Reed's Personal Narrative: Going on the U505

This a a personal narrative Reed wrote about a trip to Chicago. Enjoy :)

“Is that it?“ We were in the second city with skyscrapers towering above us. My sister my mom my dad my grandma my uncle Kevin and I we were going to the Museum of Science and Industry. “Yes, but we have to go park,” Kevin exclaimed. SCREECH! We turned into a parking garage, the ceilings were so low we thought we were going to hit them. The parking structure was crammed ERRR! We skidded to a stop.

“What the heck?” Kevin exclaimed. “Why is there a dead end in a parking garage?” Then a car stopped behind us. HONK! The silver Toyota started backing up. We swerved out of the parking garage. Right then the black truck came out of the main parking lot. We turned into the parking spot.

We walked into the huge building. I could hear Kevin’s shoes going click clack click. The girls went to the bathroom while the boys bought tickets. We stood in the long line I was tempted to bend the rope dividing the line colloms. We went into the U505 exhibit and saw a screen playing an old fashioned video about the German U boat. We heard a voice say, “On June 4, 1944 the German U505 was taken over by America. The captain of the American boat that was taken over was from Chicago and that’s why it’s here.” We walked into a new room with dummy sailors lining the walls. Then a new audio started talking. “The U505 was prowling through the waters off the west African coast looking for American or allied ships. Little did they know that an American ship was tracking them. Part of the U-boat fleet terrorizing the Atlantic, this submarine was known as the U505 but on this day the U505 had just become hunted.”

“Wow, that was good!” my dad said excitedly. “I really want to see the U505.” We stepped out of the darkened room with dark blue carpeting and came into a room the size of two hockey rinks. We saw a humongous, gigantic submarine. We stared at the giant missiles in awe--except Kevin, because he had been here before.

“Let’s go take a picture,” he exclaimed.

“Ok” my grandma agreed. We walked toward the photo place. my sister and I felt so miniscule standing next to the massive U- boat especially in the picture. We walked toward the entrance and we saw a guy at the end of the ramp. He had dark brown hair slanted to his left side. He dangled keys in his left hand cling-e-ding. Then five more people came into the line and he opened the gate. As We walked into the U505 my stomach lurched. The room we walked in first had tiny bunk beds and missiles. He told us that they did not like sleeping right next to 10 feet missiles. I got very claustrophobic--my stomach was cringing the whole time he talked. “For weeks a U.S Navy task had tracked a shadowy U-boat despite a crack team and the latest technology, the task group was unable to pinpoint their elusive prey. Low on fuel, the frustrated captain called off the search when… there was something on the sonar,” he told us. “This is what it sounded like if someone was attacking.” He flicked a switch beeb beeb beeb boob. “They would be sinking so fast right now.”

He told us that they would go about 700 feet down and then wait and see if the opponent was still searching for them. In this case the Americans were still searching, but instead of the usual going down more, they decided to launch a missile at the Americans. The missile glided through the water. The Germans knew that they had missed. The Germans had been suffering they might have sunken the American ship if they had their original captain. He had committed suicide they kept launching missiles at each other until the Germans decided to go upwards to get a better aim but that wasn’t smart. They assumed that the Americans wouldn’t do the signal that hasn’t been used for over a hundred years but the American captain clasped his hands over his head and shook them. That meant to board the opponent's ship. The Americans lowered the rescue boats and glided toward the U505 they boarded the submarine. The Germans knew they were doomed but they didn’t surrender yet. They tried sinking their own boat so that the Americans wouldn’t find out their secrets. There were five capsules that they opened so the water came through then they surrendered. The Americans found the four easy capsules but couldn’t find the fifth then they found a door but they didn’t know what was on the other side. There was either a bomb or the Fifth capsule they called their captain and he took a deep breath and opened the door he plugged the capsule. Then they drove the captured U505 to America. They also put the Germans in prison.”

“That was excellent,” my grandma exclaimed.

“Was I the only one that was getting really claustrophobic?” I asked.

“Definitely not!” Kevin informed me.

“I think we all were getting claustrophobic.” My mom said thoughtfully.

As we walked out of the exhibit and into the next one, I knew that I had a great experience and learned a lot at the Museum of Science and Industry. By Reed Garrison