Sergeant Rooker McKeason stared wide eyed into the mist he knew what he was here for, and he knew his duty, but the possibility of death gave him unimaginable fear. Sergeant Rooker of the United States rangers 42nd company was a long way from his home of South Carolina as he was in Normandy, France. Armed with his rifle and gear, Rooker braced himself for the atrocities he was about to witness and commit. The motor of the transport vessel caused a deafening roar in his ears, and, coupled with the noise of the hundreds of other transport vessels that made their way to the beach, Rooker was, for all practical purposes deaf.
“All right men, get your gear ready; Ranson, remember the plan,” Colonel Bell shouted over the motor, but to Rooker it was all a mute blur. Finally the motor stopped and in unison so did the motors of the other vessels. Finally the doors opened—suddenly heavy gunfire filled the skies and several of the men in the front row screamed in terror—they were being shot to pieces! Rooker and several other men jumped off the sides of the vessel and tried to climb out of the water as quickly as possible, but the gunners followed them with their machine guns and struck them dead. Rooker shot incoherently into the direction of the gunners, but he could not see due to the immense amount of salt, water and blood in his eyes.
Finally he made it to the beach as did hundreds of other U.S army soldiers. The Nazi gunners were at the top of the beach shooting down. He saw many men die, their heads blown off and their guts flying. One man was somehow immolated, and he ran frantically, trying to escape the flames. Rooker sprinted as fast as he could to a boulder near the mid part of the beach; he took his Thompson sub-machine gun and shot into the turmoil. The men were getting massacred he saw many razed with bullets like rice fields getting felled by a scythe then suddenly he saw Colonel Bell behind a boulder adjacent to his, assessing the situation with several of his men, Rooker made his way to his colonel and shouted, “Sir, where do we go?! The Nazis aren’t even giving us a chance!” and Colonel Bell shouted, “Rooker, good to see you alive! We need to get as far away from here as possible! Get me bazookas right under the gunners’ noses and our rendezvous point is at the top of the beach on the far-left side! Now move!”
The men scrambled as fast as they could, trying to dodge the bullets that were whizzing past. They were in dire need of backup, or else their mission was a failure. Rooker and the few remaining men of his platoon made it to the rendezvous point, and Colonel Bell shouted, “All right where are my bazookas—“ suddenly a stray bullet went “psshow” into Colonel Bell’s head, cracking his helmet in two, instantly killing him. The men were scrambling to cover themselves from more stray bullets and shot randomly into the air, hoping to make a kill. As Sergeant Rooker was now the highest in command, a soldier asked him, “What do we do now, sir?” Rooker, building up his courage, replied, “gimme that Bazooka and your scope” the soldier handed them to him and Rooker applied the scope onto his bazooka. One of his men loaded the bazooka, and Rooker placed his left eye to the scope and looked around the Nazi forts. He was trying to find the perfect spot so his soldiers could actually invade the Nazi bunkers. After six seconds he found it: a niche right under a nazi gunner, about forty paces from his current location and perfect for his troops to invade due to the outcrop of rocks. Praying, he squeezed the trigger… and a rocket burst out of the barrel, almost knocking him back due to the immense recoil. The rocket smashed into the niche, exploding upon contact, blowing up the entire side of the rock and with it about four Nazis. Rooker and his makeshift platoon charged with fury into the dark abyss. The Nazis, however, noticed and made their way to the troops and sniped at them from the top of the wall of rock, Other platoons of American troops made their way to the break in the wall and shot at the Nazis, killing many.
Rooker and the majority of the other troops made it to the other side but Nazis popped up at every corner. Rooker started to hallucinate; everything moved in slow motion. Rooker saw American troops with flamethrowers douse several enemies in flame, they were languishing in pain, and he could smell the burning of human flesh. Nazis cornered a few Americans and shot off their appendages with blood and guts splattering over the ground. Rooker then flashed back to his past his mother was cooking a meal for Thanksgiving. That was the day right before Rooker was supposed to be shipped off. They were in the house, and Rooker was arguing with his father about something he did not remember. Apparently, it was something of great importance because Rooker slammed the door and left. that was the last time he saw his father because the next day he was in basic.
A soldier whose badge on his uniform showed that he was a medic and a new recruit, shook Rooker out of his delirium. “Sir, where do we go now?” and Rooker quietly replied, “I don’t know.” Suddenly, a strange hum filled the skies and Rooker noticed blue dots in the sky. They were Nazi air support, he knew that they were going to all die and so he clenches his eyes as the planes came closer. Then all of a sudden the gunfire started but he noticed cheering, not from Nazis for they cheered in German but from Americans. Rooker slowly opened his eyes and realized that the planes were not Nazis but British air force; they were the desperately needed backup. Rooker and the medic watched in silence as Nazis fled as far as they could from the troops and airplanes. They had won…
1 year later…
General Rooker looked up into the evergreen trees from his wheelchair; he was back in his home of rural South Carolina. The war was over, ending with the utter defeat of the Axis powers, the war that is supposed to end all wars, but Rooker knew better. The circle of hatred would merely continue like the seasons. Rooker, during Operation Overlord, was shot in his knee and therefore shipped home to a veterans hospital he was decorated with numerous medals and was soon elevated to the rank of lieutenant. He married his high school flame and had one daughter. For the rest of his life he had an empty feeling in his heart about the things he had witnessed and done but his family helped him, including his father who made up with him.
Rooker stared at the mural with all the names of his fallen comrades and wept steadily. The war had taken much from him, but he knew that they were all proud of him. The End