Yes, this is common practice, however it's optional and depends on context. Context is very important in russian - for example omitting of words is very common practice (because prefixes, suffixes and endings give a lot of extra information you can reorder and omit as hell) too and heavily relies on it.
This text is correct lexically:
Двое солдат шли по городу - past
И вдруг из-за угла выезжает танк - present.
И без помощи конец им наступит через 10 минут - future.
All this story could be rewritten in past tense, but this form is acceptable too. It is a little bit colloquial too, but not wrong/incorrect.