I woke up that Saturday morning eager to get out of bed. The man I admire the most was in town. He had come to see me play football the night before, and I had asked if I could interview him for my veteran’s essay. I sat down on the couch ready to ask the wisest man I know my questions. You could see it in his eyes that he had seen it all. “Why did you decide to join the military?” I asked my grandfather. “Well, it was 1965, I had gone through two years of college and the draft for the Vietnam War started, and I wanted to do something other than carry a riffle in the jungle.” He recalled. “I knew my options were limited. So I figured if I joined the air force, that after my two years they would continue to send me to school.”
It was at this moment I knew my grandfather was even smarter than I had thought. In March 1965, Sargent Thomas Ronald Parker joined the air force. He was then put through twelve weeks of boot camp in San Antonio Texas. “For me it was kind of easy.” He told me. He described how all of the backbreaking hours of “rough necking and being the low man on the totem pole,” had prepared him for taking orders and all the running they were required to do. “For the rest of them it was kind of hard, but for me it was
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not too bad.” After boot camp, his first assignment was going tom Chanute Air Force Base Illinois.
Once there he was required to go through fifteen weeks of tech school. “It was in the middle of a corn field in the dead of winter,” He remembered. “It was so cold and we had to march two miles to school and two miles back to the barracks. It was so cold, that you had to wear a face mask to keep your nose and everything from freezing.” For the first two week, he was on KP duty. “I think it was something like four thousand eggs I had to crack every morning.” He said. “And after cracking four thousand eggs every morning, you get really sick of eating them.” After cracking eggs in the morning, he had to wash pots and pans for lunch and
dinner. After two weeks, Sargent Parker was deployed to Germany for two years. He was assigned to the 38th missile wing. “Those big missile trucks took a lot of love and care. It was our job to order the parts and get the right stuff to keep those big trucks rolling so the Russians couldn’t tell where they were.” The 38th missile wing was later phased out and then turned into the 7th air commandoes. His job then turned to support the 7th commandoes by, “giving them Jeeps, radios, and anything they needed supply wise. The scariest part while being deployed was being on alert he explained. “Sometimes we had to stay on alerts for three days and nights out in the cold weather. On the low alerts, it was very boring and time passed very slowly. It got awful cold, and I got really tired being up for three days straight.” He admitted. On one occasion, Russia started sending vast amounts of tanks towards the German border. “You could tell it was a real alert because they gave all of us three clips for our riffle.” He said. My grandfather was scared for his life because he knew that if the Russian tanks ever did show up, three clips would not do him any good. “The best part of being in Germany was being able to play football for three years.” He said. “You could hit an officer and get away with it.” He said happily. He explained that serving in the military had affected his life in a good way. “It was a good experience meeting and working people from all over the world. It was a good learning experience.”
For training, the author shares the difficult task involved in the training and that went into preparing the American solider for battle in World War I from multiple levels including from Brownies’ perspective. The author gave clear and concise examples to strengthen his claim concerning the overwhelming task of training an inexperienced army. As the Snead explains, “Historians, journalists, and others have written numerous books
The then got breakfast before he left for either PE or combat skills. He had lunch then continued on with what he was doing before until 4pm. Sometimes he would have a night duty where he had to guard the area.
During World War II, Beckwith joined the Marines, where he received the Purple Heart for wounds in action in 1943. Considering a military career, he app...
A month after graduating from high school in June of 1940, young Othal T. Parsons joined the army to "serve my country, beat the draft, and become a bigshot." He was lured by the Army recruiting posters clarioning "I WANT YOU." Parsons worked his way up through four different armored divisions as an enlisted man until he became Second Lieutenant Othal T. Parsons, Mortar Pla...
Sean Parnell was a normal college student, partying on the weekends, going to class when he wanted, and being as carefree as one could be. A year later, he becomes the leader of a forty-man platoon at the ripe age of twenty-four. After being the leader of the platoon for only eight short months Parnell claims he “had enough knowledge to know that he didn’t know anything” (page 27). The job of ...
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
His months in Vietnam were filled with bloodshed and human atrocity, and from this, no man could feasibly return the same person. Yet beneath what John endured throughout the war, he suffered many unkindness’ and tragedies that shaped him into adulthood. It was not only the war that made John Wade, but it was John Wade’s existence; his whole life that made him who he was. John Wade craved love, admiration and affection. All his life, all he wanted was to be loved, and his father’s constant taunting hurt him immensely.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
Thomas Ricks, author of “Making the Corps”, gives a description about the United States Marine Corps’ basic military training. The book’s main focal point is Platoon 3086 at Parris Island, S.C., in 1995. Their story is about their eleven weeks boot camp training to become a full-fledged marine. Mr. Ricks writes about what separates the marines from American society, he writes how the Marine Corps differ from other branches of the Unites States military, as well as life after boot camp.
This book substantially explains the vigorous training platoon 3086 went through in order to earn the title of being a Marine.
An emotional burden that the men must carry is the longing for their loved ones. The Vietnam War forced many young men to leave their loved ones and move halfway across the world to fight a ...
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
Millions of men were called to serve in the Vietnam War. Sometimes, the men were drafted and did not have a choice. Unlike the gift-wrapped ideals of the war that were displayed to the United States, many soldiers would find that the military life would involve far more than “real man-sized action.” To the general public, soldiers were being drafted to be heroes, but once they were forced into war, less than heroic things occurred, and no one would be able to object. The law...
During the Vietnam War, the first platoon (approximately forty men) was lead by a young officer named William Calley. Young Calley was drafted into the US Army after high school, but it did not take long for him to adjust to being in the army, with a quick transition to the lifestyle of the military, he wanted to make it his career. In high school, Calley was a kind, likable and “regular” high school student, he seemed to be a normal teenager, having interest in things that other boys his age typically had. He was never observed acting in a cruel or brutal way. In Vietnam, Calley was under direct order of company commander, Captain Ernest Medina, whom he saw as a role model, he looked up to Medina. (Detzer 127).
For the Army, he is a 15U (15 Uniform) which is a helicopter mechanic. He chose this MOS because he has always been passionate about flying and working on engines.Instead of just one weekend per month for drill, his job requires at least one day per week of training plus one weekend per month of drill, and two weeks every summer for training. A lot of long hours goes into studying his helicopter and all of the systems that make it up. “ There’s just something about engines that calms me down,” he says. His job duties include transporting cargo and Special Forces Troops from point A to point B, fly Generals to where they need to go, and sometimes they carry prisoners. “When we’re flying, it’s complete freedom. I can go wherever I want and I don’t need roads to get there,” John