The K-Rations (Book) https://www.Writing.Com/main/books.php/item_id/2349961 Chaos ensues. One minute he is crouched in the foxhole, his rifle a companion with the jungle silence his serenade. He's been up for three hours, with barely an hour of much-needed sleep before being kicked awake by the Sarge. He's the youngest of the men, barely nineteen - still a fucking virgin. He resents being treated as a kid; suffers all the jokes the older soldiers make just because he was transferred to recon as a rookie to the Pacific. So what if he hasn't seen combat yet? It didn't mean he wasn't as tough as they were. He knew this platoon had fought in the Tanaka campaign and they were almost revered as heroes for seizing the Japanese base down there. He considered it an honor to be called up to replace one whose legs had been blown off by shrapnel. And yet they got their kicks by teasing him whenever he tried to make conversation. During a card game one night, he was close to winning, but the Sarge - a man only in...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:08:13 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101365 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101365 [Image #2084444] It was almost funny. The way Smitty kept trying to light up his cigarette when the goddamn waves kept splashing over the side of the landing craft, soaking us to the skin. Red shook his head and muttered something about 'the dumb nigger-lover' - and went back to brooding. Just like most of us. Well, besides Smitty, who was as usual, in his own world. "Gawddamn," he said and laughed at hi...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:11:23 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101366 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101366 He has the corporal stripes of a gunner. After nineteen weeks of training at Fort Knox (including two weeks of gunnery school), Corporal Dave Baldwin is more than ready to head to the *ETO* and kick a few asses - Hitler's included if not exclusively. He holds on to the romantic notion of being a hero in battle, bright-eyed and eager to display his talents as best he can. He's only eighteen years old and the world is his oyster - the concept of de...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:15:12 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101367 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101367 She was chosen. It was an order directly from General Douglas MacArthur, said Head Nurse Merrill. She and forty-four others would be shipped to the Bataan Peninsula to set up two hospitals for the fighting taking place there. They would be even closer to the battle front, ready to take on the wounded as fast as they could come in. It was MacArthur's plan to take hold of that area and their services were needed immediately. She told herself she ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:17:29 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101368 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101368 He was fighting two wars. One against Hitler and the madness he had wracked upon the world, the other barely two feet away from him. "You need your ears waxed, boy? I said, you can't come in here. No nig...folks of your kind allowed." It was easy to allow the flames of rage within him to flare to the surface. He could almost see the dare in the officer's narrowed green eyes, mocking him - Come at me, boy, it seemed to s...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:20:25 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101369 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101369 She could do it. "Momma, I'm hungry." Never mind she had worked the graveyard shift from 12a.m to 8a.m, and that her legs and arms were sore as hell. "Momma." "Okay, Benjy, give momma a minute." Still she lay supine on the narrow cot, an arm over her closed eyes to block out the harsh July sunlight that filtered through the lace curtains. She could hear Mr. Barley's radio blaring out 'Ret...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:22:31 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101370 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101370 'Silent Night' filters into the forest. Its faint sounds drifting over the huddled figures in their foxholes as they wait. All around them, winter is evident in its startling beauty, the naked trees barely able to stand as branches snap from the pressure of the ice chunks that form. Snow is the perfect camouflage, and yet they would have welcomed the presence of anything warm at this moment. They stamp their feet and rub their hands together, co...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:25:08 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101371 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1101371