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Veterans / Memorial Day Poem #19, First Time Out

First Time Out

My first time out
Marine Scout/Sniper, just nineteen
On our way in a deuce and a half
Down Highway One
Into the unknown

Crowded highway, moving both ways
Mine sweeping ahead
Marines, soldiers, ARVNs, civilians
Jeeps, deuces, flatbeds, motorbikes and buses
All going into hell

Stop and go, those mine sweeps ahead
Traffic rolling by in the other direction
No mines back there where we came from
But up ahead, must be some
Just my luck, my first time out

Stopped again, God its hot!
Whats going on up there?
Ill take a look up over the truck
Long line of traffic where Im going
Rolling like crazy the other way

Little gook bus coming straight up the road
Overloaded with people, as they always do
I start to sit back
BOOM! the bus jumps in the air
Heads up I hear

Of course I look up, my first time out
Part of the bus is over our truck
Dive in the bottom, all is noise
Cant tell yet what is happening
My first time out

Showered with dirt, Im on top
Someone is shouting
I dont know what
Pieces of something hit my back
Gravel, Dirt, Flesh

Now all is silent, not a sound, a vacuum
That doesnt last long
We are all jumping out the back
Set up a perimeter someone yells
Must be a command detonated mine

Someone grabs my shoulder
Get up that hill
I start to run
I dont know why
My first time out

Run by the bus, whats left of it
A mass of fiery metal
People still in it!
Screaming and yelling all around
Where was I going?

ARVN laying on the road
Left leg is gone at the knee
A hole in his chest as big as my fist
Breathing long and shallow
Corpsman Up!

Out of nowhere a Gunny, over six feet
Calm and in control, cigar in his teeth Corpsman! I yell
Forget it son, the Gunny said, Hes already dead
One more look and off I run
My first time out

As I run, I see the horror, a child
Or what was, a woman mangled and dead
Too many bodies
Keep running
Get up that hill.

Then I see him, the one who still visits
An old man, white beard, lying on his back
Arms stretched out to his sides, eyes wide open
Looking at heaven, cut off at the waist
Im going to be sick

Keep running, up that hill
Dont look at anything
Dont look to the right
Dont look to the left, this aint happening!
My first time out

Im up the hill,
Now what the hell do I do?
Are there gooks out here?
Who set off that mine? Look around, nothing,
Just the busy highway and the dead

I look back at Highway One
Burning bus, bodies
Men running everywhere
I cant look anymore
I turn away and look for the unknown

How long had it lasted?
Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes? I dont know
I dont remember coming down off the hill
Getting in the truck and leaving
I must have, Im here now

My first time out
Marine Scout/Sniper, just nineteen
Down Highway One
I never came down off that hill
My first time out

Written from the heart by Michael tank
Michael Tank
Served In USMC, Vietnam '70-'71
1969-1972

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