Big Gray Walls 2

Ed jumped out the foxhole with his rifle because he thought he heard enemy soldiers fired at them. Al heard several shots coming from different directions while sitting in the foxhole by himself. Leaving the foxhole himself, Al walked up to one of his fellow men. “Where did he go?” Al asked the man. “Who?” “Private Graham. He had left a few minutes ago and said he was coming back. Where did he go?” No one else knew where Ed had gone until less than a week after the battle was over. Several soldiers found Ed's body in an underground cave and they were devastated to see how he looked. After Ed left the foxhole that night he ran into a few enemy soldiers. They all fired at each other but he was the only one left standing. He managed to walk despite being shot once in his upper left leg and again in the stomach. Ed encountered another two enemy soldiers and he tried to fire at them but he was out of ammo. They took him into the underground cave where they attacked him with their rifles and bayonets. Once his body was discovered it was hard for the unit to tell who it was. They saw that he was still wearing his dog tags. Afterwards he was shipped back to his hometown. The only one who was aware besides Al was Mike who went searching in the cave after hearing that al was looking for Ed. Ed's mother Edna had not received any news about him at that point. Back in the kitchen Al stood there all upset and confused after Lewis asked him about Ed. Lewis told Al about his days fighting in France. “I was sitting in the trenches. I met a fellow soldier who pulled me out after I was wounded.” While fighting off the German soldiers in the trenches, Lewis found himself shot in the arm but was treated by a French soldier. Al and Lewis heard a knock on the door and they saw it was Joan Hancock, an old friend of Mike and Al. She was doing interviews for those who had come back. She had also planned to interview Al’s family including peter. Her first interview was with Mike for the local newspaper for which she had been a reporter for six years. The next night, a special dinner was held for those who returned home in a hotel ballroom. Al took his whole family there and met with Thomas outside the ballroom. As they entered the ballroom Thomas was approached by Edna graham. Ed’s mother. “Excuse me, do you know where my son is?” She asked him. “Mrs. Graham, I'm sorry about your son.” He had told her. Edna knew what Thomas was about to say to her. She knew Thomas was saying that Ed had died. While Al and Dorothy were waiting for dinner he was still thinking about ed. When he got his dinner, which was steak, he began to have a short flashback of himself and others on the beach. There as he tried to save fellow soldiers he found himself wounded in his lower back. Despite this, he carried a few of his men to a safer side of the beach. He was later treated for his injury. But for Ike, he could not save any as one died in his arms. It was after he came home he went to the guy’s parents house to tell them what happened to their son. He was upset that he could not do more to save others. One day he would suffer a heart attack while visiting a park in the city. Several people saw him and took him to a hospital but he died the next morning. Mike later transferred into the army serving in Heartbreak Ridge. Upon returning home he and Barry both worked as teachers at a school down Charlotte. Moving back to 2000, Al is sitting in the hospital bed with Albert listening to him. “I love you.” That was the last thing Al said to Albert before succumbing to his illness. Albert warned the family about Al passing that afternoon.