At a young age Paul “Edward” Conley knew he was destined for the Marines, thus it was no surprise when at age 17 he asked his parents to allow him to enlist. After being rigorously trained at Camp Pendleton for several months, in June of 1969 he left for Vietnam.
From the moment his aircraft touched down in Danang, Vietnam, Edward’s experience with war combat had already began. The base he had landed on was under rocket attack. Following a quick departure from the aircraft via emergency exits, the crew had to quickly evacuate the landing field.
After 2 weeks in this new, strange country, he was told to board a ship at An Hoa base. They stayed on a US landing vessel for 3 days before making an amphibious landing near a barrier island. Barrier
…show more content…
Until among the War Department records, an order written by Washington about the award was found. The order stated that the men who received the metal’s names would be written down in a “Book of Merit.” No such book was found from the Revolutionary War period. In the early 1930s, General Douglas MacArthur pushed for this award to be reinstated, thus on February 22, 1932, it was. (Nancy Robinson Masters) Since its creation, the Purple Heart has undergone many changes with respect to whom it is entitled to. Before, this metal was exclusively awarded to the Army Air Corps as well as any Army persons but could not be awarded posthumously to the next of kin. Franklin Roosevelt signed an order allowing Navy personnel to be awarded this medal in 1942. In the same year, the Purple Heart was made available to the nearest relatives of anyone killed in action after December 6, 1941. (History) This interview with Edward shows how much fearlessness and bravery he must have had in order to leave his family, as well as go to a different land and fight for our country. He was only 17 when he decided to leave, not everyone has enough courage to do this. Edward and the many other men and women who have freely enlisted to serve our nation should be regarded with the utmost respect for their selfless
...ilver Star, the third-highest military honor, for an incident that happened nearly 30 years earlier, when he pulled seven comrades off a burning armored personnel carrier that had struck a mine. That act bravery left Hathcock badly burned and effectively ended his career as a rifleman.
Appy’s book is valuable to its readers in showing how Vietnam became the template for every American war since, from novelties like the invasion of Grenada to the seemingly never-ending conflicts post-9/11. But before all that, there was Vietnam, and, larger lessons aside, Appy’s book is a fascinating, insightful, infuriating and thought-provoking study of that conflict, from its earliest days
army out of harms way. The author briefly discusses the troubles at Kip’s Bay and Fort Washington.
Audie Leon Murphy has earned all available U.S. military combat award for valor possible from the United States Army. He was also decorated by Belgium and France for his service. He serviced in the European Theater of Operations along with the Mediterranean. on January 26, 1945 Murphy earned the medal of honor because of what he had did at the Colmar Pocket near Holtzwihr, France when he was only 19 years old. He received it for his defensive actions against German troops- this shows his selfless service and personal courage. While he was wounded he alone stayed in a burning tank destroyer firing at the Germans- their soldiers and tanks- with a fully automatic machine gun. When he was out of ammo he climbed off the tank and led a successful counterattack after he had refused to let his wounds be treated. Another way he showed his personal courage-an army value.
As the war progresses, Caputo requests to go to a line company in the middle of November. This is a change from the “office” position he currently held where he was largely responsible for counting casualties. At this point, the romanticized visions Caputo had of war have been completely shattered and he goes into this transfer being fully aware of this. This change in viewpoint becomes even more clear when compared to the beginning of the novel where Caputo was intrigued by the romance and action of war. While readers would expect more action and typical war stories in this section of the book, Philip Caputo writes anything but. Caputo writes, “It went like that for the rest of the month. It was a time of little action and endless misery…Almost every hour of every night, the radio operators chanted, ‘All secure. Situation remains the same’ (1996: 240). Caputo repeats the phrase “All secure. Situation remains the same” five times throughout this single paragraph. Because of this, readers see the dull and mundane side of war that is often not talked about. In addition, Caputo continues to comment of the large amounts of waiting throughout the autobiography. When most think of the Vietnam War, they picture the “main events”. Similar to the numerous documentaries we watched in class, some of the main points of the war include: The first Indochina War, The Gulf of Tonkin, and the Tet Offensive. These documentaries all focused on these monumental events and because of this, the public perceives this war as the sum of these events. However, what many fail to consider the large gaps in time between these events. It is in these large gaps that little action occurred and most of the soldier’s time was spent waiting as Caputo depicted in this scene. In connection with
served two tours there and came back a decorated war hero. After his return to
Hynes, Samuel Lynn. "What Happened in Nam." The soldiers' tale: bearing witness to modern war. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: A. Lane, 1997. 177-222. Print.
Julianna Claire, an award winning poet once said, “War makes men act like fools, and makes fools pretend to be brave.” War is a very difficult and dangerous game. There must be a just cause to fight for, supporters on either side of the war, and clear plan on what the war ought to look like. Though, as much as countries plan their strategies and perfect their tactics, war never seems to go how people think it should. War creates heartache, makes countries question their governments, and changes the lives of the soldiers who fight in them. One such story that address the damages of war, is Ambush, by Tim O’Brien (1946). In this short story, Tim O’Brien tells a story of a young man fighting in Vietnam who kills a member of the Vietnam army. Robin Silbergleid, a neurosurgeon in Seattle, Washington, who minored in
He has made one final promise to hundreds of Vietnamese who crowded the US Embassy grounds on the final day of the evacuation—perhaps the last American promise offered to the men and women who threw in their lot with the wealthy, well-armed foreigners. “Nobody is going to be left behind,” he told them. One of the Vietnamese who is there remembered his words: “When you are in the American Embassy, you are [on] American soil. I promise [that] me and my soldiers will be the last ones to leave the embassy.” With 420 Vietnamese still waiting but with orders from Washington, Herrington assures them that a big helicopter is coming for them and then excuses himself to go “take a leak.” Scurrying off into the shadows, he sneaks into the embassy building and onto a helicopter, abandoning those to whom he’d just given his word.
A quote from Bennett “Of all the countries in the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized,” (Egan, 2006) makes your realize the self-inflicted destruction of the great planes. This book is not only about people who died but the ones who survived and lived on to tell their story directly to Egan.
As evidenced by his words, it was not simply a matter of going over there at the age of seventeen to fight for one’s country. Rather, it was a matter of leaving behind the safety and security of the home to which you were accustomed, with little expectation of returning. At a time when these ‘kids’ should have been enjoying, they were burdened with the the trepidation of being drafted.
The book, We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, begins at a pivotal point in American history. The year was 1965; the year America began to directly interfere with the Vietnam affairs and send our young men to defend the notion of "freedom." During this year, Vietnam interested and concerned only a few Americans. In fact, the controversy of American involvement in Vietnam had hardly begun. But this all changed in November 1965 at the Ia Drang Valley in distant Vietnam. The Battle at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany was the first major battle of the Vietnam conflict; a conflict that lasted decade and caused American turmoil for many more years.
...f his stay in Vietnam, he had wished he had never heard that word. He became horrified by this war. The once proud American was no longer so proud of his country. The Vietnam War was not like the movies he saw as a child; “the screams were real, and when men fell down they didn’t get up, and the sticky wet substance splattering against your leg was somebody’s intestines” (Ehrhart, 246). Although he had his family and friends around him upon his return home, it seemed that Ehrhart was alone in “The World.” Unless someone was there, they could not possibly understand the thoughts and memories he had to live with. The gruesome memories from Vietnam had permeated him completely; they engraved into his mind and would undoubtedly scar him forever.
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.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as