Eight million five hundred thousand and fifty-four soldiers died fighting in the Great War. One-hundred sixteen thousand five-hundred and sixteen United States soldiers died. Many of my friends dads went away and never came back. My dad did come back, so I was considered a lucky one but what I went saw while he was gone changed me forever.
When the Lusitania in May my father was furious. After the United States declared war on Germany two years later , like many other of my friends dads, he immediately enlisted in the army. He said he couldn’t sit around while the Kaiser murdered his fellow countrymen. He left for bootcamp in June 1917 and shipped out to France in July. He wrote letters home saying everything was going well but everyday, almost as regular as the mailman, a black Model T with the words US ARMY painted on the driver and passenger doors would be parked in front of a house in our neighborhood. My mother shivered every time she saw that car thinking that maybe this time it would be parked in front of our house.
While my father was away in Europe we received a check each month from the government for his service but that wasn’t enough for a mother and three children to live on so my mom got a job in one of the gun factories. She said that I too needed …show more content…
The soldier just ignored them and kept on his journey home. That’s when I realized what service and the American spirit was about. That soldier was brave enough to put his life on the line in a country one-thousand miles away in the war to end all wars just so a construction worker from Chicago has the right to hate him. That man to me was definiton of a hero. He knew when he was in Europe that he wasn’t only fighting for his rights or the right of the people of Europe but also the rights of racists and hate-filled
When the Lusitania in May my father was furious. After the United States declared war on Germany two years later , like many other of my friends dads, he immediately enlisted in the army. He said he couldn’t sit around while the Kaiser murdered his fellow countrymen. He left for bootcamp in June 1917 and shipped out to France in July. He wrote letters home saying everything was going well but everyday, almost as regular as the mailman, a black Model T with the words US ARMY painted on the driver and passenger doors would be parked in front of a house in our neighborhood. My mother shivered every time she saw that car thinking that maybe this time it would be parked in front of our house.
While my father was away in Europe we received a check each month from the government for his service but that wasn’t enough for a mother and three children to live on so my mom got a job in one of the gun factories. She said that I too needed …show more content…
The soldier just ignored them and kept on his journey home. That’s when I realized what service and the American spirit was about. That soldier was brave enough to put his life on the line in a country one-thousand miles away in the war to end all wars just so a construction worker from Chicago has the right to hate him. That man to me was definiton of a hero. He knew when he was in Europe that he wasn’t only fighting for his rights or the right of the people of Europe but also the rights of racists and hate-filled