Your Turn

I fly over the vast waters beneath me, the roar of the plane engine surrounding me. The sound is all I can hear, save for the occasional chatter on the squadron channel. Clouds surround my cockpit. A voice on the radio tells me to prepare myself. And I do. I am ready for what the future soon has to bring.

I check my flight instruments, activating my weaponry as it loads the primary ammo. I tip the nose forward, lowering my altitude to where I am just below the clouds. This is it, I think to myself. This is where I make my family proud. This where I make my country proud.

I see them. The targets. They float atop the sea like giant metal monstrosities. Moving dots litter the surfaces. They take the form of crewman as I get closer and closer. I look beside me and see a fellow pilot, smiling at me as we descend from the skies. Suddenly his aircraft explodes into a ball of burning steel and exploding ammo.

I move away from the cacophony, knowing that he will be forever praised back home. I get close enough to let loose the dive torpedo I have hooked underneath. I release it, the jolt sending me slightly off the seat. But it's okay. I was trained for this.

I pull the plane back up, anti-aircraft fire missing me as I re-adjust my seat. It's a little uncomfortable, but even the simplest of luxuries cannot be afforded in a time of war. I hear an explosion near-by, and peer over my shoulder; my torpedo has hit its target. I feel ecstatic. Nothing could make me happier than destroying my enemies.

My family would be so proud.

I spot another deck riddled with the enemy, all of them rushing around to man the mounted guns. I dive towards them, and suddenly time stops.

Is this what I want? Is my family truly proud of what I am doing? Is it not too late to return home, and see my younger brother once again? To hug my mother as she says how brave I was to join?

Yes. This is what I want. It is too late to return now, but I know they are proud of me. I can feel their joy as we defeat our enemies, as we send them to whatever God they believe in. I close my eyes, calm flowing over my body, and I know. I know something for certain, for the first time in my life; this is my destiny.

I scream and let loose with the on-board machine guns. The roar of the gunfire fills my ears. Suddenly my right wing explodes. But I am calm. I feel the glass of the cockpit shatter on to me, cutting me in several places.

But I am calm.

The plane spins violently, and my guns no longer work, but still I scream, and I scream. I feel bullets enter my flesh, the blood draining swiftly from my body. I am close enough now to see the whites in my enemy's eyes.

But I am calm.

Thank you, family and friends. Thank you for believing in me, for supporting me through my times of strife. And now I repay you, by sacrificing my life to take hundreds of the enemy's. For these are now enemies that cannot harm you.

They will never harm you in Nagasaki.

Pearl Harbor is ours, Americans.

Now, it's your turn.