Being an American

So, after drawing all of these Pacific World War II drawings, I have decided I could never be as good of an American as those who have served in the military. I wish I could call my self an American, but I just don't seem to have the guts too give my life for my country. Just imagining what it must have been like. It honestly scares me to think about it. Just looking at your fellow soldiers and knowing that one or two or even all of them might night make it back home to see their wives, kids, girlfriends, mothers,fathers brothers or sisters. Along with the thought that you yourself may not make it back either. Cause when you think about it, why do we really fear death? It's not like your gonna know that your dead or remember anything. I guess the majority of the fear comes from not knowing what or if their is another life. The fear that all you will become is nothing with no fear, no sadness, no happiness, absolute nothing and even more beyond nothing.
Art and sketches and murals just aren't enough for me. They only sooth the eyes and the brain. Writing only captures the imagination. I want to capture the feeling and the emotion. Except the only way to do that is to actually be there. You would have had to be alive in the 1940's, fighting along side your fellow man, charging through the battle field as bullets and whizzed by you with only an inch to spare. The sound of mortars dropping from the sky and exploding with a thunderous sound and a shock wave that hits your body like pillow fight. The dirt being sprayed over you and all you can hear is the sound of rifles and machine guns firing endlessly. Along with that small thought in the back of your head, "Am I going to die?" Waiting for the pinch and sting of a bullet hitting you, or the feeling of metal from an explosion ripping your skin like a billion paper cuts and breaking your bones like a pencil.

I honestly have a hard time imaging the feeling, you can only experience it. So, I tip my hat too all those who have served our country or any other country. Cause they have gone through something that I hope I never have to go through, nor any person. We think life hurts when we are broken or emotionally hurt, these men KNEW what it was truly like to be broken and hurt.
For us, life will go on. For them, it was a question of would life go on?