Voices From The Wall

There's 58000 of them

I was hit by mortar rounds
I could hear them coming
I was pinned by rifle fire
Not much sense in running

I bled out on a Medevac
In pain and terrified
I didn't feel a bit heroic
just before I died

I was burned by Napalm
Dropped by a Navy plane
My flesh split and melted
Lit up like propane

I was ripped apart by shrapnel
Hit by machine gun fire
Blown away by booby traps
Tripped off by hidden wire

I went down in a shot up Huey
Missiles blew me from the sky
A sniper's bullet took me
With a lethal predator eye

I came home to an angry nation
Accusing me of genocide
I crawled into a whiskey bottle
and committed suicide

I fought against aggression 
By communist boogeymen
A war I gave my life to
I didn't matter in the end

Author's Note

Written quickly with little editing. Criticism is appreciated

Reviews

[Marie]

Sometimes what is written quickly, while it's still fresh, is best. The scanning could b better, but it really doesn't matter. Good job.

[Baby Ricochet]

THank you Marie

[Frieda P]

This crawls under my skin, weird I just saw a photo of a solider with the tattoo..'For those I love I will sacrifice'...he lost both his legs and an arm I think...had the same gut wrenching affect on me, sad and poignant, it's a shame really the reception some of these brave men get when they arrive back to what they think is their safe haven. Excellent read Mark.

[Baby Ricochet]

I was more terrified of being horribly maimed than I was being killed. IED'S were without doubt the most terrifying thing we faced. You just never knew when you might get lit up by one. Thank you for your review frieda

[Frieda P]

I can only imagine, that'd be horrible...my pleasure Mark. This kid was only 19 too...so sad.

[Will]

"For those I love I will sacrifice" is actually a lyric from a song by the hardcore band Indecision. The soldier's name was Kyle, and I have a t-shirt with those words in red white and blue across the chest in his honor. My father actually knows the guy who wrote the song from which that lyric came, Justin Brennan, who is now a politican in Brooklyn, NY. Thought I'd share, God bless.

[Baby Ricochet]

Awesome

[quinfinn]

this is graphic, gritty, realistic and brutally honest. i remember well, the many horrors of the nam. i think the most frightening things were the many booby trap devices charlie would leave for us...you could trip a vine and the next thing you know you or one of your buddies had a crotch full of punji sticks...or be facing a dangerous reptile. then we were spit upon and called baby murderers when we came back stateside, because of the media and people like that traitor b***h jane fonda, who said we we murdering innocent people . truth is, you might have a six year old girl run up to you and jump in your arms with a satchel charge and blow up your whole platoon. it was a guerilla war, and afghanistan is the same thing, in a way. this is a brilliant write, so emotional and well penned.

[Baby Ricochet]

F*****g IED'S. We found lots of them but missed them sometimes. THe constant vigilance for Mortar and rocket attacks, snipers, suicide bombers, ambushes, IEDs, some stupid kid with an RPG or AK. That s**t wore your a*s down bad after awhile and we would pray for a stand up fight with Hajji so we could hand his a*s to him.Jane Fonda was a traitor to the nation and a communist stooge and everyone who ever called a Nam vet a baby burner should eat every word. There was no excuse for that bullshit, ever. Thank you for your service in Vietnam quinfinn and welcome home. HOORAH!

[quinfinn]

the big difference between hadji and charlie is....charlie had no fear and were awesome guerilla fighters, if they had to they would fight you hand to hand to the last man. hadji, is a f*****g coward...all he knows is ied's, ambushes and hit and run tactics..you won't get a stand up fight from hadji unless he thinks it will make him a martyr, and even then he would rather live to plant another ied than have the courage to face us in a real fire fight. biggest bunch of p*****s in the world, all terrorists....glad you made the trip home, ricochet...hoorah!

[Baby Ricochet]

The North Vietnamese and VC were one of the most intelligent and determined enemies America ever faced. Their leadership was solid, their mission was clearly defined and they were tough as nails in the field. Who we were up against in Iraq could be Former Iraqi military, Foreign fighters, Fedayeen, angry Sunnis, naive teenagers who got all fired up by their favorite Imam,the guy that ran the vegetable stand who ran home and grabbed his AK to get in on the action, there were even guys that would run up and down the street firing their AKs in the air shouting insults at us. (We tried not to kill those guys) We did get into vicious fire fights with hajji sometimes. particularly with the Mujahideen in and around Fallujah but they had no real mission or leadership to speak of. That was one of the things that made negotiating with them impossible. They didn't represent the Iraqis and anything you gave them for improving infrastructure they stole for themselves. Endless frustration for a people who clearly didn't want us there. Good times

[quinfinn]

yeh, charlie definitely had his s**t wrapped tight, and we lost that f*****g war. we should let the generals fight our wars, not the politicians...we will eventually lose in afghanistan, because of diplomacy, and special interests and public opinion.

[KAOlmsted]

That second stanza raised the hair at the back of my neck...sad and tragic and so f*****g true. Thanks so much for sharing this...it really does define what happened to those brave men in Vietnam and when they returned home. Your empathy, I know, comes from your own personal experience which makes this piece all the more poignant. Exceptionally well done, Mark. P.S. I visited this Wall...it was...surreal, to put it mildly.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Kimmer.

[KAOlmsted]

You're always welcome...

[Acucena G.]

"I was burned by Napalm
Dropped by a Navy plane
My flesh split and melted
Lit up like propane" wow That was deep and sad , beautifully written, well done Baby Ricochet

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Acucena

[Acucena G.]

you are welcome