Existence

My dad completed his
College freshman year before
Being drafted into
World War II.  For the next four
Years, a paratrooper with
The 504^th, 82^nd
Airborne Division, he’d 
Jump after jump, south to north.
Ten missions total.  They’d
Be told every time they
Went in to assume they’d not
Return, and to write wills.
Officially known as
The All Americans – and
The Devils in Baggy Pants
As they were nicknamed by
The Nazis – in Sicily,
The 82^nd fought
In what’s recognized as
The bloodiest hand-to-hand
Combat of the whole war.
Too many were lost, but my
Dad survived. At the end
Of the war, the 82^nd
Liberated a camp
Called Wöbbelin.  Eisenhower
Directed that the dead
In each camp be buried
By the local citizens,
So that everyone might
Witness the horror, the
More who saw it, the fewer
Who could deny the truth.
Dad grew up Christian.
Freshman year, he lived in a
Methodist rooming house.
Beyond the face-to-face
Bloody fighting and killing
Of Nazis, he said of all
The horrors he witnessed,
None was more atrocious than
The Wöbbelin nightmare. 
It was there, my dad said,
He realized God did not
Exist, and from then on
He’d only attend church
On Christmas and Easter to
Make my mother happy.