Memoir of Jake D. Winston

Memoir #2 First Blood

Walking around in 'Nam for our unit was a personal Hell. Had a few guys step on Punji Sticks,Others get picked off by snipers. I watched 20 men die in 10 days...Eventually I got my first two kills.

We were doing recon on reports of [Blocked Info] in the [Blocked Info] Area. I remember the way the air smelled. Blood and Decay,And a little of that god forsaken Agent Orange shit. That was my first kill in Vietnam. It was Week 3 of my tour,We had to get down a hill to some guys,Me and my Squad saw the Set up of Clay mores wrapped around Napalm Barrels,After shooting down and killing a few of them we did it,Stab the Barrel drag your knife across for sparks and kick it down,It burned forever...Me and my squad got down there and saw people burning alive in the trench,Some kid who wasn't even 15 crawled out on fire and my Sargent just shot him in the head to put him down,No one was proud of doing that shit. What we did that day still haunts me now. A kid not even as old as my younger brother with a bullet in his head after burning alive,If anything killed the way I saw the world it was that shit right there,People were all back in their beds sleeping while we were here burning a place to the ground and dieing everyday. Then I heard when we get back they spit on us like we are dogs. Jason just looked on in shock at the shit that had happened and me and him just went back to our bunks and layed there,"Jason what the fuck are we doing here?" I looked at him and asked,"What we were told to do,Fight commies." After that I sent letters home but only my mom and sister responded.


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