The Women’s Army Corps of the Vietnam War

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The Women’s Army Corps of the Vietnam War

We went to a foreign country in service of our country . . . we gave aid and encouragement to a whole segment of our brothers and sisters . . . we survived a war . . . we are noble . . . we are brave . . . we are adventurous . . . we are an active part of world history . . . we are interesting . . . we have lived such exciting lives . . . we have gone far beyond the boundaries allowed to most of our sisters . . . we did it together . . . and we still have each other.

Patricia “Mama-san” Brimeyer, Army Service Clubs, Vietnam 1968.[1]

Introduction

Male soldiers have a distinct voice when they speak of war. Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., author of Achilles in Vietnam, can best explain the voice of a male soldier. Dr. Shay creates a system that explains how and why male soldiers react to war in the ways they do. Dr. Shay’s system is based on the story of Achilles in Homer’s epic The Iliad. The focus of the system is to compare the reactions of Achilles’ soldiers to war, with the American male soldiers’ reactions to the Vietnam War.

Dr. Shay’s system is based on eleven stages:

·Betrayal of “what’s right”

·The shrinkage of the social and moral horizon

·Grief at the death of a special comrade

·Guilt and wrongful substitution

·The berserk

·Dishonoring the enemy

·What Homer left out (other obvious similarities)

·The soldiers’ luck and God’s will

·Reclaiming the Iliad’s gods as a metaphor of social power

·The breaking points of moral existence

·Healing and tragedy

During stage one, the betrayal of “what’s right”, the soldier’s moral world is violated by a commanding officer’s betrayal of the soldier’s moral order.[2] During the Vietnam War American soldiers experienced the betrayal of “what’s right” when those who held all of the power and responsibility broke the trust of the soldiers. Stage two, the shrinkage of the social and moral horizon, refers to the breaking of a soldier’s family, civilian, and military ties. The social bonds of a soldier are lost once war begins, sometimes culminating in the complete alienation of the soldier from any bonds, social or military. Grief at the death of a special comrade, stage three, is when a fellow soldier is killed and his fellow troop members are overwhelmed by the sadness his death.

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