Personal Narrative: The LCVP Team

The next minute I felt a hand on my shoulder completely pulling me like a ragdoll back into the ditch. I could still hear the agony in the dead soldier’s voice. Then Larry exclaimed, “GET YOURSELF TOGETHER HAYES!” and began to listen to Lt. Arthur on what to do next. They were shooting at us from a small farmhouse to our northeast. All around us was as flat ground so we needed a diversion. Cover fire was ordered and we began to approach a bundle of trees near the farm house. Still recovering from the horror, I just witnessed, I ran for my life to a nearby tree where we were supposed to take cover.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

”At the time of the attack I was in my room shaving. The word was passed "Away Fire and Rescue Party;" just as I was leaving my room the second word was passed for all hands to man their General Quartets Stations closely followed by a shock of a hit. I glanced at my clock as I was leaving my room and noticed the time was a few minutes before 8:00 A.M. I started for my station in Radio Central; as I was passing along the third deck up a port ammunition passageway, I felt two more hits. The lights went out in the passageway except for one battle light and two panel lights in the boat crane machinery space. By the time I reached the compartment abreast the armory the ship had picked up a ten to fifteen list to port; there were a couple of battle lights on in this compartment. Water and oil were bubbling up along the junction of the bulkhead and deck of the electrical work shop, port side”(D.L. Westfall)

Livermore Valley Charter Preparatory, LVCP, is a high school where people can come to learn, get a good education, and it is also a place where no one judges you. LVCP is also small, opening, and welcoming. It is a California Public Charter High School that is authorized by the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. A charter school is a public school that operates independently of a local school board. When I first signed up for LVCP, I was nervous because I thought that I wouldn’t know anyone. When I first entered through the doors of LVCP, I saw other freshmen, juniors, seniors, and sophomores. I am short, unsure of my future, and a great student.

All bullets were counted, beds made, uniforms cleaned, this occurred until suddenly 03:45 arrived. “Men, the time is nearly here,” my words choked as self-hatred flooded my body, “What we do here today will be remembered for generations to come, we fight today not only for ourselves, but all who we know. All our mates and family who live back home!” A faint cheer followed my speech as I steadied myself for what was to come. “We charge in 5 minutes. We charge not only for our freedom but for the freedom of our country. For the freedom of the world!” Spit filled the air from the cheer which erupted from my unit this time. A unity formed over the men, a cold malevolent sweat captured me. Who was I to send these boys to their death? A resolve set inside me, I would fight alongside my men, their lives are worth the same as mine. 04:00 “THIS IS IT MEN! WE FIGHT FOR THE WORLD!” I screamed as I led the charge. Vaulting out of the trench I saw no man’s land clearly for the first time. Death was everywhere, flies swarming the pools of blood. The land so barren of life no greenery was seen. A cold resolution set over me, it was the Germans fault, they caused

We all sleep and rest and eat in the trenches, but it’s not paradise. One night, the sound of loud booms woke us up. We were being attacked by some very dangerous artillery. We could feel every boom and every crack in the dirt above us. Many soldiers were not prepared for this and got sick. The attack come out of nowhere and frightened all of us.

Leading up to the attack, on June 6 1944, the U.S. Eighth Air Force and British Bomber Command repeatedly plastered the coastline with heavy aerially bombardment with the main focus being Point du Hoc. Pointe du Hoc was a 100ft cliff overlooking the English Channel. It lied 4 miles west of the center to Omaha Beach. It was also the highest point between Omaha beach on the east and Utah beach on the west. On the morning of 6 June, at 0445, 225 Soldiers comprised of Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot Companies, 2nd Ranger Battalion boarded their Landing Craft Assault (LCA) boats and headed out. The boats were crewed by British forces and they carried 22 men on each one. Upon headed out into the choppy sea for an hour-long trip to their destination. Riding in the landing craft was rough and cold, and several Rangers became seasick. Others worked vigorously to empty water out of the boats in an effort to keep them from sinking. One LCA capsized, leaving the assault team with twenty-two less men for the mission. As the early morning sun began to rise, the Rangers quickly realized something wasn’t correct. They were supposed to start the H-hour at 0630. The

And soon I came to know, that I might not make it for another round.

“Stop!” he thunders, but it’s too late. The enemy, seeing you stand and run, has opened fire. You sprint for your trenches, forgetting the others exist, but you feel something smash through the back of your skull. There is a flash of fiery agony, then everything blazes white. But you still have time to see your friends fall around you. Dead, because you tried to

Once the outskirts were cleared out and no one was found there we continued down that road towards the town center and that church. As we closed in on the town we heard sporadic gun fire to the east. You could even hear the distinct sound of the Germans dreadful MG-42, which we have nicknamed “Hitler’s Buzz saw.” Once we heard that our Captain who leads our platoon yells for us to hurry to assist 6th platoon to our east.

It was all so incredible, and then they were told of the ships off the coast, one of which was an aircraft carrier, which the soldiers found hard to believe. The civilians told them where to look, where

As I arrived at the next safe spot, I said "See? That worked well. Lets do it again!" I started to unload and gave him his signal. He ran, I ran. He ran, I ran. We continued that method until he reached the wall of the bunker. He stepped out a foot, gave me the signal, and I ran my final run to the bunker. As I was running I pulled the pin, and chucked the ovoid object through the bar across the front of the bunker where no concrete was. I ran into the wall below it, crouched and covered my ears. I felt the explosion rattle my lungs and opened my eyes and looked up. There was a German soldier hanging, dead, half-in, half-out of the bunker, covered in soot from the explosion of the

After a challenging move from De Pere to Sturgeon Bay between my freshman and sophomore year, I can officially say that I have adapted well to my new community. In the beginning of sophomore year, one of my goals was to become as involved in my new high school as I was my old high school. I have accomplished that by becoming a part of the soccer team and joining a variety of clubs that all mean a lot to me. For example, A-Team works with other students that have learning disabilities to make social interaction a little more comfortable. In my opinion, creating a better learning environment for them not only benefits all of the students in that environment but it feels really rewarding.

We went back to FOB McHenry after the Medevac arrived. We never caught up with the rest of the elements, so we were never even a part of the main effort. My vehicle had to be towed to the FOB, so we received a ride from another platoon. Once we got back there my Senior Scout took me to go look at my vehicle in the maintenance bay. There was a hole exactly where the TC seat was. The pieces started to come together. I couldn’t push through the kill zone because the battery box is under the TC seat, so with the battery gone, we weren’t going anywhere. We had never been blown up on a dirt road, it has always been on a main route, and it usually came from the side of the road, never underneath. This was a game changer for us.

We heard approaching footsteps so we hid inside some bushes. Later in the day, we ran into heavy German resistance. We heard a German shouting to us. One of our guys translated the German into English; "YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO SURRENDER OR WE WILL SWEEP THE DITCH FROM BOTH ENDS, AND THERE WILL BE NO CHANCE OF ANYONE SURVIVING." Lt. Bodak gave the order to surrender, but a few of us slipped through a hedgerow and fled towards a barn. As we entered the barn, three German Soldiers were trying to get out of the same door. We grabbed the German Soldiers and pulled them back inside. We had them as prisoners. While the prisoners were being guarded, I slipped away alone to another part of the barn. I pulled up a loose floorboard and stuffed my package which contained General Falley's command post flag, replaced the floorboard and covered it with straw. With our German prisoners as insurance, we left the barn safely. After travelling a few hundred yards, we came face to face with a German Tank, which fired its big gun at us. A shell exploded just behind our group, wounding many. One of the prisoners although bleeding from his wounds jumped up and waved cease-fire gestures to the tank commander. The insurance paid off, the tank commander decided to take prisoners rather than kill us. After being taken prisoner, we walked several miles to a chateau where there were about 250 prisoners, American, British