• Dear Johnny Berlin,

    I don’t want you to enlist in the army. It’s not all that you think it is. It’s not all fun and games its tough work. I watched this guy Billy Boy Watkins die. Do you want to know what happened to him? I’ll tell you what happened.

    One day we were out on the days march. Just after we started Billy Boy stepped on a mine it made a little sound. Poof! Billy Boy stood there with his mouth wide open.
    Looking down he saw that his foot had been blown off. Billy very casually sat down, not saying a word, with his foot lying behind him.

    “Wars over, Billy,” the men had said in consolation, but Billy got scared and started crying. He was about to die. “Nonsense,” the medic said, Doc Peret. But Billy kept bawling, tightening up, his face was going pale and transparent and his veins popping out. Scared stiff. When Doc Peret stuck him with morphine Billy kept crying.

    Billy died of fright. Afterward Doc Peret had explained: “You see, Billy Boy really died of a heart attack. He was scared he was going to die. So scared, he had a heart attack. That’s what really killed him.”

    They wrapped Billy in a plastic poncho. His eyes were still wide open scared stiff. They put him on a Helicopter and it started to lift off when he fell out. Fell into the water. Later we went probing for Billy with our riffle butts, elegantly and delicately probing, in the stinking paddy. Singing, some of us, “Where have you gone, Billy Boy, Billy Boy. Oh, where have you gone, Charming Billy?”

    That’s why you don’t want to enlist in joining. You could die like he did. I don’t want you to die. Ok so that’s what I am going to tell you about it.

    Yours truly,
    Private First Class
    Paul Berlin



    By Michaela [Kayla]