I will often refer to my time in the military and more specifically, my time in Vietnam. That’s where I grew up way too fast. I wasn’t as ready as I thought and in fact I found out that I never would be fully ready. I was not a warrior afterall and I’m very lucky to still be alive.
The other day the Daily Prompt was about questioning reality. Thinking about it for a minute, I couldn’t come up with an example of that happening to me…until I remembered that day. As often happens with me, something will trigger a memory from back then, and it becomes a vivid memory until I acknowledge it. Some of them are terrifying, some just memories.
So, this reality thing did actually resonate with me that day. That day was February 21, 1972. On the ride back to my compound once the contact was resolved, All I could think or say was – “Did I just stand through a f*^king firefight and not only not get hit, but not even hiccup? Am I alive?” I said it out load. The driver looked back over his shoulder and yelled, “F*ck man, I hope so, or I don’t know what the f*ck I got riding behind me.” I very definitely questioned reality that night.
What’s a moment that made you question reality?
Alive
Without sensationalizing the point, there was a day when I hesitated before moving, and that was the last thing I should have done but I was transfixed by what I saw ahead of me. I didn’t immediately realize what I was looking at. My patrol was engaged by an enemy squad who were trying to escape and evade.
It was plain for the enemy to see that with a k9 leading us we had their number, so they stopped and engaged. They actually had a bit of an advantage. They had cover of sorts – tail grass, we didn’t – on the frontage road that ran beside the grass filed. The squad I was with returned fire while I froze – looking at the pretty sparkly lights downrange. Green tracer rounds zipped past – I didn’t just hear them buzz past, I felt the pressure wave. Prince barked and I snapped out of it. I crouched and started sidestepping with Prince in close, and finally engaged. The squad of ARVN I was with were all newbies working with an experienced sargeant. The newbies reacted properly before I even thought to move.
The image below was created by Gemini after reading my post. It’s remarkably appropriate if not quite to scale. The e nemy sappers were at least 150 yards from us. The only reason we could see wheret hey were was because the started firing at us. We knew whereabouts they were from Prince’s earlier alerts. Bit if we were that close to each other, no one would be standing – not even the dummy from Boston…I don’t think so anyway. But definitely the AI image caught my utter shock. I imagine that’s exactly what I looked like – without the cammies.
When all was said and done what stuck with me was disbelief that it took seconds for my head to sort the situation. I heard rounds going by me. THEN I moved. The first words out of my mouth when next I was cognizant were, “WTF, Mike? How the f**k are you still upright?”
That changed everthing for me – I was no longer reading about this crazy shit going on, I was living it, and I was just barely capable. Reality did step in and I started applying my training. I lived. Turns out I was an accident in uniform though, and yet, unbelievably, and by the sake of a four legged hero, I lived. I’m alive now still.
Yeah! It qualifies as unreal…for me.
Can you see it?