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Personal Narrative Essay: Life After The Vietnam War

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Ava

I’m Ava a sixteen years old. I live with my parents and my two younger brothers. I recollect arousing one morning; it was the same routine just like any other day. Before my family aroused I decided to go outside for awhile just before sunrise. I took a stroll around my village of My Lai, admiring my surroundings, until it transpired. My world came crashing down. Never would I have thought that this event would change my life so drastically, nothing would be the same.

In March 1968, a company of American soldiers brutally killed the majority of the population in my village. Though I don’t know the exact numbers, it is believed that as many as 500 people including women, children and the elderly were killed (History.com Staff. "My …show more content…

From now on, we would avoid pitched battles with the Americans unless the odds were clearly in their favor. There would be more hit and run attacks and ambushes. (Tang 192) After this we had our most successful battle; Ap Bac. About 2,500 troops of South Vietnam equipped with automatic weapons, armored amphibious personnel carriers, and supported by bombers and helicopters, failed to defeat a group of 300 of our guerrillas. ( “Who were the Viet Cong?” About.com ). I prepared myself for the battle by placing spare knives in my overalls and loading my gun. Juz came up to me and said, “Ana, whatever happens, just know that I have always loved you, even before I knew what the meaning of love was.” I stared at him and told him I did too. We said our goodbyes to each other and joined the rest of our group. As we were fighting, most of the American soldiers were teenage boys just like me. I didn 't let that affect my goal which was to kill the most soldiers as I could. As I was fighting my gun ran out of bullets and I started to panic. I saw a soldier coming towards me, he was two steps away. That 's when I remembered I had spare knives, I took them out and stabbed him right in the chest. As blood splattered on me I got a flashback of my family’s

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