Familiar Heroes, part V of V

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Sgt Rock moved carefully through the ruined farmhouse, returning to Easy Company from the command post.  A slightly feral and very nasty grin was plastered on his face...And rightfully so.  Easy Company had come all the way through North Africa, Sicily, Italy, D-Day, though France, and across the Rhine.  Now, the final push was about to begin.  

After collecting God knows how many dogtags off of men who'd died under his leadership, Sgt Rock was ready for the war to end.  He knew that it wasn't won yet, but you could smell victory from here.

He gathered his squad leaders together to brief them.  

"Intelligence says that our Mustangs have destroyed the last kraut armor and artillery in our sector, and now we're going to crush them flat.  We attack in 60 minutes."

Ice Cream Soldier, the babyfaced corporal - the last man from his original platoon from stateside - looked at him skeptically.

"Intelligence says lots of things, Sarge."

"I've seen the aerial photos myself.  They really are busted flat.  Now get your asses in gear and get your men ready."

Ice Cream Soldier gave him an eager grin.  It was nice having the enemy on the ropes, after all this time.

After a duration that seemed like hours, a flare went up and a whistle blew.  Sgt Rock jumped out of his foxhole and ran forward howling...Drowned out by the howls of the men behind him.

Looking ahead, he saw Germans jumping out of their holes and fleeing.

"We've got them on the run, boys!  Keep up the scare!  We're not going to beat them, we're going to RUIN them!", he bellowed.

This was what life was all about.  Fighting a truly evil enemy, fighting it hard, and then brutally crushing it.

"SARGE!  SARGE!  CEASE FIRE!"

Sgt Rock looked at his radio operator.

"What the hell...?", he began.

"Battalion is on the line", the kid shouted, "IT'S OVER!  The Germans have announced an unconditional ceasefire!  The war is over!"

Sgt Rock stopped and stood on the hilltop that the Germans had previously been occupying.  He stood quietly, stock still.

"What does it mean?", asked Ice Cream Soldier.

Sgt Rock raised his Thompson submachine gun in the air, and stared up into the sky.

"It means...VICTORY!", he bellowed, and found himself being hoisted up into the air on his men's shoulders, as they all repeated that one word, over and over again, "VICTORY...VICTORY...VICTORY".  Sgt Rock pumped his weapon in the air over and over again.  It was like being born again.  It was the finest moment of Sgt Rock's life.  It was the finest moment in history.  Nobody would EVER forget this day.

<tick tock>

The night shift attendant looked at the old man lying in his bed in the old folks home, feebly moving his right arm an inch or so into the air, tonelessly mumbling an unintelligible word to himself, over and over again.  He glanced at his supervisor.

"What do you suppose...Mr Rock?...is thinking right now?"

"Who the fuck knows?", his supervisor sneered, "Just another old sack of bones waiting to die.  They're all the same.  Let's go have a smoke before the old geezer pisses himself again."

[LMNO]

Oh, goddamn it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh, goddamn it.

What?

[Phox]

:horrormittens:

[Adios]

Fuck me.

And the Truth will make you weep.

[LMNO]

Oh, goddamn it.

What?

Oh, no negative criticisms.  You just made me see humanity crapping on it's own chest again, is all.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

Moral of the story:  Be careful who you feel sorry for.

[Phox]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

I know. And we have a country full of them. 

[Adios]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

Moral of the story:  Be careful who you feel sorry for.

Why pity them, though? Their choices brought them to that point.

[Epimetheus]

Out with the old, in with the new!  

[The Good Reverend Roger]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

Moral of the story:  Be careful who you feel sorry for.

Why pity them, though? Their choices brought them to that point.

Maybe.  Or maybe circumstances never put them in a position to rise to the occasion.  The WWII generation was tough as nails, having come through the depression, the dustbowl, and then the war...But had these things not occurred, they would have been every bit as complacent as the generations before and since.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This is kind of a moment for me.  When I was a kid, way back in the year dot, I was surrounded by WWII vets, and thus Sgt Rock was my favorite comic.  It didn't sugarcoat the war.  It depicted the war as a brutal meatgrinder, with victory far from assured.

I've always wanted to write a Sgt Rock story, but until this morning - when I was daydreaming in yet another endless meeting - I couldn't think of anything that would do it justice.  This hit me like a thunderbolt...The Sgt Rock series was cancelled without ever dealing with the end of the war, or anything that came after.

So this happened.

[Adios]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

Moral of the story:  Be careful who you feel sorry for.

Why pity them, though? Their choices brought them to that point.

Maybe.  Or maybe circumstances never put them in a position to rise to the occasion.  The WWII generation was tough as nails, having come through the depression, the dustbowl, and then the war...But had these things not occurred, they would have been every bit as complacent as the generations before and since.

Don't you think there are still some pretty tough people out there? I do. Unfortunately the paper hangers have decided to give them bad labels.

[Adios]

This is kind of a moment for me.  When I was a kid, way back in the year dot, I was surrounded by WWII vets, and thus Sgt Rock was my favorite comic.  It didn't sugarcoat the war.  It depicted the war as a brutal meatgrinder, with victory far from assured.

I've always wanted to write a Sgt Rock story, but until this morning - when I was daydreaming in yet another endless meeting - I couldn't think of anything that would do it justice.  This hit me like a thunderbolt...The Sgt Rock series was cancelled without ever dealing with the end of the war, or anything that came after.

So this happened.

I was a fan as well. Hard men in a hard place day after day.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

:horrormittens:

Yeah, I feel bad for the attendants in that story.

Sgt Rock spends every day - in his head - reliving the one of the finest moments in history, one that he took part in, each time as if it were actually happening, fresh each time as if it had never happened before, over and over again.

The attendants change diapers and bedding for old people, every day, forever, never having the imagination to conceive of, let alone participate in, anything nearly as glorious.

Moral of the story:  Be careful who you feel sorry for.

Why pity them, though? Their choices brought them to that point.

Maybe.  Or maybe circumstances never put them in a position to rise to the occasion.  The WWII generation was tough as nails, having come through the depression, the dustbowl, and then the war...But had these things not occurred, they would have been every bit as complacent as the generations before and since.

Don't you think there are still some pretty tough people out there? I do. Unfortunately the paper hangers have decided to give them bad labels.

Sure there are.  But with the exceptions of the kids overseas - a much smaller percentage of the population - there hasn't been any fire to temper them.  Just assurances that the government is "keeping them safe".

Safety is the enemy.  It makes humans indolent.  I'm not advocating war, of course, but I am advocating allowing a little more risk into peoples' lives.  They've outlawed DODGEBALL in schools, for fuck's sake.