HOW MANY DID YOU KILL

"I met a man today who fought with the Americans in Italy in WW2.

He'd traveled with his dad to Europe several years before the war. When in Germany, he'd asked his dad, "Why are there so many soldiers? Why are there so many airplanes? What's going on here?" 

His dad told him that there would soon be a terrible war.

When this boy was 16, he enlisted and wound up in Italy with the American Army. He said that he decided to kill as many Germans as he could. This is what he told everybody.

He said when he caught his first German POW, both he and the German boy burst into tears.

Now, when his grandkids ask him how many Germans he killed in the war, he says, "None, I hope."

From "Regaining Your Soul" at QUIDNUNC