WEBVTT

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(gentle music)

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- I'm George W. Hamm.

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I was drafted.

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I had two brothers, that was older than I,

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and they were married, and I wasn't married.

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And they thought, and I agreed with them,

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that I should go be the one of the family

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that would get drafted.

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And I joined the 30th Division.

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I think it was a week after they landed,

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and they landed, I think, six days after D-Day,

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and we had some fighting in France.

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And then we walked quite a distance,

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and we liberated Bostrik.

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After we left there, we got into Germany,

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see Bostrik is right on the border of Germany.

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And that's when we got in the first battle.

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So he said, no, I'm gonna send you instead of me,

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because I don't want all my officers

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and my non-coms to be in one patrol

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and get wiped out.

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And I'm gonna trade with you.

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Well, he traded with me, where my foxhole was,

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and of course, I wore eyeglasses,

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and he wore eyeglasses, and when we got back

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to where the sergeant that took my place,

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they said he just got killed.

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The sun hit his eyeglasses.

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The sniper was in the hospital

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over in the German territory,

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and he seen that reflection

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and got him right between the eye.

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And if I hadn't traded, it would've been me.

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You were just scared to death.

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You were just scared to death.

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And after, after a couple times,

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I thought, well, I'm not gonna make it home.

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'Cause I had a real close girlfriend

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We was gonna marry when we got home,

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and I just prayed for her to find a good man.

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It was a scary time,

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but the only time that I felt like I was safe

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was when I got on that boat

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and hit home, really.

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Yeah.