Well heres the essay:


World War 2 seems so long ago; And it was, but for veterans of the war, it seems just like yesterday to them. My great uncle, Herbert ****** was in the war. He didn't fight in the war, but he did help keep the armies on the ground moving. Herb was an engineer for the Petroleum Distribution Company. Their primary mission was to design, construct, operate, and maintain military pipeline systems for transporting, distributing, and storing gasoline in a theatre of operations. They laid pipelines everywhere, putting pump stations every 10-15 miles. From North Africa, to Sicily, to Germany. Wherever General Patton and his army went, they followed not too far behind, supplying them with fuel.
After leaving the United States, the first place they were shipped to was North Africa. German snipers had to be taken out before they were deployed there. Herb described what it was like upon arriving there. "There were dead bodies floating in the harbor and we had to go pick them up and put them in the warehouse and stackem'. You always stack the bodies head to foot, head to foot, head to foot."
Laying pipeline isn't an easy job especially in bad conditions. "We worked in snow and sleet, and sometimes we were knee deep in mud." Herb explained, but these conditions were a lot better than the infantry's. "They would shoot their big toes off just to get shipped back to the United States. One general said "next one to do it, that will be it!" And from then on, there was no more of sticking the rifle down on your toe and pulling the trigger."
With all the work of building pump stations and laying pipelines they hardly found time to write back home. When they did write letters though, they had to be checked before sending them out. They would ink out things they didn't want you to say, such as naming specific places. Herb and his fellow engineers worked all day long, and at night is when they would finally get to somewhat relax.
Sometimes at night sirens would go off because of German air-raids. These were called "blackouts" because every light was to be put out, so the germans couldn't see the bases from the sky. Even a cigarette held in someone's hand could be seen thousands of feet up. "One night the air-raid sirens went off and I was working on the dock with my flashlight on, and it wouldn't go out for nothing. I beat it against the dock and against a post trying to get it to go out. Finally I threw it in the ocean, because thats the only thing I could think of to do. It's probably still burning down there to this day."
Herb continued working on these pipelines for about 4 years all the way into Germany, until the war finally ended. "The town exploded, Germans were even out in the street dancing, they wanted it over as bad as we did. Hitler should have been taken out a long time ago, and shot, and skinned, or whatever it is they did to them."
The sheer exicetment and joy felt when the war ended was something probably unimaginable. Something else unimaginable is trying to put myself in Herb's shoes. Even though he wasn't out there on the front line fighting he was still doing his part for his country. The work he did during the war is something that most people can't even begin to fathom, including me. This was all put into perspective as I ended the interview with my Great Uncle and thanked him for his time. "I'm just glad it was me instead of you there."