cbrady on Dec 4th 2008 When Americans Came Marching Home
The interview process turned in to an e-mail process for me. I e-mailed my Grandpa who served in World War II. He went to Guam and ended up guarding prisoners of war and doing things around the naval base. My Grandpa never saw combat and therefore had a different military experience than other veterans. The return to civilian life was very easy and good for my Grandpa, like most returning World War II soldiers. He did keep in touch with some good friends, but never went to any major reunions like other veterans that were interviewed. Luckily, no Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms were experienced by my Grandpa; however, this is not the case for other veterans that were interviewed. Those that experienced combat first hand were more likely to experience PTSD. Another thing that was different for my Grandpa compared to other interviewed veterans was that he did not go back in to service. There were many cases that soldiers that fought in World War II went to Korea and even to Vietnam. Most of the soldiers lives were affected greatly by the experiences they had in war. When fellow classmates were sharing what their interview process was like it was interesting to hear how some were willing to talk and others were not. Some people do not feel comfortable talking about their experiences even though so many years have passed. I think the veterans stories and experiences are important to learn from and hear, but it is hard when it is someones life. If they do not want to talk it is hard to understand what they went through. All in all, it seemed from every interview more respect was gained for the person that was interviewed. We should give all veterans our respect and help to make sure they get the benefits they deserve.
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cbrady on Nov 24th 2008 Wages of War, When Americans Came Marching Home
Gambone discusses routine at the beginning of the chapter attempting to show that America was trying to get back in to something that was normal for them after World War II. However, not long after, America was thrown back in to another war. This one was not as clear to the American public or its soldiers though. After reading this chapter, I was shocked at how unprepared we were for the Korean war. The Defense Department decided to pull from inactive and volunteer reserves for individual replacements (page 172). This meant considerably more training for the reserves and when the time came for them to go, they were not as well prepared. Gambone seems to summarize the public’s view of the Korean War in this sentence, ” the American public registered not a sense of joy over a war well fought but relief over a burden that had finally come to an end.” (page 187)
The end of Wages of War seems to demonstrate what we have been focusing on all semester. If the government and America’s public had remembered the outcome from previous wars, the more recent wars would have been treated better.The veterans experiences are formed by how people remember the treatment of previous veterans.The Revolutionary War veterans were the first experience for both the American government and its public. It would have made sense for the government to learn from their mistakes but yet they continuously make them throughout American history. The American government did improve with World War II veterans, who had the best experience returning home of all the veterans. After the World War II veterans the experience of Vietnam veterans went down. I believe that this was partly due to the fact that the American public did not understand what the Vietnam soldiers had gone through. I think after reading this book, I realize that we need to take all of these experiences and learn from them. That is the least we can do for the veterans of America’s war.
cbrady on Nov 19th 2008 Korea, Persian Gulf, Vietnam, When Americans Came Marching Home, World War II
Darlene Iskra joined the Navy in 1979 at the age of 27. She served in the Persian Gulf War from 1990-1995. In her interview she talks about her experience with dive school. Darlene and her friend Martha were the only two women that were part of the dive class. The rest of the class was made up of 30 men. The men were supportive of her and Martha but the teacher was not. The officers made it very hard on the two girls. It was much was much more physical pressure than anything else. After her graduation from dive school, she was sent to the Suez Canal. Darlene was also the first woman to take command of a U.S. Navy ship. She actually served in combat which was interesting to hear about.
Jeanne M. Holm served in both World War II and Korea. She was part of the airforce. It was interesting to hear how she signed up for the airforce and got involved with it. She had originally checked the box that said airforce and she forgot. She did not tell anyone what she had done. In 1949 she went to Europe, specifically Germany. She was the first woman promoted to Brigadier General. In 1965 she was made the director of women in the airforce. It was very interesting to me that she participated in both World War II and Korea. To be honest, I never really thought of any soldier participating in more than one war.
Francis Liberty had a very interesting interview. She seemed to start to say things and then think better about them. There seemed to be a battle between her and the interviewer about who was going to talk at some points. She served in both World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Her total military career amounted to 28 years. One of my favorite things she talked about was how another nurse and her went to go sleep in the gun empacement room because people were sea sick on the ship. The next night when they went back there were pillows and blankets left by the men that had seen them the prevoius night. I wonder if men would have fallen asleep there if pillows and blankets would have been left for them. She said that a difference between all the wars and her experiences was that Vietnam was much more advanced. They got the soliders right off the field and were able to start treating them right away. When she worked in the hospital here she worked in Walter Reed. She took care of John Foster Dulles and George Marshall. Dulles was the Secretary of States, she told funny stories about playing cards with him late at night.
The final thing I listened to was the NPR clip about Women in Iraq. They discussed how women are so much closer to combat in Iraq. They are also integrated with men even though there is a relatively small number of them. They are concerns about saftey issues for the women. The story they told about the mother and her son was very sad. The mother goes to Iraq and came back. When she left her son was 9 months old and when she came back he was 2. Every single time the child saw a plane he would say mommy coming home! When she finally did return the child became very sad and anxious. The child had changed and it was hard for the mother to become the main caretaker again.
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cbrady on Nov 12th 2008 When Americans Came Marching Home
I was surprised at the difficulty the government had in calling Korea and Vietnam a war. They felt that it was more of a “conflict” than an actual war. I do not agree with the term “conflict” because conflict seems more of a term for a smaller event. Korea and Vietnam took years and lives from the United States, they deserve to be called more than conflicts. I can understand though because of the opposition to Korea and Vietnam that the United States would not want to call them a war. The Korean war was coined, The “Forgotten” War. Hearing that as a Korean veteran must be very hard because you fought for your country and should receive more respect for what you did.
Most of Piehler’s text discussed the memorials of veterans and focused on the memorials for Vietnam and Korea. The Vietnam War memorial was commissioned much faster when the war was finished than the Korean War. At one point in the text there was even an idea to have an amusement park. Seriously, an amusement park as a war memorial?! Luckily the plans were never worked out. Another fact the author states is that the South Korean government made memorials to the United States soldiers but the government in the United States waited 35 years to decided that one should be made in America. Even when it was built the government did not pay for it, it was paid for with mostly private contributions.
I could not imagine being a veteran from the Vietnam or Korean war. The return home was probably nothing like they expected and the lack of respect they received did not help. Having to wait around for your government to decide that what you had done was actually a contribution and deserved a memorial must have been hard. What would it be like returning home and having the government say you fought in a conflict not a war? I would not want to face the idea that what I had done overseas for my country was not really that important.
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cbrady on Nov 10th 2008 Uncategorized
President Lyndon Johnson was so engrossed with his idea for a “great society” that he added U.S. presence in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh, according to Wages of War, seemed to admire Americans and was an ally during World War II. Previous Presidents had ignored him as he showed interest in making Vietnam a democracy. However, he was unable to get aid so he turned to Communism. Johnson’s misunderstanding of Vietnamese culture complicated the situation and led to a greater idea to prevent a “domino effect” of communism.
Before using Agent Orange, the government should have researched its effects on people. Even, when the government realized what Agent Orange was doing they used bias sources for their research. The government even tried to deny for years that veterans were experiencing negative side effects. One thing that did bother me about these chapters was the idea that there were other things that were harsh for veterans upon coming home. I felt as if the bulk of the reading was spent on Agent Orange, which did have a huge effect on veterans but I feel as if the authors could have written more on other topics.
A terrible event that the book did talk about was the My Lai massacre. After reading about the events that happened there, it was hard to believe that our own soldiers did that. The punishment of the Commanding officer was not severe enough in my mind. The governement needed to set a concrete example of the offcier to show that this type of behavior would not be tolerated.
cbrady on Nov 5th 2008 Vietnam, When Americans Came Marching Home
Reading the rest of this book reminded me so much of a book I read in my IB English class called Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh. As I continued to read further in to the book the similarities between the two books became more and more clear. Sorrow of War is also about the Vietnam war and shows the difficulty of a Vietnamese soldier.
Both books go back and forth between childhood, war experiences, and life after the war. It seems confusing to the reader until the reader is enlightened of the plot at the end of the book. In this case Kovic surprises the reader by revealing what he has been holding inside of him since he has returned home. Kovic finally tells the reader that he murdered a fellow soldier and some Vietnamese children. He thought they were enemy combatants and kills them in the moment. This experience sticks with Kovic more than having to live in a wheelchair. Kovic discusses at points how he hates his injuries and others how he feels they are almost a “payment” for his crimes. Kovic’s memories can be similar to PTSD because they haunt him and his life is greatly affected by them.
I was shocked as a reader that Kovic revealed something so big in his book. He seemed to come to terms with it himself but announcing his mistake to all the people that will read his book is a shocking way to tell people. The way that Kovic just admits his secret made me realize the casualties of war. There was no attempt by Kovic to try and make his mistake seem better or hurry through it. He seems to take his “punishment” and makes no excuses for it. To me, when Kovic admits his mistake and owns up to it, he becomes a different sort of hero in my eyes. He realizes what he has done and he knows that he has to deal with it every day of his life.
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cbrady on Nov 3rd 2008 Vietnam, When Americans Came Marching Home
This was the first book I bought for this class. I bought it to start reading it over the summer, which I did. However, I had not looked at it again until today. When I started reading it again, all of the details of the book came back to me. This was due to the impact that this book made on me. Ron Kovic captivates the reader by beginning his book with the story of his injury. After, Kovic jumps back and forth between the past and the present (his childhood memories and his experiences in the army). I have enjoyed the book so far because it has showed me what life was like for a disabled veteran.
The conditions of the hospital are sad. It shows the hardships of hospital programs at the time. Everything Kovic knew from before the war has changed, he now must learn to live life from a wheelchair. It is very difficult for him to do this because he is still young and is not able to go out and play sports or do things that other young people were doing.
Kovic seems very unhappy with his participation in the war. It is important to understand Kovic’s reasons for writing this book. He is trying to show others what it was like for him and to allow others to get an idea about the war. This book has allowed me to understand the difficult times for disabled veterans.
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cbrady on Oct 27th 2008 Wages of War, When Americans Came Marching Home, World War II
This reading showed how women and minorities were treated during and after the war. Surprisingly even though help was needed in the forms of nurses and soldiers, women were still not allowed to enlist or help out. If they were allowed to help or enlist they were put in a different group of the military branch to separate them. This separation created problems after the war for women because they did not get to see the effects of the G.I. Bill or be recognized for their effort.
Minorities were also treated differently than men and women. The VA did not take steps to defend and protect these veterans after the war and many veterans were mistreated. Doris Miller was an African American cook on a battleship in Pearl Harbor. On December 7th he saved the life of the captain and shot down 4 Japanese planes even though he was only a cook. It seems that if a white cook would have done something important like Miller did then he would have gotten recognition.
As I read and learn more about World War II, I am surprised at how much I had never thought about before. With each war, my understanding of how difficult it was for soldiers on their return home or transition in to civilian life again grows.
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cbrady on Oct 15th 2008 When Americans Came Marching Home, World War II
Doing Battle by Paul Fussell was a interesting read. I enjoyed the way the author seemed to re-live his experiecnes in the book. I enjoyed seeing a glimpse of Fussell’s life before he went in to war, it was an aspect of the book that allowed me to connect with the author on a more personal level. I also enjoyed the way the author gave such good details about the battles and the things that went on around him, even though there was chaos everywhere. Before the war Fussell believed that he was untouchable and could do anything. A few years later he realizes that every soldier is bound to be “touched” at some point.
The Greatest Generation Comes Home was a more difficult read for me. It was not as easy to read as the previous book. I was surprised that that government still had not come up with an effective deployment plan for its soldiers. Deployment issues were seen in the Civil War, World War I, and now World War II. The government still did not realize the huge effort it would take to move so many soldiers. In my opinion, the government should have learned from World War I and taken better effort during the war to think about what would happen when the war ended. All the soldiers coming home was going to happen at some point and they should have been prepared.
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cbrady on Oct 2nd 2008 When Americans Came Marching Home, World War I
The veterans from World War One, received a different public opinion than previous veterans. The public was much more welcome and sympathetic to the veterans coming home and their problems with the government. The World War One veterans faced the same problems with pensions that veterans from both the Civil War and the Revolutionary War. One problem that the American government faced for the first time was finding a way for soldiers to get home from Europe. They had to get millions of soldiers back across the Atlantic. This was the first time that the government had to accomplish getting that many U.S. citizens back home to their families.
From past experience, the country knew it was going to be difficult to put all the service men back in to the working economy. “The War Department’s Employment Service promised that no service man will be considered demobilized until a job has been found for him” (page 163). However, compensation for what the soldiers did over in Europe was still being asked for. On page 171, Sperry from the Private Soldiers and Sailors’ Legion’s stated that, “It was by the laws and action of the United States government that upon the private soldiers, sailor, and marine were placed burden, hazards, and losses of the world war.”
Reading about the Bonus March, interested me. This is the largest movement by veterans that I have heard or read of and the idea of thousands of veterans marching to D.C. is amazing. The veterans marched there with the idea to camp out and refusal to leave. The United States government was worried about the Bonus Marchers and almost seemed scared to what they might do. The government who had just used all of these soldiers seemed scared that they would turn and create havoc in D.C.
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