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The Vietnam Flashback

By Marc, age 14, 8th Grade, Chiddix Junior High School, Normal, IL, USA

In 1968, Private Lee was a United States Marine stationed at Khe Sanh in Vietnam. Everybody who knows Private Lee called him tank. His real name was Private James Lee and the reason everybody called him Tank was because he wanted to be a tank commander. Private Lee was a pretty normal person except he would always talk about flashbacks that he ha had but what he saw never happened because he said it was in the future.

It all goes back to one day in 1967, he was on his second tour in Vietnam when he was walking point though the jungle, he started having a flashback just as we were ambushed. Nobody could see the enemy except for Tank and so he started blasting them away. The reason he could see them was because in his flashback he could see the robots that he was fighting but it turned out to be NVA and so he could kill them. But the weird thing was he started to have flashbacks right before we were ambushed and saved a lot of are lives, but we can't understand why he ha these flashbacks to being with. One day we asked Tank when the flashbacks started, and he said that they started in the middle of is first tour. Tank also says that when he was a kid he would read a lot of science fiction and would picture what the characters looked like and he seems to think the robots he sees is what he pictured when he was a kid. But the first time he told us that he had flashbacks we all though he was high or something.

One day as we were on patrol, we came under heavy enemy fire just as we walked into a mined rice patty. We were taking heavy casualties and calling for air support. Tank could see the enemy and started shooting but the enemy could also see Tank and as he was shooting, trying to cover us so we could get away he was shoot a couple of times but he wasn't done for. Just as are air support arrived he was shoot again and dropped. Even though we got him out of there we thought he was done for. Once we got him back to base the doctors fixed him up and said he would be okay and we were all glad to here that after what happened.

After Tank got better and was able to leave the hospital, we all through him a party for saving are lives. During the party someone from the Coronals' bunker cane to get him and said the Coronal wanted to talk to him. After Tank got back he said that his tour was up and he could go back to the world.

The End

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Last revised: 9th June 1999