Freedom's Price

Dedicated to those soldiers who fight for our freedom today, both at home and abroad, and to those who fought and those who lost their lives in Vietnam. POW/MIA: You Will Not Be Forgotten

Stillness, stillness on the air.
It feels as a calm before a storm.
In our hearts we are praying.
Our guns, propped on rocks and logs
As we make haste to take aim.
Our next command we are awaiting.

We cannot see the enemy
But it is far too quiet.
We prepare for an attack from all sides.
And with undaunting faith,
Quite still as we await,
We prepare for this foe that hides.

Only a moment has passed
Though it feels as an era,

And the anticipation grows.

Then finally a shot does sound;
One man falls upon the ground.
Our hearts quiver as we fire upon our foe.

In a hail of bullets and blaze,
Our rifle barrells aglow,
Men falling to my left and right.
The constant sound
Of machine gun rounds
And the dismal presence of a bloody fight.

Clouds overhead begin to gather.

The sky begins to darken almost black.

As though the dead of night had swallowed day.
The battle continues
But is now dying down.
And it seems as if peace is uncovering its face.

Night falls with gracious welcome.
Most of us are weary
And we take time to patch our wounds.
No sleep comes to me this night

For fear of not awaking
And being among those who fell in this monsoon.

It is a lonely, humid night
Of restlessness and fear
And a dread that does not fade.
even though we keep a constant vigil,
There is still no sign of our foe.
Nights tight hold breaks for day.

Suddenly shots are fired,
Then the fire is returned
And we make ready with our arms.
We fire our rounds

Into the deep jungle
Amidst the blazing flashes, chaos, and alarm.

Every man is pouring forth his best,
Fighting with mind and skill
Against flying lead and red-hot steel.
There is no time to think.
We act solely on instinct.
It is kill or be killed.

As I take down each opposing soldier,
For every one I feel a pain in my heart,
Even a hurt in the depths of my soul.
But what I saw next
Nothing could have prepared me for.
For one of my deepest fears was taking hold.

As I looked across this short, grassy expanse
What I see feels me with fear,
For a small child is running at me.
Even though he is at a good distance,
I can see the grenade in his hand,

And fear takes hold of me.

The sergeant sees the boy
And yells "Fire, damn you!"
But I can only think about the child.
"Why must this horrible deed befall me?"
I ask myself.
"What have I done to deserve such trial?"

As the sergeant yells again
I cannot think.
I only close my eyes and squeeze the trigger down.
As I open them to look,
A clear field do I see,
With a lifeless body upon the ground.

Fear and remorse manifest themselves
As the feeling in my heart
And the tears streaming from my eyes.
Then the explosion of the grenade
Marked the evil deed done
And for myself I could only feel despise.

The sergeant looked at me and said:
"Son, you did the right thing.
If not for you, we'd all be dead."
This gave me a bit of comfort
To know I had saved many,
But at the cost of one,
And I slowly nodded my head.

Then I picked up my rifle
And caught the pace of the  fight
And forgot the remorse I felt within.
I fired my rounds
With a hatred I've never had before.
Determined to never let them win.

Suddenly I see a man go down,
And another and another
But I know too well who the first is.
The best friend I've had all my life
Who enlisted with me to see me through,
Now lies dead.

Remorse and grief sweep over me.
As I crawl to his side,
Tears stream down my face.
As I look at him
Lying lifeless and still,
I wish that I could take  his place

My sorrow is replaced by anger.
Hatred boils in my soul.
As I fire rounds from my weapon.
Now I feel no remorse
For these dogs that I've fell
For I blame them for what has happened.

Night once again takes hold.
The firing ceases.
But we know only for a night.
For when we awake
And the daylight does break
We will  only resume this grisly fight.

This night we haven't as many;
Not by half,
As we'd had the day before.
And who could have thought
That after two days of fighting,
this is all our toil has bore.

The night still brings not sleep.
It is hot and restless.
We are tired and weak.
For through fatigue and fighting,
The hail of bullets and barrells blazing,
We've scarcely had anything to eat.

Mainly just what we found
Was our food for the day
Even though it wasnt much.
For we had exhausted our supply;
Five days it had been
Since we had eaten anything but herbs or nuts.

Also our ammo was running short.
We had no grenades
And only enough shells for one more day.
Our sergeant radioed for a chopper
To take us back to the base.
It would arrive just after dawn the next day.

As the night ended,
I could only think of getting home
Back to our base away from Vietnam.
But my thoughts were shattered
And the earth scattered
As I heard the explosion of the bomb.

 

It must have been a mortar,
Or a grenade of some type.
But as I got up and looked around
I saw the grisly sight.

The first person I see down,
Our sergeant lying not ten feet from me
On his back on the ground.
As I crawled over to him
I saw the wounds and intense pain on his face,
But he barely made a sound.

He said only this to me:
"Son, I'm not going to make it.
Get my men out of here and do it fast."
then, as I watched,
The pain let his face
And he breathed his last.

I yelled to the men to follow
For we were going home;

Getting out of this place.
At this time I heard the chopper,
A sound as unto a savior,
And it almost brought a smile to my face.

I led them into the clearing
Where the chopper had touched down;
Ready to be boarded y us right away.
As I motioned the men on,
I covered them from behind
Until they were inside and safe.

As I turned to board I heard a crack
And I felt something
As it tore through my back.
A piece of lead it must be,

For I fell instantly,

And heard another rifle crack.

As the second bullet pierces my flesh
I feel a coldness in my body

And I feel myself slippin slowly into the dark.
I hear the chopper take off,
But still I'm happy.
I died for my men doing my part.

This soldier's story has come to an end.
It has been a long road;
And a rough one for us all.

As I slip into my eternity,
Frightened I am not.
I've done my part and answered the call.

 

©T.A.Rogers

  20040221

Author's Note

Unbiased truth.