Edward Watson > Quotes

“George finally finished the assembly, and we went to our firing position. Then we heard Ray. "Jesus Christ, Lehrer, you shot a cat?"   We crossed over to the position and there it was—a gunshot cat struggling to walk about fifteen yards away. Even at that distance Lehrer had barely managed to hit. "Get your ass down there and kill him. Hell, no, you won't fire again! Go down and use a stone." Westmoreland came up and looked at the mess. "Sergeant Gra- ziano, if that man pulls one more stupid stunt he will be transferred to quartermaster, unloading ammunition trucks." He walked away without another word. We had failed miserably in responding to an attack. Lehrer was stupid to have fired, but he had been scared and something had moved quickly. Ray had panicked and run into the fight without calling roll and with no plan of action. George and I had been in the nearest firing position, but we hadn't yelled to learn what was happening or to let people know where the BAR would be. We had learned one more lesson cheap.”
― Edward Watson, A Rifleman in World War II