woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters” (4). I imagine he was talking about when he woke in death he was joined by others who had died a similar death or he woke from the sleep in the “State”. Which, in either case, can be a nightmare for anybody in this type of situation. Finally the author ends the poem with “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” (5). I think that he greatly resents the fact that his remains were hosed out of the turret as if he was not human. He must have felt that after all he has given his country, surely he deserved better treatment than that at his death. The attitude projected about war in this poem expresses that often during war there truly are no winners or losers. Maybe this poem was intended to bring feelings of compassion toward these gunners, instead of glory....
