Hopping over the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 7 An Introduction to the Important Things in Life: The Key to Living a “Rich” Life

“The years roll round and the last will comes; when I would rather have it said, He lived usefully, than, he died rich.”

—Benjamin Franklin

The assault boat hit the shore. The doors dropped and the bedlam of war began. My uncle was three rows from the door, and in the blink of an eye his life changed forever. Two feet in front of him sat a close childhood friend. A bullet flew through his head. The guy next to him, a close friend during basic training, was holding his wrist where his hand used to be. The air turned a tinge of pink as blood rained over everyone. Immediately, my uncle was pushed from behind as his fellow troops, or at least those that survived, rushed to get out of the boat.

It was June 6, 1944. American and British troops were storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, the operation that helped turn the tide of World War II.

My uncle fell off the boat into cold salt water. Coming off the landing platoon of the boat, he dropped his rifle as he went underwater. As he stuck his head under the water to retrieve it, he could see the streams of bullets inches from his face. The salt was burning his eyes. The noise was deafening, and yet, despite the chaos, everything seemed to move in slow motion. By the grace of God, my uncle and a few of the surviving troops from his ship made it to cover under a rock on the beach. They were pinned down by Nazi machine gunfire. They had ...