I always like to pull Ernie Pyle from the bookshelf on Veterans' Day and reflect a bit on the experiences of World War II vets. Here is a brief excerpt from Ernie's time at Anzio. It's not the stuff of movies or war novels, but it's real. From Hospital Ship in Brave Men, (At Anzio) "Once out there we had to lie off and wait for an hour or so while other LCTs finished unloading their wounded. As we lay at anchor, the officer in charge decided to transfer the walking wounded off another LCT onto ours. So it drew alongside, threw a line, and the two ships came against each other. The slightly wounded and sick men jumped across whenever the ships hit together.
A heavy swell was running and the ships would draw a few feet apart and then come together with a terrific bang. It was punishing to the wounded men. I stood among them, and every time we hit they would shut their eyes and clench their teeth.
One man, nearly covered with a cast, looked at me pleadingly and said, "Don't those blankety-blank so and sos know there are men here who are badly hurt?"
Occasionally shells screamed across the town and exploded in the water in our vicinity. The wounded men didn't cringe or pay any attention to this near danger, but the pounding of the ships together made them wild."
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