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Show there to protect our country, o that we could have it free o w could ha fr d m in our own country and o the German and Japane e wouldn't come and overrun our land and our home and our wives and children and take everything over. That wa n't th kind of country we wanted to live in. So I did what I had to do to protect my elf. If I had to fire at the enemy, that's what I had to do. If we didn't like it, and didn't do it maybe we'd get killed. We had one guy in our squad-! don't know whether he ever fired his rifle. We called him Mama. He was an atheist. He said, "I don't believe in God." I said, "How can you say that?" He said, "That's just the way I am. I just don't believe in it. I wa n't brought up religious." So we'd have him doing the cooking and if we needed some little things done or something, we'd always holler, "Mama, come and do this or do that." This one night we were in a foxhole and it was getting dark and eighty-eight shells were coming in. We'd had a little firefight. He hollered at me. His foxhole wasn't too far away and he was over there crying. I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "I'm scared." I said, "What's you scared about?" He said, "They're shooting at us. We might get killed." I said, "So what?" He said, "Why don't you say a little prayer for me then." I said, "I thought you were an atheist who didn't believe in God." He said, "Well, in case there is a God, just in case there is a God, I'd rather take a chance and have you pray to him for me." I said, "Okay, I'll do that." When I got through he said, "I feel better now. Thank you but I'm still shaking." He kept crying for a while. I don't know whether he ever shot his gun. BB: So Mama was just a nickname. It wasn't negative? FTE: No, he was just a replacement, like I was. He came into the squad. Because of his feelings about not wanting to be in combat and not wanting to be a soldier, he wa n't 48 |
