The Things They Carried...

Image Source: http://www.vietnammemorial.com/vietnam-war.html  (THIS IS ALSO REALLY NEAT WEBSITE WITH INFO AND PICTURES ON THE VIETNAM WAR)

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories by Tim O’Brien. The first story in the novel is a great introduction to the rest of the stories. I read the entire novel in high school and really enjoyed it. The story is following a platoon during the Vietnam war. The men in the platoon each have different stories and this first story in the novel introduces a few of them. “The Things They Carried” is the first of the short stories.  This story talks about the “things” that the soldiers carry. Some of these things are necessities, and tangible items. A lot of the weight they carry comes from weapons, ammunition, food, and other common everyday things that one would need when traveling on foot through unfamiliar territory. Others are emotions, feelings, and thoughts. O’Brien talks about how much each of the tangible items weigh. He also talks about the “emotional baggage of men who might die”. He explained that “intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.”

Two years ago, I interviewed a Veteran that served in the Vietnam War. He was in infantry and did much of what these men in the book did. He talked about how much the war changed him emotionally. He talked about some of the things that he carried. Some of the things were necessities, and other’s were to help him take his mind off the war. Much like Lieutenant Cross carries the letters and pictures from Martha. I think that O'Brien's message in this short story is that these young men not only were under extreme physical conditions, but mental as well. These men that returned from this war had many mental issues from the things that they experienced. 

**Instead of a link this week, I decided I would post a copy of an interview I conducted with a Vietnam Veteran Gary Mills. He was a radio repairmen and spent time in both the bush and camps. It was a very interesting assignment that I did during my Junior year in high school.**

Vietnam Veteran Interview

What were your feelings before entering the war?

I got drafted in 1966, and I had entered high school in 1961.  In 1962-63 I realized that I was going to have to serve my country.  Back then there was the draft, and if you were eighteen years old you had to do your duty and serve your country.  I knew that since I was not going to further my education I was going to most likely get drafted.  It didn’t bother me much or anything like that, it just kind of stayed in the back of my mind all the way through the end of my sophomore, junior, than senior year.  By that time, Vietnam was really happening in the news and everything like that.  I always toyed at night, lying in bed, thinking that I’d be going to a place called Vietnam. I didn’t know anything about it; it was called French Indochina when we were going to school. And that was about it until I graduated in 1964 and in 1966 I got drafted.  Until that point I hadn’t thought about it or what I was going to have to do. Men and boys were raised with the fact that they were to give duty to their country, and that was the way it was.

After you got drafted how long was it before you actually were sent over to Vietnam?

I got drafted on the 18^th of May, 1966, which was the largest draft call in the Vietnam War. On this day 76,000 draftees went into the service that day.   That was the largest soldier input into Vietnam, which was a year later with me, when I went to Vietnam in 1967. All of us that went in that day were for this big build up that Johnson was doing. And that’s what had happened about a year after they sent out the draft. All these new soldiers were going into Vietnam.

What did you feel after you got to Vietnam? Were you regretful?

No, I’m sixty-two know and back when I was a teenager, growing up you knew from a little age that you, boys, men, had to serve their country.  It was something that you got a callous started on ya’.  It wasn’t something that you graduated out of high school and the next day you got your draft notice, it’s something that you knew you had to do.  I didn’t regret it because I knew I had to give duty to my country.  My father and his brothers all served in the service and they all came home and I knew it was something that I had to do. I was going to try and do it as quick as I could and get out of it. 

Can you describe your first day there? 

I left Oakland Army terminal on February 18^th, 1967 and nineteen hours ten minutes later I was in Vietnam and at four in the morning we landed right outside of Saigon.  We were on a C-140 transport plane we all sat backwards in it and just before we were making our approach we veered off of our approach because it was being mortared. Right then I just knew I was prepared to get my life in order.  We made a couple passes and it subsided and we landed.  I hadn’t even touched down yet and when we touched down we were all in khakis and we had no weapons.  I’m just wondering what was going to happen when we got off the place. But it’s so natural for them because things like that happen all the time.

What was your job?
My job was a MOS and I was a field radio repairman.  I repaired radios that transmitted and received.  The main radio we repaired was the PRC which was the one that was carried on the backs of the soldiers.  We also repaired hand held radios that were called the PRC 25’s.  We repaired a wide range of radios but our main focus was field radios. My job was called 31E20.  I started work at about 8 in the morning until four or five in the afternoon at electronic maintenance where we would repair the radios that were sent to us and try to get them out as soon as possible. The motto of the radio repairmen was “without a radio you would die”.  A radio could get you ammunition, food, artillery or air support. You don’t have a radio you can’t communicate.

Did you make any friends right away?

I made friends in my tent with me I was in a in a camp called camp McDermott in the Riviera South Vietnam. There were ten of us in the tent, they became like your brothers, and you relied on em’.  I wasn’t in a combat unit but for men that were it was very hard to make friends because they could be there one minute and gone the next.  It was hard having the anxiety of losing friends.  In Feb 19^th I got to Vietnam and on Sept 4^th I got sent out in the bush.  I was there until I left on the 19^th of ’68.

So you did experience the loss of friends?

I have 6 friends on the wall, but I have 58,000 brothers and sisters on the wall. I had some really close friends die.

Did you have anything that you carried for good luck?

I carried a St. Christopher’s medal; I was dating a Catholic girl at the time. She was the Mother Superior’s pet student.  Mother Superior then went and had a sit in with the Pope, where he blessed a medal for me. I always say if it weren’t for those medals, I wouldn’t be here today.

Where did you travel while you were stationed out in the bush?

I was in an area called Two-Core, where I was with the 54^th Signal Battalion. We were all along the pacific coastline. We had a large area that they would ship us to fix radios in the area.  Usually the radios were on mountain tops, so they would fly us there. I traveled all the way from the coast to close to the Korean border. I have an awful lot of pictures.

Were you ever in a position where you were directly threatened?

Oh yes, I’ve been shot and mortared many times. The very first time it happened to me I was at a place called On-K at the foothills of Hong-Kong Mountain. The Viet-Kong were trying to put out our radio signals and hooch’s, and they didn’t have the range right so they were coming down on us.  The first mortar hit at bout two o’clock in the morning and it was the loudest explosion I had ever heard. There was debris, dust, it was loud, and there was confusion. While all this is going on every one is yelling, “Get to the bunker!”  As this happened and I don’t know how long went by, probably less than a minute.  But then I was in the bunker with my combat boots on and don’t recall ever putting my boots on or getting to the bunker.  I didn’t even know where the bunker was, I’m sure I just followed the other guys.  Then it all settled down and was quiet again. In the morning we all saw the real destruction it had caused.

Do you have long lasting effects from the war?

I have many effects from the war the main one being Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder and I am finally getting help with that.

What is one humorous story that you can share with me?

I was at a place called Bong-Song and I was repairing radios there.  I went on “Sandbag Detail”, and went down where the kids were filling sandbags down by the river.  I looked over and saw an M-48 tank, down the river and there were kids down there washing it. I wanted to check it out, so I started walking over there. I shouldn’t have left where I was supposed to stay. I was walking along and then all of a sudden I hear something in Vietnamese. People were yelling “Dong Lai!” at me, very loud and very persistent. It means “stop”. I did stop, and realized I was walking into one of our mine camps. I finally got my composure and walked out. 

Two days before I left, we were watching a movie called Dirty Dozen.  Everybody was drinking and having a good time because that is how you celebrated leaving. So we were all drinking and I got pretty drunk. I always had prided myself that I would never puke all over, anything like that, I had composure. But that night I tried to make it to a big trash bin.  It was a 55 gallon drum and I heaved, and fell in! I was yelling at all my buddies to get me out before I drowned!

Things like that make the days go faster.

Did you keep in touch with your family and friends?

Oh yes, I was quite the writer. Mail is the best thing ever when you’re in the service.  If the people of the United States wanted to do anything helpful for the war, they would write the soldier a letter.  Mail call is awesome!

How long were you over in Vietnam?

I was over there 365 days. Your tour to Vietnam was one year. You could re-enlist, which some of my friends did.

How did you feel after returning home?

I didn’t know how I was going to talk to everyone.  I was a completely different person than the one I was when I left this place. I wondered if I would fulfill my questions. Until about 2002 I didn’t talk to anyone much about it. Now, I want to enlighten the people and let them hear about my experiences.

Do you have any closing words that you would like to say?

 My main issue is that every American person should give something back to their country, because that will make them appreciate the United States of America better.