Put him 6 00 miles away from his home,
Empty his heart of all but blood,
Make him live in sweat and mud, (character moves around in bed)
There is a life I have to live,
And why my soul to the devil I give,
You free boys swing in your easy chair,
But you don’t know what it’s like,
You all have a ball without near trying
While over there our boys are dying. (Loud explosion and the character wakes up and sits up in his bed) I can hardly even understand the horror of it all. How could I do something like that? The guilt. It tears at me every day. I’ve hidden away my Charlie Company memorabilia (He points shamefully and with hesitation at his cupboard.) I don’t even speak of the war or what happened there. All those people they weren’t… (long pause) they weren’t Viet Cong but the…show more content… It’s very dry and dusty, but it’s causing a dust storm which has shrouded the horizon in mist, and I’m told that it’s favoured by the Viet Cong as it to a certain extent covers up their activity. In the background you can probably hear the large American tank that is following.
(Recalls a memory, and video comes up on the cyclorama of what happened, it is as if he is narrating the video) It doesn’t really excuse what I did. There were 500 civilians, most of them where women and children, it was not a fair price to pay for locating a few Viet Cong soldiers. I should have said something like Hugh did. Instead I took my discharge and retreated into the country, keeping a low profile and earning a beggers living. After the noise died there was only the stench of cartridge shells and blood-soaked mud. It was painfully clear that these were no NLF or VC operatives. These were women and children, elderly all clutching their bullet ridden bodies what had I done? How did I do… (after he says this he drifts slowly back into a deep sleep)
