It Was Me!

It Was Me!
SFC. Kevin D. Cottrell (Ret.)


It was me who stood beside General George Washington at Valley Forge, my feet wrapped in rags. I stood beside General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, my long rifle at my side. I stood beside Colonel William Barret Travis, Colonel Jim Bowie, and Colonel Davy Crockett buying freedom with our lives at the Alamo. I stormed the walls of Chapultepec with officers who would soon fight each other. It was me who wheeled down Little Round Top beside Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, sweeping my enemy brother down its slope. I made Picket’s charge with General Lewis Armstead. I was a nurse during Gettysburg moving from line to line, patching up the wounded where they lay or stood. It was me who charged up San Juan Hill beside Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. I felt my lungs burn with mustard gas in the Meuse-Argonne forest, making my charge led by Lieutenant Douglas Macarthur.

I jumped behind enemy lines at Normandy with General James Gavin. I stood beside General Douglas MacArthur as we came ashore to liberate the Philippines. It was me with rags wrapped around my boots on the Frozen Chosen. It was me who stepped off the choppers beside Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore in the La Drang Valley. I as a nurse patched up my fellow soldiers on China Beach. I rescued three thousand American Medical students during the invasion of Grenada. It was me who released the country of Panama from the tyranny of a drug lord. I stood beside Captain Linda Bray as she led an all-male Military Police Company during an assault on the Capitol City.

I held my dying and dead comrades in my arms during an attempt to feed a starving populace in Mogadishu, and free a country from the rule of a Warlord. It was me who stood next to General H. Norman Schwarzkopf as we marched across the desert to kick an enemy invader out of an occupied country. It was me who guarded a wounded nation after suffering a cowardly attack. I flew active patrols as a female fighter pilot. It was me who freed Afghanistan from the rule of the Taliban. It was me who freed Iraq from the rule of a brutal Dictator.
Who am I?
I am a soldier. Please remember me.

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