was a child my second-grade teacher was horrified when I wrote that one of
the things I looked forward to was World War III. I drew a picture of myself
manning a machine gun. I thought it was so cool that my grandfather had
fought in World War II and that he was a soldier in the Pacific. I had asked
him about his war experience, and he said, “I went over there, got shot and
came back.”
Listening to that made it sound like a small experience. I had assumed that
he had only been there for a month or so, but years later I found out that he
was in combat for the better part of four years. It’s a miracle he lived. He never
talked about it, and many of