The sway of the boat was ever present and was something that the long journey made disappear from our minds. Our Bunks were smaller than our childhood beds, we were soldiers of constant groaning and nicotine addiction. The U.S.S Kingsport Victory was a ship that we have known for the last few months, it was our home and in fact, I have come to love it because of the safety that it provides me and my comrades. There have been nights of terrifying air raids, afternoons of U-boat threats and the death-defying moments of landing on a beach occupied by Imperial Japanese forces. The only thing that has kept most of us from going insane was the immense shipments of American cigarettes that take up most of the ship’s cargo and men’s free time. Cards…show more content… Sitting in our battle stations praying that god could save us one more shell, one more minute, one more hour, and one more night. We clung to life all the while life was doing its best to slip away from us, I made a comment about losing sleep on a night where not one soul on this boat could shut their eyes. We were distributed bits of chocolate because the major knew that the last thing we ate should remind us home, unluckily our night was a little distracting so no sweet treats were treated to our palette. The night sky that I was dreaming about was not filled with explosions and a constant thunder of shells hitting ships and the ocean. Fire would erupt leaving only death and destruction on the ship that it struck, the shells whistled through the sky. The seconds between the thunder were the worst, your death was coming towards you at thousands of miles an hour but it was truly a shot in the dark. The once starry night was interrupted by balls of fire, the slow sound of American radios were now being drowned out by the booms of artillery fire only to be followed to be a crash and explosion. This sound was known as thunder in the Navy and I can clarify damn well that it sounds like rolling thunder that will never let up, you pray and cry out asking for it to stop but God will not answer your
