Mr. Jason Smith, CEO of a successful small business was visiting Charleston, South Carolina to negotiate a business deal. One afternoon, he hailed a cab to take him to the Patriot Point on the waterfront, one of the current top attractions of the city. The place has been the resting place of an aircraft carrier along with a submarine and a destroyer from the World War II era. He learned that, just next to those relics, a separate memorial park called “Vietnam Experience” was also established. The purpose was to acknowledge country’s involvement in a faraway ideology-based war as well as to remember and honor the sacrifices made by country’s young men and women in that war.
At the age of twenty, Mr. Smith was drafted for that war. In the dark of night, the helicopter carrying him and other platoon members would land in the middle of a dense jungle. Immediately intense summer heat and mosquito bites would welcome the team. As he was entering the park, Mr. Smith noticed a similar helicopter was on display accompanied by a time-era military truck that used to ferry them from front to front. To offer the visitors the realistic experience, suddenly the air-raid sirens shrilled throughout the complex along with erupting noise of gun-firing of the tanks, accompanied by red flashes. And Mr. Smith began to remember events in their entirety, buried in the depth of his memory.
As he passed by a model make-shift medical tent, he remembered the night his team was ambushed by a group of young Viet-Congs, suddenly appearing out of a hidden opening, part of their elaborate complex maze-like tunnel system for hiding as well as attacking the enemy forces. A fierce fight broke out. Bruce Levitt, a fellow comrade took several bullets protecting other members of the platoon. Later Mr. Smith would carry him on his shoulder to a similar nearby medical tent. After several immediate surgeries, Mr. Levitt would be air-lifted to a friendly country for additional life-saving surgeries. After his retirement, Mr. Levitt would settle down in Texas, becoming a high school football coach.
After visiting the remaining open-air exhibits, Mr. Smith would watch a historic documentary. He re-lived the last scene. On return, his fellow countrymen would spit on them, while shouting “Baby killers”. By now, he knew that the politicians would never explain to citizens the real reason for going to a war.
After coming out of the park, he took out his smart phone to catch up with day’s news. Another senseless mass shooting took place in a high school in Texas, when an expelled student had opened fire with a rapid-fire assault weapon. Most of the victims were fellow students along with their football coach who threw his body in the line of fire to protect his young disciples. The press identified him as Bruce Levitt, a distinguished Vietnam War veteran!
At the age of twenty, Mr. Smith was drafted for that war. In the dark of night, the helicopter carrying him and other platoon members would land in the middle of a dense jungle. Immediately intense summer heat and mosquito bites would welcome the team. As he was entering the park, Mr. Smith noticed a similar helicopter was on display accompanied by a time-era military truck that used to ferry them from front to front. To offer the visitors the realistic experience, suddenly the air-raid sirens shrilled throughout the complex along with erupting noise of gun-firing of the tanks, accompanied by red flashes. And Mr. Smith began to remember events in their entirety, buried in the depth of his memory.
As he passed by a model make-shift medical tent, he remembered the night his team was ambushed by a group of young Viet-Congs, suddenly appearing out of a hidden opening, part of their elaborate complex maze-like tunnel system for hiding as well as attacking the enemy forces. A fierce fight broke out. Bruce Levitt, a fellow comrade took several bullets protecting other members of the platoon. Later Mr. Smith would carry him on his shoulder to a similar nearby medical tent. After several immediate surgeries, Mr. Levitt would be air-lifted to a friendly country for additional life-saving surgeries. After his retirement, Mr. Levitt would settle down in Texas, becoming a high school football coach.
After visiting the remaining open-air exhibits, Mr. Smith would watch a historic documentary. He re-lived the last scene. On return, his fellow countrymen would spit on them, while shouting “Baby killers”. By now, he knew that the politicians would never explain to citizens the real reason for going to a war.
After coming out of the park, he took out his smart phone to catch up with day’s news. Another senseless mass shooting took place in a high school in Texas, when an expelled student had opened fire with a rapid-fire assault weapon. Most of the victims were fellow students along with their football coach who threw his body in the line of fire to protect his young disciples. The press identified him as Bruce Levitt, a distinguished Vietnam War veteran!
