackie climbed up another ladder and took lookout duty. We were far away from the midline by now, so Michael got on the radio to tell the bases, midline, and frontline our position. “The sergeant said the tanks will be here in 30 minutes,” John said. “Nice,” I said. “I’m still trying to get someone on the radio,” Michael said, annoyed. “Marcus, you’ve got trouble,” Jackie said. “What is it?” “A small Powers squad. Two from each country.” “Benny, John?” “They’re too close for us to shoot. You’ll have to do this yourself.”  “Great.” I unholstered Spring and walked out. I hid by the entrance to the bunker, turned, and saw a squad advancing toward me. I aimed at two Germans back-to-back. “If I can hit one, I can hit the other.” I fired a bullet off at them. They both jerked and fell. The Italians leaned over their fallen comrades. 

I was about to shoot again, but footsteps stopped me. I looked over and realized only the Italians were where the Germans fell. Where were the Japanese? As the footsteps became louder, I quickly changed Spring into a bayonet. I saw a gun muzzle and lunged at the gun holder. He died instantly. He was Japanese. His comrade was walking around the bunker, shouting “KIM SUN!”. I tried to get my bayonet out of the soldier but he had so much gear on, Spring was stuck. As I turned around, the other soldier held a pistol at me from point-blank range. I did not have a pistol. I had a knife, though. The soldier cocked the gun but dropped his ammo clip. I pulled my knife out of the pocket it was in and stabbed it through the man’s neck. He dropped his gun, dropped to his knees, and screamed in pain. Loudly. The Italians started running to the bunker. I yanked Spring out of the soldier and stabbed it into the other soldier’s neck. He croaked like a frog, reached to his neck as blood rushed from it, and he fell. He had a knife AND a bayonet in his neck. Just then, the Italians had cornered me. Just as they were about to shoot, their heads jerked and they fell. I looked up and on the roof of the bunker stood Benny and John with snipers in their hands. Benny whistled. “You took these guys down!” “You guys helped,” I said. “If you hadn’t shown up, I would have ended up like these guys. I gestured to the soldiers lying on the ground. I pulled my knife and bayonet out of the soldiers. “Let’s hurry back to base.” John said. “How?” I asked. John pointed and tanks were rolling. “Ha, ha, ha! I love you guys!” 

A few minutes later, we made it back to base. In tanks. The five of us hopped out and walked toward Seargent Bronson. “Boys, that squad you took out was the last squad the Axis Powers had in this whole state. Pack up, boys. You’re going home.” The five of us cheered. The next day, at about noon, I stood in front of my house

with my suitcase in my hand. A moving van drove past. Someone new was moving into the neighborhood. I rang the doorbell. Mom opened it. When she saw me, she wrapped me in a hug. She cried, “Is it really you?” “Yes, mom. It’s me.”  I walked into the house and took it all in. I could not believe that in 24 hours, it would have been a year since I ran away.  I was about to sit down when the doorbell rang. 

This time, I beat mom to the door. I opened it and the whole gang was there: Benny, Jackie, John, and Michael. “Guys! It’s good to see ya!” “You just saw us yesterday,” Michael said. “Michael, how did you get here?” “They did not tell you?” “Tell me- wait… Are you moving in?” “Suprise,” Michael said. “Hey, Marcus. We’re going to the diner for a celebratory dinner. You in?”  I turned to my mom. “Are you going to say ‘Absolutely not’ this time?” “No, you can go.” “Yeah!” The guys cheered. We all hopped in Benny’s car and drove off. We were happy because the war was finally over. “Denny’s Diner, here we come!” Benny yelled.  “Woo-Hoo!” We yelled.

                                    The End