The Last Full Measure
by George Alec Effinger
Corporal Bo Staefler lands and dies on Normandy Beach on D-Day, after which an alien
brings him back to life and asks him to do it all again (and again), making sure to pay
attention to all the details.
He went through every moment, every step, every ragged breath, every slow, wading,
stumbling yard through the cold water to the beach. And it all felt the same, as though
he were just a spectator. The shell exploded. Staefler died a second time.
“The Last Full Measure” by George Alec Effinger, in
Asimov’s Science Fiction, May/June 1978.