He is overcome with grief as he vividly recalls the flashbacks that he faces when visiting the Memorial for the first time. He is confronted by raw emotion and is determined not let his thoughts consume him. He fights back the tears, “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No Tears (Komunyakaa 3,4)” that he promised himself not to allow anyone to see. While a simple goal it was not one that is easy to achieve. Although he was a Veteran of the Vietnam War, his grief and pain are reminiscent of most war veterans.
For some of them the trauma of their battle experiences or their physical disabilities has shattered their lives. For even more, adjustment to civilian life has not been an easy process. Most of these veterans have very similar stories. Most of those in the military at the time had just graduated out of high school and were sent to a jungle to fight a guerrilla war far away from home. During the war, they were exposed to a lot of stress, confusion, anxiety, pain, and hatred.
Towards the end of the war, Martin becomes very spiteful towards the government’s treatment of him and his former comrades. Overall, Martin does a respectable job of informing the public on how the Revolutionary soldier’s life during the war was and how difficult their life was. Even though Martin was not the most decorated soldier, his efforts should be valued. Martin participated in very prominent battles (the Battle of Bunker Hill, Siege of Yorktown, and the Battle of Red Bank), and describes the Battle of Red Bank. Martin declares, “Five Hundred men defeated two thousand of the enemy, killed and wounded a large number, and mortally wounded and took prisoner their
Tim O’Brien and The Effects of The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a horrific war that changed many people forever. Young men between eighteen and twenty-three years old were shipped off to a foreign land to fight in a war that they didn’t fully understand. Over the years, there have been many literary works about the Vietnam War, but none compare to the accuracy and brutal reality of Tim O’Brien’s works. Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” explores the hardships of the Vietnam War during combat, and his short stories “Speaking of Courage” and “Field Trip” show the after effects of the Vietnam War and how it changed people forever. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the only authors who portrays the Vietnam War exactly how it was.
These soldiers that come back home and cannot adjust to the “normal” lifestyle back home. They have become so adapt to the war that war has become the natural state. In War by Sebastian Junger the soldiers become so adapt to the Korengal Valley that they have troubles coming home. In the movie the “Hurt Locker” director by Kathryn Bigelow the main character goes through similar experiences that the people in the Korengal Valley
“For centuries we have seen casualties of war; soldiers who have had various physical injuries and scars that last a lifetime (Stan Tian).” This can tear a soldier’s life apart and even his family and that’s a huge struggle that some veterans must go through every day, it’s not just physical injuries but mental illnesses as well. “Yet until the 20th century little was known about the emotional effects of war on soldiers and it wasn't until soldiers were studied psychologically that we began to understand what had happened to them” ( Stan Tian). Tian explains how war can affect you and he gives a lot of information on the topic of physical and mental disabilities in regards to combat. Stan Tian is a psychologist and studies mental health and helps people cope with and understand about the effects of war such as PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder in which someone experiences something that is life threatening, a serious accident, terrorist attack, sexual assault, etc.
This story is what I will be telling my kids and grandkids about when they are learning about this war in their history class. New York Times reporter Chris Hedges says, “We forget what war is about, what it does to those who wage it and those who suffer from it. Those who hate war the most, I have often found, are veterans who know it”(War In Iraq). War is started, then often forgot about. We forget what the main purpose of this war is then continue to fight, dragging it on.
Many veterans have developed cancer and other illnesses due to the poisonous toxins in which they were open to during the war. The stories of disturbed, sick and mentally ill veterans, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and continuing to suffer from their time in Vietnam suggest that this was almost a universal experience. It wasn’t. Although Many Vietnam veterans suffered catastrophic experiences and developed various illnesses from their experience many veterans simply returned to Australia and settled back into the routines and habits of civilian life. For every veteran who remains haunted by the experience of Vietnam, there are another group who have left it behind.
Wade Berrigan 5-26-07 The Moral Ambiguity of War In the novel Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers, shows us many examples of soldiers struggling between making morale choices or staying alive. New soldiers look at other soldiers who have been in the war for a while as if they are sick soulless creatures killing everything in their way. Later we find these same characters that are doing the questioning doing the same thing. For example Perry wonders to himself how someone can die in front of them and no one remember it the following day. This shows his morals are still intact.
PTSD Analysis Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a hot button topic in today’s world because many soldiers come home from war and do not receive the proper health care they deserve. Each day normal human beings encounter stress; it is inevitable to avoid it. For Brendon Burgess, a member of our United States Army, he experienced a whole new level of stress that we can not begin to imagine, now called PTSD. Upon many soldiers, like Brendon, returning to “normalcy” back home is easier said than done. He and his fellow soldiers encounter many physical and mental problems while transitioning back from combat into our environment.