Pg 8 Dramatic Monologue

Pg 8 Dramatic Monologue

BISHOP: It was a grim situation. But we didn't know how grim it could get until we saw

the RE-7 ... the Reconnaissance Experimental Number Seven. Our new plane. What you saw was this mound of cables and wires, with a thousand pounds of equipment hanging off it. Four machine guns, a five-hundred pound bomb, for goodness sake. Reconnaissance equipment, cameras ... Roger Neville - that's my pilot - he and I are ordered into the thing to take it up. Of course, it doesn't get off the ground. Anyone could see that. We thought, fine, good riddance. But the officers go into a huddle. Mmmmmmm? What do you think we should do? Take the bomb off? Take the bomb off! So we take the bomb off and try it again. This time, the thing sort of flops down the runway like a crippled duck. Finally, by taking everything off but one machine gun, the thing sort of flopped itself into the air and chugged along. It was a pig! We were all scared stiff of it. So they put us on active duty ... as bombers! They gave us two bombs each, told us to fly over Hunland and drop them on somebody. but in order to accommodate for the weight of the bombs, they took your machine guns away! (As if writing or reciting a letter) Dearest Margaret. We are dropping bombs on the enemy from unarmed machines. It is exciting work. It's hard to keep your confidence in a war when you don't have a gun. Somehow we get back in one piece and we start joking around and inspecting the machine for bullet and shrapnel damage. You're so thankful not to be dead. Then I go back to the barracks and lie down. A kind of terrible loneliness comes over me. It's

like waiting for the firing squad. It makes you want to cry, you feel so frightened and so alone. I think all of us who aren't dead think these things. Thinking of you constantly.