My Lai Massacre

        I couldn’t breathe, tears going down my face, freaking out, punching walls; I didn't want to live. General Calley woke me up from my nightmare. 

        “Get up, soldiers, we got to get on a plane,” Calley yelled. 

        “Where to?” I asked.

        “My Lai, we found out they are VC sympathizers,” Calley answered.

        Calley barged out of our room. I got up out of my clean, white bed, put on my green and black combat uniform, and walked out. I walked properly to the gun wall where Jim and Steve were picking out their guns. I picked out an Ak-47. 

        I walked to the hospital room where Jake was and told Jake, “I am going to My Lai.” 

  “Good luck, don’t end up like me,” Jake answered. Jake and I were best friends, and both got drafted out of Hancock Vermont, but Jake got shot several times in the leg at Siege of Khe Sahn and is still waiting to get surgery to remove the bullets. 

        I walked out of the hospital room, hopped on the plane, and went to where Steve and Jim were. Steve was smoking a cancer stick, and Jim was listening to Bon Jovi. We waited about five minutes, and the whole plane was filled with twenty-two soldiers. 

        General Calley walked in the plane and screamed, “I said this once but I'll say it again. We are going to My Lai. We found out they were VC sympathizers, and they need to be iced, every last one of them!” 

        When we got in the air, the memory hit me, the call that I got from my Mom saying that my brother was bombed by Vietnam and died on August 2, 1964. I was crying, couldn't breathe, and wanted to die. 

        Jim got me out of the flashback when he softly said.“You want to listen to some Bon Jovi with me?” 

        I answered, “Sure.” Twenty minutes went by when General Calley screamed, “We are right above My Lai, get ready!” We dropped in, and the thought of my brother stayed in the back of my head. When I looked down there was thick, lush green grass tilted to the right from the breeze. I hit the ground, and the grass was up to my hips, even at the height of six feet two inches. I anxiously waited for General Calley. 

        General finally got off the plane and told us to herd them up so we could shoot them all at once. He told us to attack. I charged like a bull towards the village, the wind flying off my bald, egg-shaped head, shooting everyone and everything in sight. I was shooting children, women, men, and animals for the fun of it. I herded up about fifteen kids, all of them under ten, put them in a ditch, and shot them. 

        I stopped and looked down, my face filled with tears, thinking to myself, I just killed innocent kids, my brother would be ashamed of me. I was still crying when I looked to my right; there was General Calley screaming and weaving his machine gun, killing everything in sight like a hyena. I looked to my left, and I saw a man who was terrified, his knees clicking together, lips shaking, and his hands up in the air when a soldier shot him right in the head. He fell to the ground.  When I looked at the soldier it was Jim. 

        I yelled in absolute acrimony, “What are you doing? He was terrified, and unarmed?” The soldier was apathetic about it and continued to herd all the people up. They herded up five hundred women, children, and men.

         They were about to shoot when a helicopter came out of nowhere, and Hugh Thompson, the pilot said, “If you shoot I will shoot every single one of you!” I was apprehensive to even step a foot after Hugh yelled that. Everyone was panicking like a bunch of dogs when there were fireworks. 

        Then Hugh yelled, “Get back to your plane or else I will shoot!” We all sprinted back, swerving and hopping over body after body like track events. When we got to the plane, we told the pilot to fly as fast as he could. 

        We were all shaking when we got back to the military base; we all thought we were monsters for what we did. We knew we dishonored our country. 

-Lee W.