Grampa Joe | Teen Ink

Grampa Joe

November 15, 2010
By Daniel Hernandez BRONZE, Aurora, Colorado
Daniel Hernandez BRONZE, Aurora, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

People might have heard of the World War 2, other people might of not, but the World War 2 was one of the biggest war that has ever been. My grandpa was a soldier there, and he had a terrible life at first.

My grandpa is called Joe Olivas; he was one of the people that helped save the world, but he had problems there. In 1941 the U.S was dropped off at Berlin, one of the places the war took place,is right ear he only hears a ringing sound, and in his left ear he hears a ding sound, so when someone talked to him he had to turn his head so that he can hear the person talking correctly, With the Panthers and there 88s, that made him lose his hearing a lot faster. He also got amnesia, in case if you don’t know amnesia is when you forget things, hear things, and you sometimes see things, he got this from the shooting and of the things that he saw. He said that when the tanks shot it as loud as a crazy girl screaming in his ear.

My grandpa went through traumatic stress, traumatic stress is when you have a memories of what happened in the war, for example when he heard a plane passing by his house he would wake up, throw his wife off the bed get under the bed and say that they’re under attack, he says, “It was one of the worst moments of his life”, which I might agree because of what he told me and the experience he had.

When my Grandpa went to the villages he saw terrifying things like dead bodies of villagers, Nazis, dead animals, and equipment, “These things were horrible” he says. One time he dreamed that he killed two men then he went to a living room, and sat down and looked straight ahead…he saw 2 figures looking right at him, he couldn’t exactly see the faces, then a dog comes with a human bone and starts chewing on it, he said that he tried kicking the dog away and he can’t.

When my grandpa was at war they assign a person a buddy due to the fact every person gets half a tent and 2 sheets, once they’re with their buddy they form the tent and sleep in it. The tent wasn’t so great it was about 3 feet tall. So the partner my grandpa was called Paul Krowets his main buddy, they had to be together in the whole war. His adviser, they called him, “Danger in the field”, it was pretty cool, and his partners/teammates were…well at least their last names were Carlson, Floyd Crumley, and buttler was the platoon leader. These were brave men that either lost their lives or some are still alive.

The tanks that they had were panthers with their 88s, the enemies had Sherman’s with their 37mm. The guns that my grandpa would have were mp40’s, bazooka, snipers, shot guns, machine guns, and 50 calibers. My grandpa said that there were pill boxes. Pill boxes are like boxes with a whole where a machine gun would be shooting the U.S. He also said that the men would be on their bellies and throwing grenades in the pill boxes, but it was hard for him not to get shot.

When my grandpa went into a building and saw bodies of people lying on the ground, and they were only skin and bones, he said they suspected something, so when they found a door they got ready to shoot, when they saw live people that were skin and bones. My grandpa and his partners helped them out of the building when they noticed that it was a concentration camp. He said, “It was one of the worst things that he has ever seen”. My grandpa and his teammates called the people of the concentration camp “The Living Dead”.

The last place he had to go was Berlin where Hitler’s hide out was in World War 2. This war was across a huge river called Elbe River he said it wasn’t as bad as the rest he also said that since the bridge was destroyed the engineers had to build something, so that the tanks, trucks and other things to get across. He said that they had a general called Hershey, and his tanks were kind of like the panthers and the 88s that the enemies had. Then he said that they all had to regroup in Berlin so that they can take over Berlin. Then in February in 1945 the Yalta meeting was held, and President Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin changed everything and never mind the blood that was spilled, they told the Russians that were miles away take Berlin and the U.S to return back to the other side of the river which was a huge river so they will take a long time to go back.

Now, in October 20,2010 My grandpa is living at 86 years old and he is as strong as the hulk. Even though he isn’t as healthy due to the fact he has to carry a oxygen tank, he is still a very strong man living a good life with his wife Sally.



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