WAR! A composition by Josh Boersma, 6th grade

Earlier this week I opened a package and found the following writing, composed by my husband at the age of 11. I think we can all assume that this must have been for some sort of descriptive English assignment and of course he's the hero at the end.

Josh claims this was a 'published work' and a little bit ago when he caught me typing up this paper (without his approval) he wondered out loud, 'that was published...I can't remember where, but it seems like I should be getting some kick backs for that.'

One grim, cool morning my friends and enemies went to the wooded paintball battlefield. My team started on the north side of the battlefield and cautiously moved in, looking for the enemy. It was easy to hide among the trees and bushes, but not so easy to find the hidden enemy.

By the time we got down the ravine and were at the water,w e heard a whistle. It was an ambush! We all scattered for cover. We were almost completely surrounded. We were pinned down tight. I was pinned down behind an old, dead willow tree, as my fellow comrades were waist deep in muddy, paint-filled water. They were behind a fallen oak tree, falling victim to heavy fire. As I was returning fire, I saw several paint grenades rolling down the hill. I yelled out, "Incoming paint grenades! hit the deck!" We were surrounded by exploding grenades. Paint was flying in every direction. By the look of things, I thought I had lost my whole squad. But through the spray of paintballs I saw my men bravely fighting back. I pulled out my paint grenade launcher and sot several grenades. It seemed to be working until I ran out of ammunition.

Suddenly, the enemy pulled out a gatling gun. I yelled at my men to get down. It didn't look good for us. All I could see was the green spray of paint flying from the nozzle of the gatling gun. As they were shooting at my comrades, I took out my sniper rifle. I yelled at my men to cover me and to give 'em everything they had. As my men were valiantly holding off the enemy, I slowly made my was around the main part of the battle. I crouched into my sniper position and began to pick off the enemy. Suddenly I saw that they had a sniper taking position as well. He was taking aim at one of my men. I unloaded my rifle at him. I took out their sniper, along with two others. I then continued to pick off more of their men. I saw our chance. I radioed back and told my men to charge! We took out every single one of their men.

That was quite a day! Only one out of the seven men had been injured. We had taken out an army of thirty soldiers and chased them back at least a mile. We had captured their go-karts and completely annihilated the rest of the men. In our minds, it was a very bloody battle. But then again, this is only paintball, so no one actually got hurt. All in all, it was a really great day!

Josh Boersma