Veteran's Day, 2021

My father rarely spoke of his days with Baker Battery, 666th Field Artillery Battalion - the Battle of the Bulge, and the run-and-gun race across northern Germany, but fortunately Nathan Blumberg (who grew up in Denver and after the war moved to Montana) in adjacent Charlie Battery wrote a book about his experiences ("Charlie of 666: A Memoir of World War II"), and his self-appraisal during the Battle of the Bulge: 

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At some moment during a lull in the artillery battle in those first four days in the snows of Belgium, I walked into the woods near our howitzers, exhausted and disoriented. I rested my carbine against a tree, brushed the snow off a log and sat down. After minutes of silence broken only by the muffled sounds of military vehicles from the highway, I talked with myself. 

Look, I said out loud, four things can happen before this thing is over. 

You could be killed. 

Okay. 

You could be wounded and survive, possibly to spend the rest of your days crippled in some way. 

Okay. 

You could be taken prisoner. But you know about the Malmedy massacre and you have a pretty good idea of what the Germans would do to a captured Jewish corporal who is also a forward observer helping to call fire down on them. Also, since you aren't an officer or a non-com, you wouldn't be exempt from forced labor. Being a POW was a possibility you had ruled out long ago. You'd made up your mind that you would never allow yourself to fall into the hands of those fucking Nazis. You'd die first or try to escape, no matter the risk. You've hated the bastards since you were a kid, listening to the speeches of that crazy Hitler on the radio, and now you've seen with your eyes what they can do. No prisoner - or not for long. Fuck 'em. 

Okay. 

Or, at last, you could survive and come through the damndest experience of your life sound of body and knowing that never again would you experience an adventure so thoroughly dangerous, thrilling, exciting, interesting, exhilarating, fascinating, terrifying - and satisfying. Yes, satisfying. You said this is what you wanted when you enlisted. You have to rise to a dimension that allows you to accept, without reservation, whatever fate has in store for you. You have to go from "What the hell am I doing here?" to "Of all the places I could be, I want to be here. I am lucky to be here. I am honored to be here." 

Okay!