Personal Narrative: My First Vietnam War

Some people think going to war is fun, getting to have guns and drive tanks. But logical kids know war isn’t all that exciting. You can get killed, your country can get bombed and you have to worry about new things like rationing money and food. In the historical fiction novel My Brother Sam Is Dead by the Collier brothers, we learn that war can divide and destroy individuals, families and communities.

My hands were covered in blood.. It was only a matter of time till they caught me.. I could hear the roaring of the wind. The heavy breathing coming from my own chest.. My stomach ached in pain. I could feel the tears beginning to escape from my eyes...

I looked down at my yellow tunic and blue pants. Unlike other soldiers around me, I didn’t have armor. Our commander slowly brought us to a stop in front of what appeared to be Constantinople, the city we sought to take over. We had been attacking the city for over a month and still we hadn’t made it past the protective wall. They laid a chain across the mouth of the Golden Horn to stop our ships from approaching the city. “Charge!” Our commander yelled from atop his white horse. I took off running with towards the walls. As we ran I smelled body odor, blood, and death. The sound of heavy breathing, crossbows being fired, swords clashing, and screams of pain filled my ears. Dead bodies littered the ground around us. As I neared the wall I threw the ladder I had in my hands against the wall and started to

This is the end, i’m sorry I have to leave you. You have grown so much since the first time I had seen you. I will miss you. At that moment, I realized that I won’t get to see America grow even more than it already has... Ok, before I give away anything else, let’s go to this morning, before all of this happened. It was Friday, April 14, 1865, 7:08am when my wife Mary came into my bedroom and made me the usual breakfast in bed. She got me 1 egg and a cup of coffee. After I got out of bed I went to my office and worked for a while.

After war hit, virtually everything was deteriorated. In a four-mile radius from where I stand, not a single architecture except for the government buildings and makeshift shops are still structurally sound. Families are forced to survive, father's craft shelters for their families out of the detritus that remains. Children, including ages of even six years, sleep deprived due to labor, desperately attempt to rest on empty, dented, bed frames. The only people that have real, formal shelters are the aristocrats that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire a room in a government shelter and the government families.

I am so sorry that you have to go through all this. As I was reading your letter I saw that you did not want to show any of your “pain” and or shout to Margot, Van Daan, Dussel and dad, I do not think that is the best of your ideas I feel that they should know how you feel. And tell them everything that they caused for you. Even if they do scream all the more. You shouldn't just go by how they feel about you when your quiet or when you talk. Honestly, I think they are just jealous of you. But there's something I have never told anyone but since I feel all of your pain.I haven't told anyone Ever. I feel that I can finally tell you what happened when I “disappeared” last year. Well, I never disappeared I was on a trip to California, well I had just gotten a job at a

They were everywhere we went. We ran down the dark alley. They were right behind us. We turned down another alley only to find a dead end. They were already walking towards us, blocking the only exit. We were surrounded. There was nothing we could do. We were out of ammunition and had no other weapons. I stood in front of the group ready to protect them at all costs.

“James, JAMES!” My mom screamed. I stared at my alarm clock, 8:15 I thought about it, And ran downstairs and hid in the stairwell under the basement. They've come for me again, my mom has hidden all the boys in my family for 10 years. Every year the interdimensional travel police come looking for boys on the summer solstice to recruit for the war of the multiverse.The war for the ownership of Earth 1. I am from the original earth. But we had to leave. Earth is known a battlefield of the war. One day I would like to see my home. My family believes the war is pointless, mostly because everybody just wants control over Earth 1. As I walked out of the crawlspace and see the soldiers and walk towards them, their armor is shining a black and frightening

I gradually slowed from a run to a walk before coming to a complete stop. I started to listen to my heart instead of my mind as it was corrupted by a fear so profound that it made my blood run cold every time the thought arrived in my head. I never should have left my platoon. It was a mistake. They had always been there for me even when I didn’t think I needed them, but now when they needed me I let them all down. I knew I was weak and that’s why I had run away but it wasn’t my fault that I was here. It wasn’t my decision but the government and its conscription policy. What did the government know about fighting in a war? Why don’t they allow any of their children fight instead of someone else’s? I turned around and started heading back deeper into the jungle that I had come from.

So when he told me that the end of the war would be a peaceful and glorious time I believed him with all my heart. And so did everyone else. But as time has gone on I’ve learned that to only be halfway true.

I was stricken down by a poisoned cow and left my family on October 5, 1818. I have chosen to roam as an apparition to watch over my son, Abraham, as a shadow he unaware of. All phantoms appear differently as each has a different reason to roam. Those that need to remind the living of the past will appear as how they died. I am only a spectator so I need not appear at all. I simply wanted to see what happened to my son after I died too young. However, my country is changing and my boy is at the front of war.

Currently I am the acting Section Sergeant in Bravo Troop 1-73 Cav, 2nd BCT, 82nd ABN DIV. I began my career October 2009 and was stationed at Ft Richardson AK, with 3rd Battalion 509th Infantry. In my tenure there I served in positions spanning from the assistant gunner to squad leader, and also the Fire Direction Center (FDC) check and chief. While serving as a gunner/ team leader we deployed to Eastern Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I was attached to Chosen Company 3-509 and in December 2011 we landed in Bagram, the following week I was slowly pushed out to Combat Outpost (COP) Herrera. COP Herrera was a small outpost located in the Jaji District, East Paktia, and the surrounding villages were known Taliban strongholds.

All of my problems began and ended with a book and a statue. I was currently surrounded by dozens of giant carnivorous lizards. This explanation may be slightly confusing for you, so please allow me to tell my story.

It was 5 am in the morning and I was flying over the Persian Gulf, I was exhausted from the 18 hour flight from Virginia. All I wanted to do was sleep, but the vast amount of emotions I had swirling around in my body kept me in a trance state. Scared because this was my first time in the Middle East and excited to finally see something new, it was a bittersweet moment for me. Finally we landed, Excited to feel my legs again, I rushed towards the front of the plane, only to feel like someone was holding a perpetual blow dryer and LED light to my face. And at that moment, I knew I had arrived in Qatar --- what has the military gotten me into?

The neighboring country was in war with us, they had invaded the border cities, and coincidentally, the one where we lived in. My parents where working the fields, but despite that, our country was slightly larger than this one, it's name was 'Barda'. The people moving from here to there, and they were all busy, but from a distance you could see a massive army approaching under the brightness of the daylight. You would've thought that this were the allied army coming to reinforce the cities near the border, but I was wrong. I stared, and watched as our town was ravaged in an instance, burning the village. People's lives were taken easily because there was no one to defend them, but there was one. He was the bravest of us all, and he was my