After hearing and reading first-hand accounts I often wonder if I could have ever done what these people did in WW2. I can never come to a conclusion. I get in myself stuck in this circular logic, it starts with, "I'm a mentally and physically tough person, there were those with less that came through." But then always cycle around and think about what they saw, smelled and heard, and think to myself, "How tough is tough enough?" And then the part that really gets me is some people did everything right; obeyed orders and fought smart. Yet there is some sort of metaphorical dice somewhere that decided that shell was going to land right next to someone, or perhaps that one stray bullet was the end of it. That, in it's self, would be the best and worst part for me to mentally absorb. Best, because once I realized it that I could only control so much, the inherit dangers of chance would be pushed to the back of my mind. However, at the same time it would be the worst because sometimes it's those things that are kept at the back of one's mind that can send one over the edge.
It's nuts to me that it's reading things like this can keep me up at night.
to all past, current, and future servicemen.
