by IronRaven
The Justice League and related entities are property of DC Comics. The Second World War is the heritage of all free people.
---
My Dearest-
I hope this letter finds you and our parent's safe and well. I received your letter dated the 12th just before we went into lockdown, but I was very glad to learn that cousin John has gone to Midway City to work at the a truck plant. By this time, you will have learned the operation I was just a part of. That is, if the censors don't just burn this letter, but they might. It wasn't as bad as a lot of people are going to make it sound. We were completely blindsided by those lousy, bushwhacking Krauts, but we made them pay for everything they got back.
The beach was the wost part. We been on it for almost six hours before the fly boys could provide real assistance. That is about the time we got some help. The evacuation of Allied troops had proceeded as smoothly as could be expected. The Blackhawks and other Allied fighter and bomber groups had been doing their darndest to keep give those falling back to the beach a chance. These four people who were assisting the evacuation were doing the work of hundreds each, easily. I don't know where they came from, but they are heroes in the truest sense of the word.
The big guy in red and blue had the truck I'd loaded the bits and pieces left of the platoon and a couple others. It hadn't been my platoon two days ago, but we lost the Lieutenant when the Nazi's made their first serious push back at us. This one man, he picked up an entire two and half ton truck, so loaded down with personnel that the springs could compress no more. We had been forced to leave our dead behind, just the fighting and the wounded. Most of us on the truck were both. He dropped out of the sky like an angel, told us to hang on, and picked us up like it was a tin toy, while bullets literally bounced off of him.
He flew, hon, flew! And set us down as gentle as you please on the tail of a transport. No, I haven't been hit on the head, and no, I hadn't been given anything for pain. He waited while we carried the wounded off. I will say this for the boys in the navy- they always have a pot of coffee going. Everyone got a cup once the deck was clear, even if the mug wasn't too clean by that point. It was all the thanks he would take. He wasn't military, but you could tell just by looking he wasn't a soldier. He was there because he was a special man, a super man. Hitler talks about the Ubermenchen, the higher men. Laugh at him- the men of the next century are already with us and on our side.
Our saviour had the hands and eyes of someone who grew up on the farm, even if he talked like a city man. He was the kind of man who men want to follow. I had to ask him his name, just to thank him. Hon, I want to name our first son after him. He said his name was Clark. I think it has a good ring to it.
Hon, I've got to go. Lt. Wayne just called a meeting of all the officers and NCOs in the battalion. He's the most senior officer we have left, but they will be sending him home soon. He and Doc have done a good job hiding it, and he's been needed, but he has a ricochet lodged in his back right against his spine. He's probably going to be ok so long as he can get into the hospital before it moves too much. Either way, he's going home. I hope he does well. Even if he is from the city and was born rich, he isn't a jerk like you might think. He will be in my prayers, and hope you will include him in yours. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to make it back to the beach.
Tell everyone that I am well, and not to worry. I will write again soon. Give them my love, even if you get most of it, dear Martha. I'm going to lick this and stick it in the mail bag now, or I'll keep writing and never get to the meeting.
Thinking of you constantly
SSgt Jonathan Kent
3rd Rangers
---
Author's Notes:
War is the stupidest damn thing humans can do. It is also the place where humanity's best shows. Have you thanked a vet this week?
This was origionally going to be posted for on June 6, 2004, but was delayed for reasons various and sundry. However, posting on January 23, 2005, is no less significant. On this date in 1942, the Japanese occupied Rabul, which would become the key command facility of the Empire's southern most forces. In 1945, the Afrika Corps began thier evacuation from Tripoli to the sea, boarding transports and leaving behind no small degree of heavy armoured vehicles. Further north, the Battle of the Bulge was neary over, and the Allies had officially retaken St Vith.
This scene is an image I've had bouncing around in my head since Savage Time first aired. It's hokey, but that has a certain attraction. By our standards, the morals and culture of that time is kind of hokey. And we really are corrupt and decadant.