The LZ (a Memorial Day Tribute to our Fallen Heroes)

They marked our LZ
With yellow smoke.

Coming in hot
We drew fire
All along the perimeter.

Our rotors stirred
The elephant grasses
Whipping them into a sea
Of green lashes
Snapping like thousands
Of angry serpents.

Streaking green tracers
Stretched for us.
AK rounds pierced our thin
Aluminum skin
And I waited a thousand years
For young Marines to
Run like hell
For our open door.

Our gunner poured it on
Screaming and laughing
Through his shock.

The sharp tang of cordite
And acrid wisps of hot oil
And leaking coolant
Filled the compartment.

The gunner continued to scream
Above the chatter of his .50.

Three boys fell in the grass.
Six gathered them up
Dragging their limp bodies
Leaving greasy red streaks
In the tall grass.

High above
A Jolly Green circled
Like the Angel of Death
Raining bright flashing hell on the jungle
Setting fire to the earth.

The gunner shouted in my ear piece…
Go!
Go!
Go!
Do it now!
Go!

I poured the power on
Adjusted the prop pitch
And felt the earth falling away
Clawing for sky
Straining to live
To carry us home.

We trailed thick black smoke
Across the china blue.
I felt the Huey stutter
As the bright green grass
Reached for us.

It’s amazing
The vast sum of thoughts
That spear the mind
In the half second after you know
It’s over.

A shattered rotor sheared
Through the glass cockpit
Like the Hammer of Thor.
Shards of glass
And bits of aluminum
Became lethal shrapnel
As our Huey
Dug into the earth.

All was flame
Dirt
Glass
Bone
And flesh.

What will Laura think when she sees the Chaplain coming?

*
• LZ is “Landing Zone”
• Yellow Smoke comes from a grenade purposed to designate where to best land as well as obscure what is happening within the smoke
• Jolly Green is a gun ship, bristling with fire powder
• Huey was the American helicopter workhorse