Uncertainties of pursuits that you may not return from, and living through constant life or death situations are things no one expects as a normal routine in life. Tim O'Brien’s story “The Things
They Carried,” excellently assists us in viewing the realities faced by soldiers during the
Vietnam War. Many of those who have seen action in war or who were deployed to war, are negatively impacted by their experiences while serving their country. Not all of the effects are physical, but much damage is internal. The psychological is unseen by the eye but is very much real as a result of war. The nature of some missions carried out by soldiers and the possibilities alone were causes for psychological damage. Firsthand witnessing of a friend’s life
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As soldiers have experienced, the images stick with us the most. Images of death psychologically causes tremendous harm.
In addition to the image of death in or from combat, the strong sense of responsibility in conjunction with the losses create additional psychological trauma. The impossibility of a mission and fulfillment of duties is a large player in the distress caused for quite a few of our soldiers. There is a great pain of shame that is felt, as well as hatred of self. This is also true for those who are there to care for the injured during combat. The volume and intensity of this work often left the nurses with feelings of inadequacy in meeting all of their patients' needs. In a sample of 50 Vietnam nurse veterans, 72% had worked in four or more mass casualty situations
(Norman, 1986). The strong emotional bonds that nurses often forged with their young patients added to the stressfulness of their role. ( Paulus, Wolfe, Metzger, Pitman pg#891) The main character in O’Brien’s story displays the psychological effects of feeling. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest
Not only was it just O’Brien that felt the guilt, his friend Norman Bowker also felt as much guilt as everyone else did. A Native American named Kiowa, another one of Tim’s best friends, carried around the New Testament because that is what helped him get through the hard days during war. Kiowa died when he was caught under heavy mortar, he was buried underneath the muck. “If it had been possible, which it wasn't, he would have explained how his friend Kiowa slipped away that night beneath the dark swampy field. He was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste” (p. 147). Norman Bowker did everything he could to keep Kiowa alive, unfortunately it did not work. Bowker was awarded seven medals during war but he thought that if he could have saved Kiowa he could have got the The Silver Star of Valor award. He was left with the responsibility of Kiowa’s death, he felt very guilty and ashamed. “There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief” (p.
“On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letter. Then he burned the two photographs (O'Brien 22). This part shows that Jimmy regrets his decision to focus on Martha all the time. He wants to get her out of his mind after Lavender’s death and is isolated from Martha. This is an alienation of stress disorder and helplessness.
“United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast.” American Journal of Medical Quality. January 2012
It is a full-length study of the history of the Army Nurse Corps in World War II. She interviewed with many “World War II women veterans- Army nurses, WACs, Women Marines, SPARS, and WASPs” to get their stories and personal memories of their experience in the field. She used information from personal interviews, meetings with former army nurses, official army reports, and the memoirs of Theresa Archbard and Ruth Haskell. Throughout the book, the author made sure to “emphasize the experiences of the nurses themselves, quoting them directly whenever possible in an effort to let the women speak for themselves”, but she also includes how the “U.S. Army Nurse Corps mobilized, expanded, and adapted to the demands of a world war”.
The short story “The Things They Carried” written by Tim O’Brien is a short story that is about the struggles of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. The story shows and also explains what the soldiers had to go through each day in the war. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien suggest that the soldiers were not only affected in a physical way but also in a mental way. One of the mental ways that affected the soldiers was thinking about their loved ones. Another way that affected the soldiers was the respect and care the soldiers had for each other. Fear was also one of the biggest ways that the soldiers were affected mentally.
Many soldiers were very stressed during the post-war era. This was all because of them not knowing if they were going to make it out to their families ever again. After seeing how many soldiers were killed during World War Two, they weren’t sure if they were going to live. To
During the period of the war, nurses had to work “closer to the front lines than the ever had before.” The film shows that most of the nurses served on or near the dangerous battlefields such as “field hospitals and evacuation hospitals, on hospital trains and hospital ships, and as flight nurses on medical transport planes.” Nurses were doing patient care; they handled patients and assisted doctors. “18 nurses were assigned to a field hospital, which could handle 75 to 150 patients.” Also, fewer than 4 percent of the U.S. soldiers who received treatment in the field or underwent evacuation died from wounds or disease. Nurses’ service at the front significantly contributed to the U.S military’s success in the WWII. Hence, the advertisements describe nurses as a respected role in the
Especially, the nurses who worked near the battlefields and were able to treat the soldiers as quickly as possible were very significant presence for the soldiers to fight for the battle with their greatest energy. They were the nurses who worked for Army Nurse Corp(ANC). During WWII, more than 59,000 American nurses worked for the ANC and worked closer to the front lines than they ever had before. Nurses worked in evacuation hospitals, under fire in field hospitals, on hospital trains, hospital ships and medical transport planes. The skill that the nurses had and the effort they had made lead to prevent low damaged soldiers from passing away in almost every combat theater compared to the other wars carried out before WWII.
Over 2,400 Americans killed at Pearl Harbor with over 60 of them being civilians , the nation decided to declared war on Japan the very next day. According to one of the soldiers he stated that when he went into the hospitals that they were many men wounded .The soldier went to all of those injured soldiers and now matter how hurt they were, they wanted him to send a note to their parents telling them that they will be alright, even though most of them died that night .The hospitals were full of the injured and the soldiers was dying fast, no one knew what to do. Nurses were cut short.The Navy Nurses faced the terrifying things of war from its first day. The rest of the Navy medical workforce, they treated the incoming casualties with self-sacrificing devotion. Most of these nurses went without sleep or rest for several days. Since the nurses helped so much taking care of the injured, many lives were saved.Over 800 Navy Nurses were on duty serving in the Navy Nurse Corps at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. The inactive Reserve Corps numbered over 900
The trauma that is attached to all of these sudden life changing injuries often lead back to substance abuse, alcohol abuse that is attached to a mental illness which takes a toll on a soldiers family as well. Ann Jones writes in her book, They were Soldiers: How Americas wounded come home the untold story, "Sooner or later almost every American soldier comes home on a stretcher, in a box, in an altered state of mind." As the wars in foreign countries ends, the war continues on in within our soldiers.
In just over two hours the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese Navy on Dec 7 by a launched attack that took everyone by surprise. The Japanese, afraid that the news of Pearl Harbors attack would be heard, attacked the American naval and army bases, airfields, and ports in the Philippine Islands on December 8, 1941. Many in the Philippines were enjoying an afternoon lunch and oblivious to what was coming. Several thousand soldiers and sailors had been killed or badly wounded after the initial attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. Nurses’ on-duty and off-duty sprang into action. They found themselves almost overwhelmed by all the slaughter. Nurses were running around filling syringes with morphine, and administering injections to kill the pain and quiet the screams. Others were performing triages, making immediate decisions on who might live and who might die. These are things they would read about, never actually have to do in real life. Their tour in paradise as one nurse put it, was about to turn into an exercise in anxiety and distress. American and Filipino nurses were brought in from many different areas to help aid the wounded. Most women were under the impression that
Women all over the United States came together to join the United States Army Nurse Corps, a group that was formally established in 1901.3 The Nurse Corps was a nursing service that provided a qualified nursing staff in support of the Department of Defense medical plans and was made up entirely of registered nurses. More than 59,000 American nurses served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II.4 After the Army Medical Department established the "chain of evacuation", nurses served in field hospitals, evacuation hospitals, hospital trains and
It is ingrained in soldier’s minds that to die for ones country is a great and honourable sacrifice.
One of the organizations that helped to save the lives of soldiers was the Army Nurse Corporation. All of the volunteers were women between twenty and forty years of age. Throughout this war only five Army nurses died. In addition to the Army Nurse Corporation there were many civilian nurses. The civilian nurses were associated with the USO, the Red Cross, the Army Special Services, the Peace Corp, and many different religious groups. These nurses treated both American and Viet Cong soldiers.
Hardships and sacrifices are sure to come from entering any war, circumstances and experiences for each soldier will be vary immensely as is such with war. Yet the way in which the soldiers approach their reason to make it through the war will be almost identical as shown by