D-Day

Rank:
101st Airborne Division
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
2nd Battalion
Easy Company
1st Platoon
Squad 4, Major Herbert Sobel ( RIP )


wings tear through the clouds, i know how heaven feels.
cause looking down at the battle field, i can see hell is real.
us...101st Airborne Division, prepped for first combat stunt.
kissed my engagement ring, close my eyes tight & jumped.
i could see half my regiment beyond the axis troops.
whispered a prayer for the crew and pulled my chute.
a sudden square mile explosion & US battalion advanced.
22 minutes after that, 101st AD joined the invasion of France.
dropped near carentan, normandy...my german, not fluent.
american voices interupted...by a nade from the enemy unit.
it only took two germans do it. who murdered twleve US soldiers.
brothers indeed, we all wore the same colors on our shoulders.
the 43 in our platoon shattered, like the glance a mirror gives.
climbed a bank to find thousands...dead stacked in pyramids.
burried fifty at a time, the soil swallowed the body bags.
myself alone...must have gathered over fourty dog tags.
continued on path, chins deep into our chests. rifles at waist.
nights we dwell of the days sorrow collected...the bible erased.
marched to bastonge, medics there in dire need of tag teams.
we raced to the warfront...all with stolen blood in our canteens.
aiding the surgeons during combat, was not our mission.
we may have lost our insight, but would never lose our vision.
the purpose of war, was to kill as many & survive as long.
saving lives...was the theme behind every patriotic war song.
with our bread in our boots, we feasted like victors.
& with our pistols aimed at the enemy, we anticipated hitler.
suns and moons chased each other, wheather patterns vicsous.
snow carpets brought illness, a threatning gift at christmas.
bastonge reduced our 43 members to an amazing nine.
the remainder stood disfigured, glowed of braking point signs.
a marksmen, demolitionist...and 7 riflemen formed our squad.
the luietanant was wounded, we flinched at gunfire abroad.
being hit was inevitable & common under artillery bursts.
most often we'd defeat enemy fire, losing 2 or 3 first.
one last stretch of woods, we steadily cleared for mines.
then homeward, where wed actually live the rest of our lives.
our dreams nearly fulfilled, infact this is it...the end is real.
that instant i was hit by a japanese sniper, with one intent...to kill.
my lungs slowed & i lost the use of my eyes, then realized...
my attacker and i were similiar, he too was just fighting to survive.