The Old Breed

Chapter 1

Melbourne, Australia

September 20th, 1943

It was the picture that had kept me sane till this point. Not just any picture. The picture. Of her. The girl of my dreams, Jennifer Hotchkins. I had many pictures of Jen, but this one was my absolute favorite. It was her graduation photo, and I loved the way she smiled in it, her dimples and freckles, the way her eyes crinkled. She looked so happy in the picture, so free. I'd been with her the day that photo had been taken, had left an hour before the photoshoot, regrettable now as I stared again into the wrinkled photograph. The only thing wrong with the picture was the lack of color. The lack of gold in her hair, the ocean blue in her eyes, and the vibrant colors of the fall leaves in the background. We had both lived in St. Paul, and attended the same high school. To our friends, our romance had seemed like something out of a fairytale or book. On walking in first day of freshman year, I had tripped in the freshman hall, which I would soon learn would always be overcrowded and bustling with kids. The trip had been totally unintentional, a foot just catching mine, my forward momentum carrying me forward and then down. I had landed with a loud audible oomph, scattering my books across the floor, making the kids around me laugh, not in a funny way, but mean. My face turned bright red. I was mortified that I was already starting high school off on the wrong foot. Literally.

But then she had come, had helped me up, picked up my books with me. Several of the kids laughed again, told me how it took a girl to help me. I ignored them, focused only on her. Jennifer Hotchkins. She might not have been the most pleasant-to-look-at girl in our class, not like Margaret Patterson, who many called a goddess in human form. But to me, Jen was more beautiful than Margaret, more beautiful than any girl in any grade of Johnson Senior High. We'd hit it off almost instantly after that, becoming friends for a few days before becoming best friends, which, after a few days, grew to even more than that. By three weeks into school, we were one of the strongest couples in our grade, practically the whole school. We argued rarely, and when we did, we were always quick to make up. And make out. Boy, did we do a lot of that throughout high school.

The first day of summer after senior year, we spent most of the day canoeing through the Boundary Waters, Jen fascinated by the scenery. She had always been fascinated by nature. Towards late afternoon, though, we made landfall, had found a small island with a cove to put our canoe in during the night. We were going camping, had packed all of our equipment in this one canoe, my father's. With school, we rarely got a chance to spend some quality time together other than watching a film or going to the local park on the weekends. Even more rarely did we do nights, though we had a few times. But this night in the Boundary Waters had been different, had a special meaning over just sex. It was the last night before I would ship out to boot camp. Before I really joined the war.

World War II had been on now for almost half a year, but there hadn't been any serious action so far, other than... that day. December 7th, 1941. The day that took us all by surprise, had shocked America, angered America. The day when the Japs had surprise attacked us, rained hell down on our Navy, killed almost two and a half thousand Americans and wounded over a thousand more. Since then, many of the young men in our city had begun disappearing, volunteering to go over by the hundreds, thousands. Some of the seniors had dropped out of high school to take up arms, but my parents wouldn't allow me to do that. They believed I needed to get my diploma for after the war when I wanted to get into a good college using the GI bill. I didn't argue, was secretly relieved, got to spend a few more months with Jen before I left. In early May, though, I couldn't hold off any longer, walked myself down to the recruiters office, and joined up with the Marines. I understood the need for men to fight the Nazis, but to me, the Japs were the ones who had attacked our home, and it was my job to avenge the fallen men of Pearl Harbor by helping destroy the Japanese empire. And that's what the Marines said we would do and, by God, I believed them. When the recruiter asked if there was a certain day I would like to be shipped out, I told him the second day of summer. I wanted one day alone with Jen before I would leave.