Andrew Margulis
10/8/08
Period 8
Irving Margulis, an eighty-six year old World War II veteran, laid in his bed in the Kessler Rehabilitation Center after undergoing hip surgery. Despite fighting over sixty years ago, Mr. Margulis remembered every detail of the war: dates, generals, and battles. If not for the nurseinterruptingthe interview, he would have spoken about the war for hours. As he talked, you could look into his eyes and see:, his vision, his memory,, and see the faces of fallen comrades flash in front of him.
“There was no question I was for the war,” explained Irving. “The Japanese attacked us and we had no other choice.” Supporting the war and willing to fight in war are is not one in the same. “I was fearful that they would find something that would allow me not to fight, Andrew, God’s honest truth,” Mr. Margulis adamantly declared in through a truthful voice that you knew he was telling the truthsaid he, and was not just being politically correct.
Most people envision that the War was fought by the poor and the uneducated. However, Mr. Margulis was a college-educated Jewish boy from Brooklyn. Ironically, being his college education, which was an extremely rare level of schooling for a soldier in his infantry unit, one of the only college-educated soldiers in his infantry eventually led to the the saving of his life. Private Margulis was in the “A” company of the 383rd infantry regiment of the 96th infantry division of the US army. The Ccolonial knew from past experience with the Private, that he had a background in finance. “The Colonial asked me if I would help him out,” Irving quietly statedexplained. “A rule of thumb in the army was to listen to whatever the colonial said; if he jumps off a building, you jump with him.”
“The Colonial reassigned me from the A Company and put me into the tax service in the Headquarters Company,” emphatically stated the soldierveteran. He explained that the officers ate in their own mess hall, and had to pay for their own meals. However, the unbalanced accounting books did not balance suggesteding that someone was stealing. This prompted the commanding officers to investigate this the matter. “He asked me to reconcile the books and records and to get them up to date,” stated Mr. Margulis with pride, as he rose sat up in his bed. “Not only did I get out of A company, but I was also paid 75 dollars a month in addition to my regular stipend,!” stated Irving exclaimed withwith a a smirksmirk on his face.
The A company ended up being the first ones to storm the beaches of Okinawa and other islands in the Ppacific. “ The A Company had 100 percent casualties,” somberly stated Irving. “That means all my friends were either killed or severely injured for life.” Mr. Margulis started to sweat profuselyperspire, and it was easy to tellevident that he understood how lucky he was to be switched out of that company. Irving gravely said, “If I were not switched out of that company, you would not have a grandfather today.” It is easy to Through these comments, one can realize the severity of the war while listening to the old veteran. Often, the death toll is just a numbers, and does not mean much to us until we can understand that people’s lives were are actually being lost.
Adjusting to war is something you can never get used to. The conditions are unbearable during combat: blistering heat, the pouring rain, or sleeping in awith a puddle for a pillow. “People wouldn’t complain about things today if they knew what we went through in the war,.” Irving critically statedaffirmed.
Often people have skewed views as regardingto what a hero means. Is Alex Rodriguez a hero because he can hit a baseball very far, or? Or is a hero a soldier or firefighter who puts their his or her life on the line every day to defend others. “I can’t say I was a hero by any stretch of the imagination,” responded Mr. Margulis. “I don’t want to make it out like I was a hero. I never killed anyone, but I was there.” Being there is all that was needed;, Mr. Margulis is a hero in the eyes of Americans..