Destiny by Don Brown

Author:Don Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: world war ii, dday, 101st airborne, christian historical, paratroopers, dday landings, christian war novel, royal naval commandos, wwii novel
Publisher: Mountainview Books, LLC

Chapter 32

Fort Bragg, North Carolina

August 8, 1942

Walter could not have lived with himself had he taken the medical deferment. Dr. Pap meant well, but in the end, he was accountable to God. Over Jessie’s protests and tears, he ripped up his deferment letter and reported for active duty.

The nine months that had passed since Billy was killed seemed like a decade. After finishing boot camp and basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Walter was stationed at Fort Bragg, the huge military reservation near Fayetteville, North Carolina, just 162 miles from Jamesville.

Cumberland County, North Carolina wasn’t what Walter had in mind in his pre-draft visions of the Army. He had envisioned going to France or Germany, winning the war, and then coming back to Jamesville to his job at the post office. But Uncle Sam had other ideas, at least for the time being.

While the Navy and Marines were fighting the Japs in the Pacific, Walter was plopped into a no-combat zone on a base in his own state as a corporal in the infantry. His routine was filled with daily target practice, marching, close-order drills, and spit shining his boots.

There were some advantages, however, to Fort Bragg. For one, he enjoyed a decided advantage over many of the other recruits in dealing with heat and humidity. The Army’s largest base, Fort Bragg was full of sand hills and pine trees and reminded him of his grandfather’s farm, of the scorching humid days working in tobacco with Baldy, Billy, and Woodrow. In the late afternoons in Fayetteville, just like Jamesville, the temperature climbed to nearly a hundred degrees. Then the mosquitoes started swarming just before a cool late-afternoon thunderstorm washed them out of the air. When the heavy rain and thunder broke, a chorus of crickets would play background music for a symphony of lightning bugs during a cool respite. Then, in an hour or so, the heat and humidity climbed back to ninety degrees and ninety percent.

These “dog days,” as the native Tar Heels called them, caused problems for many recruits, particularly those from California and other western states. All over the parade grounds, the western boys dropped like flies, suffering from heat stroke, exhaustion, or dehydration.

Medics rushed over the parade grounds during simulated combat exercises, loading the dehydrated Californians on stretchers and hauling them to sick bay, where they stuck smelling salts under their noses and poured water down their throats.

Though the westerners wilted like frail petunias in the hot sunshine, Walter remained tough during combat drills always among the first to finish the forced twenty-mile marches in full combat gear. He was also one of the most accurate marksmen among the new recruits—again, his experience on Baldy’s farm paying off. His stamina caught the eye of leadership and had earned him a quick field promotion from private first class to corporal.

Walter also liked Fort Bragg because it was close enough for him to drive home on furlough. He had driven the four-hour trek at least every third weekend since basic training at Fort Jackson.

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