Monday, May 25, 2009

A War Story

I may have posted this before, but since this is a day to remember the fallen, I thought I'd share this recollection and you can call it a war story.

It is impossible to communicate the nature of physical exhaustion to those who have not experienced it. There were three of us, but the other two are dead today. We sat in a river no more than two inches deep in the middle of a fetid swamp, eating small water snakes which were squirming in the mud by the hundreds and washing them down with water from our canteens.

We had not eaten or slept in four days. We were in a state of starvation-induced exhaustion that caused us to have vivid dreams that we experienced while wide-awake.

T. E. Lawrence said, "all men dream but not equally", however in that place, at that time, we all dreamed of home.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...

Opus #6 said...

That sounds miserable. It is good for us to realize what our brave soldiers have gone through, to appreciate them all the more.

Julia@SometimesLucid said...

Thank G-d for people lke you who have put their lives on the line for us to have the freedoms we all seek.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin