My Great Grandfather’s Story

By Nathan Lambert 

I never saw my great-grandpa much when I was little because he used to be in a nursing home. But when I did see him, he used to tell me stories of his time in WW2. He told me everything he saw even though I was a little kid, but in his mind, he saw it as good for me to know. I don’t remember everything he told me, but this is what I do know. He enlisted in the war when he was just 16. He was full of pride in serving his country, so he enlisted as soon as he had the chance. He fought in the Pacific in the Navy. Where he was shipped to first was Pearl Harbor (after it was bombed). He helped with cleaning the demolished base before he was sent somewhere else. One of his first jobs in the army was to get on the islands occupied by the Japanese and scout a spot for invasion, so he was one of the first people on the island. One time they brought in on a patrol through one of the Marshall Islands. They were walking through the thick jungle for a while, and then a Japanese soldier jumped out from the trees with a knife and live grenades strapped to his chest. Luckily, my great-grandpa was only injured because he was in the back when it happened, but sadly, it killed a lot of people. That is one of the reasons he told me that the people who fought in the East had to fight monsters and the people in the West had to fight animals. After that, he worked on boats towards the end of the war. One of the last things I remember is that he told me he was on the aircraft carrier that refueled the plane that dropped the nuke that hit Nagasaki. After the war, he started a family. He never regretted having to serve his country; he only regretted the people he had to kill. which I believe every veteran can agree with. He never loved killing; he repented for every life he had to take away. But he knew that at that moment it was either him or them. But from all of this, every veteran has their own story, experiences, and trials. We don’t know what they have been through and seen, but it will always stay with them. But those stories told will never be the same as the experience.