Personal Experience: The Soldier In The Vietnam War

to run down this old bumpy hill to see if he could find any help because they were in the middle

The Vietnam War was one of the longest wars that went on history. It lasted from November 1955- April 1975. According to Historynet, 58,200 members of the U.S. military were killed in the Vietnam War. All for what exactly? In my own opinion, I do not think the U.S. should have gotten involved. Our country is always concerned with being the “big brother” to all countries. When in all reality, this war was no concern of our own. It was between South Vietnam, and North Vietnam. This war goes down in history as the only war the U.S. has yet to lose. All of that could have been avoided, had we just stayed out of others controversy.

Wars are fought for freedom and independence and usually when soldiers come home we receive them with open arms ready to praise them and thank them for putting their lives on the line. If you were asked to describe a soldier, you’d probably say heroic, brave, courageous, or honorable. After the Vietnam War, parades weren’t the welcoming soldiers got; instead, they were shunned and booed at.

After the Vietnam War, soldiers suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder in countless numbers. The trauma they saw, endured, and witnessed forever changed and scared their lives. Men, like Tim O'Brien the author of the novel The Things They Carried, suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and it took them years to regain their lives after their return home. In the excerpt from his novel, O'Brien shows the reader how the men endured this mind-altering experience in the jungles of Vietnam through the details of all the items the men carry.

The emotional stress that most soldiers carry with them during times of war is due to their inexperience and age. The majority of men who fought in the Vietnam war ranged from ages early as eighteen to their early twenties. Among these men, were sons, spouses, friends, boyfriends, and students, who could not understand the thought of war, killing, or contend with their friends’ unexpected deaths. From the beginning of the story, O’Brien the author of “The Things They Carried” uses specific details and illustrations to show readers what the experience was like for the men during the Vietnam war. Among the many things that the men carry were guilt, fear, grief, and stress. Throughout the story O’Brien emphasizes the dreadful events that

I see a small sedan driving into this old school that looks recently abandoned. “The suspect seems suspicious by staying in the vehicle after it has been turned off”, I write in my small booklet. I hope this isn’t just an affair, if this is I’m going to punch that mother… The suspect has gotten out of the car he appears to be a white male, no women got out of the car, he then walks inside. I leave my car and follow behind him.

It was the day before it all happened, everyone knew that people were coming to fight and take all the men, in the refugee to go fight against us, we didn’t know what to do with my father. Once my father came back home we were so sad because we didn’t want our dad to leave us, so we were planning to hide my father, Aunt Betsy was telling us kids to go in the room because, my parents had to talk. So me (Sally) and my little 5 year old brother. My little brother (Michael) all he talked about was being a warrior which I didn’t like because, we were going to be a in a war, but I didn't mind because I knew he was little and really didn’t know what he wanted to be.

They were everywhere we went. We ran down the dark alley. They were right behind us. We turned down another alley only to find a dead end. They were already walking towards us, blocking the only exit. We were surrounded. There was nothing we could do. We were out of ammunition and had no other weapons. I stood in front of the group ready to protect them at all costs.

Question One: Describe the community you lived in, or what your hometown was like? Did you notice any change after the war began?

I sat in my room bored out of my mind. My last mission was a few days ago and since I’ve only flown once. I was getting the itch. I needed to fly. To kill. To do something other than sit here on my ass and deal with drunk French and American soldiers every night. Being the first woman to fly and the only woman soldier in this war, I had a hard enough time dealing with their horny, egotistical men comments. I don’t need them drunk too. I got up and walked to my brothers room.

It was 5 am in the morning and I was flying over the Persian Gulf, I was exhausted from the 18 hour flight from Virginia. All I wanted to do was sleep, but the vast amount of emotions I had swirling around in my body kept me in a trance state. Scared because this was my first time in the Middle East and excited to finally see something new, it was a bittersweet moment for me. Finally we landed, Excited to feel my legs again, I rushed towards the front of the plane, only to feel like someone was holding a perpetual blow dryer and LED light to my face. And at that moment, I knew I had arrived in Qatar --- what has the military gotten me into?

As former president Richard M. Nixon once said, “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.” The thought of the Vietnam War being entirely brutal comes from the misreported information given by people who were not in the first tier of the war. The soldiers were the first tier, they fought firsthand and saw everything that happened, from someone being killed, to traveling nightly to their next camping grounds. The second level, includes the reporters from America. These are the people who were close to where the action happened but not nearly close enough to experience the good things that came from the war. They saw the war through a window, seeing only the

It was early when we woke up, the sun hadn’t completely risen and I was already starving. To our surprise, we found that the swamps had expanded and overflowed overnight. We camped at a site which we thought was a dry camping area, but when the sun came out we realised the whole forest floor had become one massive swamp. The stench of the swamp was so overwhelming that I suddenly didn’t feel so hungry anymore. Our balloon basket was gooey and dirty on the outside and on the inside patches of swamp water had seeped into the basket, soaking our sleeping gear and damaging our canned foods. We wrapped all of our spoiled belongings in the tarp and packed up our basket. We inflated the balloon and begun to rise.

They see panic near a bank and fly through the doors and someone fires a gunshot Jimmy uses his powers to stop the bullet. Then they pin everyone to the wall except one person Fully covered they're having trouble moving he slowly walks towards them and raises a gun and shoots Jimmy stops the shot an inch before him and the bullet releases invisible scentless poison gas to kill Jimmy. Jimmy falls down. John opens the bank door sends everyone out including Jimmy then closes it. He holds his breath and lunges at the man and knocks him back. He feels a surge of power from Jimmy’s death. Out of the corner of John’s eye, he sees the man carries an oxygen tank on his back, so he begins launching anything light enough to fling at high speeds at it while he hits it. It's been over a minute with no air for John he starts to feel weaker but still keeps fighting. The oxygen tank begins releasing oxygen. It's been over two minutes without oxygen for John so he leans in and breathes in the oxygen. The man sees he’s in a weak position and knocks him to the ground, and kicks the wind out of him. He never felt closer to death in his life. With the last of his power he drains all the air out of the tank. In the seconds before he passes out from exhaustion and blood loss he sees the man gasping for

Life during the Vietnam War, from the point-of-view of a US Navy sailor, was the main subject of the interview. For the most part we talk about what the life of a sailor consisted of during that time period, but there is a few underlying themes. Like the interaction between different races within the US Navy and there is some talk of rural Maine during and before the war.