Ricky In The Vietnam War

733 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Vietnam veterans and ptsd

My great uncle Rick or Ricky was in the Vietnam War. He’s family but I’m grateful that he told me about the darker moments of his life. It’s not every day when someone will talk to you about things that are that personal. I am lucky to have been able to broaden my perspective toward the Vietnam War via Ricky’s generosity and willingness to share his story with me. It goes something like this: It was 1997 Ricky was 19 and ½ years old. He was into building cars and racing them with his friends. He had hoped to make an enterprise with a few of his friends. He was excited for what the future had for him until one day he got a letter in the mail. The mail stated that he was being drafted into the Army for the Vietnam War. Then and there, he …show more content…

He knew all about Vietnam before the draft and knew the dangers that were there. He was extremely nervous and scared like never before when we got the draft letter. He didn’t know if he physically, mentally, and emotionally make it wherever he was going to be stationed in Vietnam. He was sent to boot camp which was no doubt one of the hardest experiences he has had in his life. Every day and morning he had to run, crawl, swim, and train in rough environments. He needed to be ready for whatever hell was awaiting him in the foreign …show more content…

However, he didn’t know how lucky he really was until a few months later as the war started to sink in. He had made many friends. Some of them lived and are still alive to today. But like every war there are always going to casualties. In late July of 1967, his best friend Thomas died due to a gunshot wound to the chest. After watching his best friend die next to him he wasn’t ever the same. He struggled with PTSD for the next decade. He would picture his best friend next to him screaming for help and crying for his mom. That image is still scared into his mind. It got so bad that he tried committing suicide. Luckily, his son came in and stopped him. He was able to get help and treatment. He is very grateful for the people he has in his life to help him along the way. He will always remember his best friend and will always bleed red, white, and

Show More
Related

  • The Things They Carried Regret Analysis

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Regret is something that is apparent in everyone’s life whether they want it to be or not. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a collection of short stories about his time in the Vietnam War. A common theme throughout all the stories is regret. Although I have never been drafted to war I can very closely relate to the feeling of regret. Regret is not a good feeling. It is something that follows you around for a long time. It hangs over your head like a gray cloud. In one of Tim’s stories On The Rainy River he says “Still, it’s a hard story to tell” (37). This draws you to believe that Tim found it very difficult to tell others about his time in the war, he did some things he was not proud of and he found it best he keep quiet. The decision my parents made eleven years ago to get divorced, was something that will have an affect on me for the rest of my life. I found it very difficult to talk about the divorce,

    Read More

  • Stories of Insanity in How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O´brien

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    Author Tim O’Brien in “How to Tell a True War Story” uses the physical and mental mindset of isolation in the Vietnam war to create a story with many literary devices that makes a captivating story. The author uses point of view, verbal irony, and the character Tim O’Brien to enhance his written experiences of the Vietnam War. This story teaches the reader that experiences that were lived by the reader can be altered by the mind to a certain extent, where they can be questioned as true or not. Perhaps at a sports game or in a heated situation such as a police chase or court case. Tim O’Brien’s experiences have captivated many readers, but are they true? Or just a product of insanity from war? Well, Tim O’Brien leaves that up to the reader to decide.

    Read More

  • The Role of Storytelling in The Things They Carried

    2570 Words  | 6 Pages

    The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is estimated that anywhere between ten and thirty-one percent of Vietnam veterans have experienced post traumatic stress disorder sometime in their life. However, just because someone has not been labeled with that disorder, it does not mean there have not been long-lasting affects on that person. Throughout the book, we see the initial and long-lasting impacts that the Vietnam war has had on soldiers. This book is written in Tim’s point of view as he tells other soldier’s stories, as well as his own. Most of the book is told as Tim is looking back on his time as a soldier but there are times when we see him in present time with his family, over twenty years after the war. Over the course of the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Tim changes his personality for the worse, sees new sides of his friends brought out by

    Read More

  • Conflict In The Things They Carried

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    A war that still comes to mind and appears in people’s conversation today is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started November 1, 1955 and ended April 1, 1975. This war involved the United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Thailand. The people who didn’t experience the war might wonder what it was like, what were the soldiers duties, how did the soldiers act, or even how did the soldiers survive the war. Tim O’Brien who wrote a short story that is called “The Things They Carried”, is a story that involves soldiers who are in Vietnam. In his story he writes about a Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross and his passion about a woman named Martha and how he becomes a better lieutenant for his men during the war.

    Read More

  • Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn: A Novel Of The Vietnam War

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    For anyone under the age of 50 or so, the Vietnam War occupies an indistinct place in the closet of memory. Recalled by those alive then as the first “televised” war, its grainy images have been replaced by the 24-hour detailed coverage of more recent conflicts. The life of the foot soldier, however, hasn’t changed all that much in the 39 years since the war ended. In his extraordinary novel, Karl Marlantes portrays with brutal sincerity the fear, valor and perseverance that are the lot of the warrior.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Vietnam Bloods By Wallace Terry

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.

    Read More

  • John James Rambo Trauma

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Re-deployed to Vietnam as part of an eight man team that performs long range reconnaissance patrol, he forms friendships that serve as the basis for later trauma. The first of which is the death of best friend, who dies in his arms due to an explosive shoe shine box while the team was on leave. This event is known to have haunted him for the rest of his life.

    Read More

  • The Attitudes Of War In The Vietnam War By Tim O Brien

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tim O’Brien is an American writer who has written many stories regarding the attitude toward and difficulties associated with the Vietnam War. O’Brien was drafted for the military despite his anti-war beliefs; he served two years as an infantryman in Vietnam, where he received the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart. He may have not agreed with the situation he was subject to,

    Read More

  • Watching A Friend Die In Iraq Cort Reed

    251 Words  | 1 Pages

    Have you ever had someone close to you die? Have you ever been faced with the trauma watching someone you love die? In both of my sources I learned of how men lost their friends while on duty. I learned of the pain and distress it caused them. In this essay I will compare the stories of both men.

    Read More

  • If Die In A Combat Zone Analysis

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War had some serious affects on the soldier’s well-being and mental health. The soldiers have experienced so much tragedy and horror that they have found very unhealthy ways to cope with their emotions. They wanted something that kills. The soldiers were thinking about resorting to marijuana to feel with their problems while everyone else is fighting the war (O’Brien 202). Many soldiers have become vicious and rude, but some remain to have brotherly love. For example, when one of the Alpha Company’s soldier shot a woman that fought for the Viet Cong, some soldiers tried to everything possible to try to her alive (O’Brien 112-114). When the pilot radioed down to ask what they were doing, they risked everything for a dead

    Read More

  • Tim O Brien Dilemmas

    517 Words  | 2 Pages

    At twenty one years old he thought he had his life ahead of him. Tim received his draft notice on the seventeenth day of June in 1968. Once reality set in that he was drafted to the Vietnam war, he thought to himself, “ I was too good for this war.” This references how he viewed his own life and his intelligence. Tim would think to himself “Why not draft some back-to-the-stone-age hawk?” The impression that tim had was that his country would draft individuals who were nearing the end of their life within the next 10-20 years. Not some twenty one year old college graduate with his whole life ahead of him. After graduation college, his life was just beginning and then suddenly, a month after his graduation, it suddenly felt like it was ending. At twenty one years old Tim had a decision to make that would affect his future. Tim was confronted with a significant dilemma and had two options. Cave to the pressure that society had put on him and go fight in the war for his country or, flee to Canada and never see his family again. By choosing option two, he thought of himself as a coward and would feel the shame for the rest of his life. With Tim being so young and vulnerable to society, he decided to seek guidance that would help him make a decision about his significant dilemma he was confronted

    Read More

  • Symbolism In American Sniper

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    I first started to realize the emotional and physical torment soldiers go through when I watched the movie American Sniper. This film is the story of a decorated Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, who comes home from Afghanistan with severe PTSD. This disorder changed his life forever. At one point he even attacked a family dog because it was playing too roughly with Kyle’s child, imagining it was a battle scenario. The story ends when an retired marine, also suffering from PTSD, kills Chris Kyle. This story, however, using the heroic view of battle, shows the effect the front line has on fighters who experience it. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and “Lights Out”, a poem by Edward Thomas, both illustrate the gruesome reality of

    Read More

  • Character Comparison in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Friendship in The Things They Carried

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    The soldiers feel that the only people they can talk to about the war are their “brothers”, the other men who experienced the Vietnam War. The friendship and kinship that grew in the jungles of Vietnam survived and lived on here in the United States. By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put these incidents behind them. “The thing to do, we decided, was to forget the coffee and switch to gin, which improved the mood, and not much later we were laughing at some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien, 29).

    Read More

More about Ricky In The Vietnam War

Open Document