Having two separate lives is difficult to keep, one at home with my wife and two kids and
the other at the Army base. Being a Brigadier General of the Army I am always busy especially now since the US is in another World War. Instead of being in a safe area, I like being on the battlefield with the rest of the squad and fighting. I am at the home with my wife and kids trying to spend as much time with them as I possibly can before leaving overseas to a little island base by Japan. I will be gone for about 10 months unless we end the war quick. Being 54 years old, 5’11, 185 pounds, bald with a bushy beard and almost blind in one eye, because of getting hit with the end of a gun in the eye, my time here is coming to an end. I know it’s not military code but that’s the way I liked how to look. I have 1 day left until I leave so I spending it with my family. We are having a picnic in the backyard of our house, relaxing, looking at the sky. My son, Eli, asks me if I ever killed a person while I was gone. I replied “yes I have, but if I didn’t kill him he would’ve killed me and my friends.” He asked a few questions about what I do when I’m gone; I answered them all, honestly. After he didn’t speak to me for the rest of the day, like I was some kind of stranger to him. I headed inside to get a glass of whiskey when I heard a knock on the door. It was a Private 1st class delivering a letter. It was from a Lieutenant General saying that I must leave to the island base near Japan immediately. I was thrown back a bit. I don’t know why but I was nervous to go, after all these years of coming back and forth. I’ve heard of a project that the military was working on that consisted of using nuclear bombs against Japan to end the war. I wasn’t too sure about this nuclear bomb and going to Japan if they dropped it there, I didn’t know how big the blast radius is or if will reach the other islands that are close by like mine but I didn’t want to be anywhere near it if it is true. I had to break the news to my family. They were heartbroken and sad that the time we had left was cut short but they knew I had to leave. Unlike the other times I had left, this one was a bit more emotional for me and my family. It’s like they knew something was going to happen to me while I was there. I said my goodbyes and left with the Private 1st class on the jeep.