The Winchester's War-Personal Narrative

My oral history project is based off of the book "Ashley's War" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. This book brought to my attention that women in the military, though underappreciated, have played a colossal role in the removal of the ban on women in combat positions.

Within the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien writes about a story that Mitchell Sanders recounts to be true. The surrealist part is when Sanders talks about how they heard noises within the forests of Nam. Sanders says, “...but after a while they start hearing -you won’t believe this- they hear chamber music… Then after a while they hear gook opera and a glee club…” (Pg. 71). When he says this he is really adding details to pad the story up. Like when Sanders say, “The whole country. Vietnam. The place talks. It talks. Understand? Nam - it truly talks.” (Pg. 71). He means to say that he added those things that they heard because there were sounds they heard that couldn’t be explained. Later on he says that those things they heard

Even though there were progress and the advancement of guns, you still had to reload after every shot, the repeating rifle allowed you to fire of a magazine of ammunition before reloading changed the effectiveness and also the deadliness of wars. The repeating rifle was invented in 1860 by a man called Christian Spencer, a machinist who worked in Hartford. It was the first of its kind, being able to fired tens of rounds in a minute compared to a few shots every minute gave a huge advantage. With the North being able to mass produce this weapon gave a huge advantage on the battlefield. The only weakness of the rifle was the short range. The repeating rifle was only one example of many where the North industrial side show it's overwhelming

     According to the author Tim O’Brien, people tend to readily accept the ‘facts’ presented of what happened during a war. People do not consider the existence of fallacies regarding the actual stories of what happens in wars, few consider that the ‘facts’ of an incident often change through people’s words. The film ‘Saving the Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg features both facts and seemingness part of the war story. Since it is so difficult to fully describe a war using human language, Spielberg ended up revising his stories to make sense out of it. Spielberg included parts that did not occur or exclude parts that did occur in order to make their stories seem more credible. According

A true war story is rather difficult, if not impossible, to share when it goes beyond one’s imagination. Regarding such a story, one morally sound aspect about it is that it lacks morality or meaning to it. Extracting facts from a true war story is a daunting task because what seems to happen is what actually occurs. In what is to follow, I will tell one awful true war story.

The short story that will be discussed, evaluated, and analyzed in this paper is a very emotionally and morally challenging short story to read. Michael Meyer, author of the college text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, states that the author of How to Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien, “was drafted into the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart” (472). His experiences from the Vietnam War have stayed with him, and he writes about them in this short story. The purpose of this literary analysis is to critically analyze this short story by explaining O’Brien’s writing techniques, by discussing his intended message and how it is displayed, by providing my own reaction,

“In the war the dead pay the debts of the living” (Collier and Collier 211). War is such a deadly thing and this quote proves it. The quote is saying that the people in the war know they are going to die but the soldiers fight for those people who are alive to be free. The book is based around war. In the book, My Brother Sam Is Dead, by Collier and Collier, the book relates to three ideas. During war many families turn against each other, the generations clash, and heroic ideals turn into brutal realities. All around war is impractical and America wouldn’t be free, of course there could have probably been a safer way.

In general, in the earlier years as a black male, I would probably be born in Africa living with the rest of my family and secluded from other countries impact on my religion, culture recreation. However, that would eventually change as westerners would have came and involuntary capture me, my family and the rest of my village and put us in large sea going vessels that would be packed with hundreds in a unsanitary environment. Therefore, some would survive the journey and some will not and the one who did survive probably wish they didn’t. I would have sold to the highest Labor and separated from my family. I would eventually be working in the plantation field probably on the North America, eastern coast because of European interest in tobacco.

Tiara, I think you hit the nail right on the head. The United States government is a case in point that has helped a lot of countries and we continue to do so, on a regular base. We the people or government that the people elected help so much throughout the world because of our Christian faith this country was built on. There are times, such as after a war, the United States disengages from the country early leaving the citizens and an unprepared military to fend for themselves. Although things may have been not the best before we engaged in war, when leaving a country in an unprepared situation can result in rebel forces taking over, creating a possible more threating situation.

In addition to advancements in smaller firearms, the US military also saw improvements in the sector of long range rifles. Muzzle loading muskets from the Revolutionary War were highly inefficient and and extremely dangerous to use. When on the battlefield, trying to load a muzzle loading musket became very complicated. If the soldier loaded a bullet but it got jammed, and they tried to fire, the musket would explode in their face, causing many unnecessary injuries to the soldier force (National Park Service, “Evolution of the Breechloader”). With the invention of the breech loader, loading a rifle became exceedingly simple. In a breech loading rifle, the soldier loads a cartridge containing the bullet and the gunpowder into a chamber. They would then proceed to fire the weapon. This method of loading a weapon was

We were trapped in a house. There were redcoats surrounding the house. All we had was a bayonet and a knife. John was almost dead. He might as well be dead, having been stabbed, shot 3 times and attacked by rabbits (Don’t ask). John pointed out the window and said, “Look”.

turning my head again I saw Simon dive to my aid. He did not utter a

Colt’s Impact on Society Through Samuel Colt’s simple invention of the revolver, he gave Americans the ability to defend themselves with accuracy, improved military power against the world, and impacted gun laws in today's society. Many people believe the .45 Peacemaker was the gun that started the expansion out west. Giving the average Joe an opportunity to defend and protect their own freehold. Although it gave the ability for self defense, it also offered a militaristic advantage, producing a more advanced weapon then the opponents were capable of creating.

As the war dragged on and families were torn apart I was left wondering if it was all worth it. For those of those living in the North we no longer had to live as slaves so why should we suffer. When I feel like this I always stop myself because I know that I am being selfish. Everyone deserves to have freedom and live their lives the way they want it. With the Emancipation Proclamation it was now possible for everyone to accomplish their dreams. President Abraham Lincoln signing this into action gave hope to all of those who were still enslaved. After the war was over and blacks were freed we still had a long fight ahead of us. We now have to fight for equal rights so that not only we can have better lives, but our future generations.

The Winchester house is one of the oddest and one of most haunted houses in the world. It is located in northern California. It cost over $20,000,000 to make. The owner, Mrs. Winchester, was rich because her family made the Winchester repeating rifle known as “The gun that won the west”. The house has 160 rooms and there are spirits in each room. The builders had to keep remaking rooms that if Mrs. Winchester kept them all she would have 600 rooms. So when they were done with the house, which took over 30 years to make, there were stairs that led to the ceiling and doors that led to walls.