TH VI IS ET IS NA M.
TH VI IS ET I NA S M .
TH VI IS ET I NA S M .
YOU PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN WHERE THIS IS BECAUSE IT’S GONNA AFFECT ALL YOUR LIVES.
Our teacher said “You guys should know where this is because it’s gonna affect all your lives.” And it was so funny because of course nobody in our class knew where Vietnam was and it was like, you know…
I didn’t have enough credits and I took a physical and I could chew gum and walk down the street at the same time so I ended up being drafted.
I went to college in Superior, Wisconsin, dropped out, went to River Falls, but I didn’t have enough credits so I knew I was going to be drafted.
“I’m not gonna get drafted.” So I thought, “Well I’ll enlist.” Because you get a better deal if you enlist. Everybody had to register for the draft at age eighteen. If you didn’t go to college, you were gonna get drafted.
I tried to get into the air force and uh, the air force wouldn’t take me because I was colorblind, slightly colorblind, so I ended up signing up in the army security agency and the recruiter told me, it was really funny because the recruiter told me, “If you sign up in the army security agency they can’t send you to Vietnam.” It was what they did! They tell you this, you know, and it was funny because there was a point after basic training, and I can’t remember where the hell we were but we were all sittin’ there, and this guy comes up and he says “How many of you assholes signed up in the army security agency?” About seven of us raised our hands and he said...
D U “YO S R E K C U F V O T ’ N GOI
B M U D L L A ARE ” ! M A N T VIE
I did not want to go to Vietnam.
I was scared.
2
I was just this kid from St. Paul Park who loved to play football, hockey, and baseball.
I did not know anything about politics, and I guess I didn’t care.
DECEMBER 25TH, 1964
We arrived in Vietnam on, on, it was Christmas Eve. And everybody was out partying. And so we’re at Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon, and there’s nobody to pick us up, you don’t know where to go, and it was just the worst night I’ve ever had. We slept on the tar matt, on the freakin’ cement! And it wasn’t til the next day and then somebody actually showed up and said “Oh yeah, new people.” There wasn’t a lot of respect for new people in Vietnam because, because it was like, you people are so, you people are so stupid. What are you doing here?
“YOU CAN’T TRAIN PEOPLE TO KILL PEOPLE. THAT’S JUST AN UNNATURAL THING.”
dividual n i n a e k a t you can’t , w o n k u o Y go to war. o t m e h t train and try to All a sudd en somebod y’s shooti at ya, and n’ you’re firi ng back.
and a half r u o f t n e p s ife is Your whole l chine Gun. a M 0 6 M n a d an M16 an months with And you got a shitty attitud e.
o do is t g n i y r re t All you’ alive. f l e s r u keep yo
“YOU JUST TRIED TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU COULD DO TO MAKE THESE PEOPLE NOT KILL YOU.”
How do you live with that?
How do you live with yourself when you do that?
You don’t have to do this.
Oh my god, what is
This is crazy. This
y.
is absolutely craz
this.
Well, what c
an you do.
You’re gonna be dead in a couple days anyway.
Why start any sort of relationship?
e walls or talk stupid
th I’d either just stare at
shit.
“THEY HAD THE BEST DRUGS IN THE WORLD.”
IF SOMEONE PASSED YOU A JOINT AND YOU DIDN’T PARTAKE OF IT, YOU AROUSED GREAT SUSPICION.
IT WAS A STRANGE PLACE TO FIND THE DEMANDS OF CONFORMITY.
Strongest memory I have, and it’s not a good memory, was that December 1st, 1968, my best friend got killed. Now that’s the strongest, that’s the most powerful memory I have. And he uh, you know. I carried a radio and he was the point man right in front of me and he took three rounds in the head and was, you know, probably dead before he hit the ground.
I just remember carrying him, carrying him off, and that night when we were pinned down, and they take the wounded and they leave the dead. And so, he was wrapped up in what we called a “poncho liner.” Yeah, he was wrapped up in a poncho liner and we were hunkered down in a bomb crater. And that’s like, he was my best friend.
IT TH ’S EN E EM Y. THEY’LL FIRE AND KILL WHATEVER MOVES.
Whoever came into towns with guns,that was the government. And if it was U.S. soldiers who came into town, they were the government. If it was North Vietnamese soldiers came to town, they were the government. And, and you didn’t, you didn’t fight either group.
oblem was, And the pr
is that the V.C.,
s the American t a h t w e n k y if the day before, e h t e r e h t e wer
they,
they’d come in and shoot you up.
And if the Americans came in and knew that the V.C. were there,
you know,
they’d sh oot you d own.
And they,
yeah,
the whole town. I mean they slaughtered
I never thought I was going to get wounded. I don’t know, but that’s, that’s alright. Million dollar wound, I was the luckiest guy in the world.
THEY WOKE ME THE SURGERY, THE PURPLE HE “THANKS A LOT ROLLED BACK O
E UP AFTER GAVE ME EART, I SAID T” AND OVER. It was no big deal, it was just a guy in a hospital, had a box of Purple Hearts and walked around and gave ‘em to everybody.
“YOU’RE BACK T UNITED S
E GOING TO THE STATES.”
Out in the jungle for days, people getting wounded and killed, seeing things that should only be in a nightmare, and not knowing if you would live or die the next day, changes people.
TO ADJUST, THAT’S VERY VERY DIFFICULT.
WHEN YOU GET BACK, YOU CAN’T JUST ALL A SUDDEN SAY,
I CAME HOME AS WHITE AS A GHOST.
I THINK IT IS, ANYWAY.
“HEY, IT’S OVER.”
I USED TO HAVE DREAMS ABOUT VIETNAM. The last subjunctive thing, I was preparing to run Grandma’s marathon and I was runnin’ right down by the house, about six miles, and I came around a bend and there were some woods there and I looked up and I saw the three, same three Viet Cong that I saw the night that I got wounded. Just a strange dream. I wasn’t thinking about Vietnam or anything, it was just strange, all of a sudden they were there.
NOTHING EVER BE AS VIETN
G WILL E AS BAD NAM.
“Sometimes I think the lucky ones were the ones who got killed in Viet Nam--it’s too hard being a survivor.”
SOMETIMES I WOULD ASK MYSELF...
WHY DID I SURVIVE. D BE SOMETIMES I WOUL S. ANGRY AND ENVIOU
.
SELF Y M R O ORRY F S L E E EVEN F D L U O I W
BUT FOR SOME RE AS PULLED MYSELF TO ON, I ALWAYS GETHER.
IF I CAN SURVIVE THE NAM, I CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING.
This book is dedicated to John Price and Billy Voje.
This book was designed by Jane Gardner at Central Saint Martins in the Spring of 2013. Typeface used: Courier and Trade Gothic Instructor: Yvan Martinez Images used are FPO and not owned by Jane Gardner.