Summer Camp Shilo

Just outside and above the dank, earthy trench that gave a whole new meaning to the word “terroir”, a frosty bleakness awaited Private Masterson or “Bat” to his buddies. Aching everywhere from the cramped position of half-sleeping and half-shivering alertness, Bat painfully unwound himself from within the muddy depths and strained to ever so slightly peek over the sandbag that was far more sand than bag. His eyes darted about in the darkness, fearing that every shadow out there was the enemy. Despite his well-trained ears, the countless hours of preparation and a tad of common sense, Bat was convinced his fingers would fail to act before the enemy did.

Damn it, the enemy probably doesn’t have his icy-cold fingers immobilized while securely wrapped around the file butt in clenched-fist fashion. He desperately longed to put on the double layered issued gloves for protection from the cold night air but shook his head. He needed to feel his rifle, nicknamed “cool-stroke”, in its most natural state; riding bareback, no prophylactics. This was no time to practice “safe-rifling” except to ensure that his thumb was at the ready to switch the safety off.

Bat tilted his neck back with great effort under the severe weight of his helmet and paused for a moment in awe. The night sky glimmered with millions, he guessed, of flickering stars against an inky black ebony sky. Dazzled by the sight he let his attention shift from fear of the enemy, completely mesmerized by the beckoning lights. He decided that if there was a heaven and this was it, he could face his immortality while riding along the hundreds or perhaps thousands of meteor showers flying through the August prairie night sky.
This was his moment of reckoning where he realized all of those weeks of training, drilling and yelling had come down to this moment. With a start he heard his commander’s barking order to attack viciously slice through the bitterly cold air. It was ok Bat reassured himself; he would be all right no matter what the outcome. Confidence rejuvenated, he clambered out of the trench and went over the top. The stars were with him.