So Call Us Angels

A troubled soldier in World War II kills for the first time.

In the briefing tent before we deploy, our commanding officer tells us the Krauts all deserve to die. In his dusty Southern drawl, he says it's our duty as Americans to kill each and every one of them without hesitation. Without remorse.

All of us, the pale, beardless almost-men of Fox Company, we nod. We salute. We do what we're programmed to.

On the drop plane before we parachute in, bouncing around inside the metal fuselage, our CO's words remain tattooed on the inside of my head.

I will kill the Germans.

Without hesitation.

Without remorse.

It's not until I've got a German soldier in the sights of my rifle that I forget everything. My numb, sweaty finger on the trigger, I watch as he sprints across the field we're defending, dodging bullets and mortars and mutilated bodies.

It's in this moment that I realize the man I'm about to kill is just that: a man. I can see his family back home, back in Germany, waiting for him. His wife and two kids, I see them counting the days until he comes home.

I see what I'm about to destroy.

My commanding officer turns to me.

"Scrag that son of a b***h!" he yells over the rifle fire.

I panic.

I pull the trigger.

The German goes down in an anti-climactic heap. In my mind's eye, I see the picture of the soldier's family go up in flames. As his life ends, their lives are ruined.

A silent apocalypse.

You folks back home, you worship us. You see us as the God-sent protectors of the nation.

You've got it all wrong. We're the grim reapers of a generation, the genocidal wretches who get off by destroying families one husband at a time.

So call us angels. Call us the arbiters of a divine power.

Call us what you want.

We're not what you think we are.

Author's Note

This story in no way reflects my views of our soldiers. I love our troops and all that they do for us in order to keep us safe. The narrator here is simply troubled by his first kill. God bless the armed forces.

Reviews

[Annie N.]

"Without hesitation.
Without remorse."

This was just so amazing and this story just spoke to me :) in silent words you speak so much!!!

[Letemdangle]

A silent apocalypse. Made me think the end of human kind occurs one small apocalypse at a time.

[Jackson Keller]

Powerful. You made me stop and think for a few minutes about war and the people that die out in the battlefield. A+ work good sir.

[MR_BERG]

This is a brave piece taking on an honest point of view. I won't harry you about punctuation, spelling or syntax. Stay with your message through the piece.

[Proletariat Uprising]

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.