John James Rambo Trauma

John James Rambo was born on July 6th, 1947 in Bowie, AZ, to a Navajo father and Italian American mother. Not much is known about his younger life. What is known is that at the age of 18, he enlisted in the US Army on August 6th, 1964. After a successful deployment to South Vietnam, he returned to the US and to train with Army Special Forces.

Re-deployed to Vietnam as part of an eight man team that performs long range reconnaissance patrol, he forms friendships that serve as the basis for later trauma. The first of which is the death of best friend, who dies in his arms due to an explosive shoe shine box while the team was on leave. This event is known to have haunted him for the rest of his life.

A surprise attack by NVA forces results in Rambo being captured and sent to a prison camp, along with some survivors of the team. There, he is subject to repeated torture. This we believe is the source of his recurring nightmares and uncontrolled outbursts of violent behavior. Rambo eventually escapes captivity and is eventually discharged from service after the war.

Back in the US, he suffers from disillusionment when he

discovers many American civilians dislike soldiers who fought in Vietnam. He claims to have been subjected to humiliation, embarrassment, and exclusion from society. This causes him to lash out when he thinks society “wrongs” him.

In the movie, Rambo, homeless and jobless, attempts to enter the town of Hope, WA.

The local sheriff, thinking him a vagrant due to his lack of good hygiene and dress, offers him a ride to the other side of town to keep Rambo out of town. During this ride, the sheriff insults Rambo and orders him to keep walking the direction he was going. Rambo reacts negatively to this rejection and turns around to walk back into town, whereupon he is promptly arrested and put in jail. In jail, he is subject to the derision of the sheriff’s deputies who attempt to clean him up by blasting him with a fire hose. It’s when the physically restrain him and threaten to dry shave him with a straight razor that Rambo has a flashback to his time in Vietnam. Instead of seeing derisive deputies, he now sees his North Vietnamese jailors, and he attacks

them!

The rest of the story is basically a repeat of Rambo’s escape from the tortuous prison camp. He seriously injures the deputies in order to escape and then runs into the woods that remind him of the jungles of Vietnam. It is here that his years as a soldier pay off in his ability to survive on the land. Intending to escape, he is hunted by the sheriff. When the sheriff shoots Rambo, instead of disabling him, it only enrages him. Rambo turns his rage onto the town where he causes intense destruction of property and injury to various law enforcement personnel. It is only when his old commanding officer arrives that things take a turn for the better as this man is able to speak to Rambo and reach him through his episode of PTSD and bring him in.