Download or read book Not Your Ordinary Vietnam War Stories written by Jim Pepper and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not Your Ordinary Vietnam War Stories shares a few of the stories of men the author served with, men he came to know later in life, men he loved as brothers-in-arms surviving in harm's way, and men who were simply crazy Vietnam vets with a special story to tell. These are interesting up-and-down tales of wonder and weird, of good times and bad."
Download or read book Not Your Ordinary Vietnam War Stories written by Jim Pepper and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1969 I was commissioned as an officer in the Marines. I served an interesting tour of duty in Southeast Asia in 1972, during which time I was in and out of six different countriesincluding Vietnam. A greenhorn lieutenant when I landed, I was eventually promoted to captain. Because of my God given take charge personality and a few very junior officer notable accomplishments I found myself frequently being handpicked for special assignments. I saw action with seven different unitssome good some badsome ugly. I saw men die. I saw capable men withered by fatigue, brave men crippled by fear. Since I served, more than forty years ago now, I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and getting to know hundreds of fellow-Vietnam Vets; short term acquaintances, professional colleagues, neighbors, close friends, family members. Although our individual Vietnam stories are unique and intensely personal, I have come to realize that a common thread runs through most of them. For more than twenty-five years I have been asked to formally speak to sundry civic organizations, history classes, and social gatherings. As a result of fielding thousands of audience questions and listening to their spontaneous reactions to my talks I have learned what people are interesting in hearing. I have seen their reactions to my version of Americas Vietnam experience. I know whats interesting and whats not; whats important to those who werent there, ordinary people who merely wonder what it was like. I have enjoyed two successful careers and am currently embarked upon my third. I have fired most of lifes best bullets, emptied most of my chosen weapons most precious magazines, drained my fullest canteens, exhausted most of my allotted time on this fair planet we call earth. I want to share a few of the stories of men I served with, men I came to know later in life, men I loved as brothers-in-arms surviving in harms way; or men who were simply Crazy Vietnam Vets (like me) with a special story to tell. Men JUST like meonly different! Ours are interesting up and down tales of wonder and weird, of good times and bad. I am happily married to a seasoned school nurse, am the father of three college educated sons, and have two fine grandsons. I live in Blanco, Texas about forty miles due west of Austin. I have always viewed lifes glass as half full; hope you enjoy our Not Ordinary war stories.
Download or read book Close Quarters written by Larry Heinemann and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the moment his first novel was published, Larry Heinemann joined the ranks of the great chroniclers of the Vietnam conflict--Philip Caputo, Tim O’Brien, and Gustav Hasford.In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line, Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial-- and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.
Download or read book Ordinary Lives written by William Daniel Ehrhart and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1993, Ehrhart began what became a five-year search for the men of his platoon. Who were these men alongside whom he trained? Why had they joined the Marines at a time when being sent to war was almost a certainty? What do they think of the war and of the country that sent them to fight it? What does the Corps mean to them? What Ehrhart learned offers an extraordinary window into the complexities of the Vietnam Generation and the United States of America then and now.
Download or read book Soldiering After The Vietnam War written by Glyn Haynie and published by . This book was released on 2018-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haynie shares his struggles and his successes, completing a 20-year career in the Army culminating as an instructor at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. His story is one that clearly demonstrates just how wrong those protestors were, and just how much our country does owe these men and women who served their country with bravery and honor.
Download or read book Waging Peace written by David Hartsough and published by PM Press. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hartsough knows how to get in the way. He has used his body to block Navy ships headed for Vietnam and trains loaded with munitions on their way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has crossed borders to meet “the enemy” in East Berlin, Castro’s Cuba, and present-day Iran. He has marched with mothers confronting a violent regime in Guatemala and stood with refugees threatened by death squads in the Philippines. Waging Peace is a testament to the difference one person can make. Hartsough’s stories inspire, educate, and encourage readers to find ways to work for a more just and peaceful world. Inspired by the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. It is the story of one man’s effort to live as though we were all brothers and sisters. Engaging stories on every page provide a peace activist’s eyewitness account of many of the major historical events of the past sixty years, including the Civil Rights and anti–Vietnam War movements in the United States and the little-known but equally significant nonviolent efforts in the Soviet Union, Kosovo, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Hartsough’s story demonstrates the power and effectiveness of organized nonviolent action. But Waging Peace is more than one man’s memoir. Hartsough shows how this struggle is waged all over the world by ordinary people committed to ending the spiral of violence and war.
Download or read book The Spitting Image written by Jerry Lembcke and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2000-05-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the startling image of an anti-war protested spitting on a uniformed veteran misrepresented the narrative of Vietnam War political debate One of the most resilient images of the Vietnam era is that of the anti-war protester — often a woman — spitting on the uniformed veteran just off the plane. The lingering potency of this icon was evident during the Gulf War, when war supporters invoked it to discredit their opposition. In this startling book, Jerry Lembcke demonstrates that not a single incident of this sort has been convincingly documented. Rather, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was defined by mutual support. Indeed one soldier wrote angrily to Vice President Spiro Agnew that the only Americans who seemed concerned about the soldier's welfare were the anti-war activists. While the veterans were sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their service, this sense of unease was, Lembcke argues, more often rooted in the political practices of the Right. Tracing a range of conflicts in the twentieth century, the book illustrates how regimes engaged in unpopular conflicts often vilify their domestic opponents for "stabbing the boys in the back." Concluding with an account of the powerful role played by Hollywood in cementing the myth of the betrayed veteran through such films as Coming Home, Taxi Driver, and Rambo, Jerry Lembcke's book stands as one of the most important, original, and controversial works of cultural history in recent years.
Download or read book War Stories written by Gary Kulik and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-10-31 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War stories are mostly innocent fables and understood as such by both the teller and the hearer. However, they have long been used for political and national purposes, and those about the war in Vietnam were no exception, as painfully evidenced in the 2004 presidential campaign. John Kerry campaigned as a war hero. His opponents cast him as a liar and a traitor and their war story prevailed. ""War Stories"" delves into the myths associated with the Vietnam veteran s experience and looks at them through the war stories they told and continue to tell. Kulik conducts an extremely thorough review of the Vietnam literature and interviews participants wherever possible, poking holes in the war myths of people throughout the political spectrum. War Stories discusses how returning Vietnam vets were treated and delves into the myths that atrocities were commonplace, that all veterans of that war suffer from PTSD, and that all are guilt ridden. Kulik s research and analysis of such stories lies at the heart of this book s originality and provides a new perspective on the Vietnam War for scholars, students, and general readers. His purpose in exposing such stories is not to deny or minimize American war crimes in Vietnam but to cut through the cant of false stories so that we retain our outrage at those that are true. As we are faced with future war stories from Iraq and Afghanistan and their likely exploitation, the moral stance and the lessons learned in this book will be especially important."
Download or read book Vietnam War Slang written by Tom Dalzell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-25 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2014, the US marks the 50th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the basis for the Johnson administration’s escalation of American military involvement in Southeast Asia and war against North Vietnam. Vietnam War Slang outlines the context behind the slang used by members of the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. Troops facing and inflicting death display a high degree of linguistic creativity. Vietnam was the last American war fought by an army with conscripts, and their involuntary participation in the war added a dimension to the language. War has always been an incubator for slang; it is brutal, and brutality demands a vocabulary to describe what we don’t encounter in peacetime civilian life. Furthermore, such language serves to create an intense bond between comrades in the armed forces, helping them to support the heavy burdens of war. The troops in Vietnam faced the usual demands of war, as well as several that were unique to Vietnam – a murky political basis for the war, widespread corruption in the ruling government, untraditional guerilla warfare, an unpredictable civilian population in Vietnam, and a growing lack of popular support for the war back in the US. For all these reasons, the language of those who fought in Vietnam was a vivid reflection of life in wartime. Vietnam War Slang lays out the definitive record of the lexicon of Americans who fought in the Vietnam War. Assuming no prior knowledge, it presents around 2000 headwords, with each entry divided into sections giving parts of speech, definitions, glosses, the countries of origin, dates of earliest known citations, and citations. It will be an essential resource for Vietnam veterans and their families, students and readers of history, and anyone interested in the principles underpinning the development of slang.
Download or read book The Things They Carried written by Tim O'Brien and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Download or read book Vietnam War Veterans Stories the Never Ending Grief of the Survivors written by Byron Kresal and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-27 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vietnam-era war correspondents wore uniforms, ate field rations, and shared many of the deprivations and dangers of ordinary fighting men. Five decades later, their ranks are thinning but those who remain are still telling stories about "the last good war" for combat journalists. Vietnam War Veterans share a common bond. They fought together and returned home to build lives, families, and communities across the country. But many faced challenges back home, and some still do today. This book will introduce many of the survivors of the nasty war in Vietnam. The true, interesting, gut-wrenching and often thrilling stories you are about to read are from men whom I am honored to know. Many of the words written here are theirs from interviews I have done. As a storyteller, I have tried to recapture the events as they happened forty-five plus years ago. The narrative and scenes created here are mostly true, and the dialogue is written for all audiences from teenagers to adults, men and women alike. I am proud to have been a helicopter crew chief/door gunner with C/227th Assault Helicopter Batallion,1st Air Cav. Our unit supported many of these men in every way; inserting them into the fiery, bloody hell of a battle and supplying them with ammo, food, water, and mail, often under intense enemy fire. When they were ready to move on to a different LZ, our aircraft picked them up and re-inserted them into yet another nightmarish battle. When they were sick or wounded, we flew them to the closest field hospital. When they were silently lying in the jungle, having breathed their last, they were solemnly picked up and carefully loaded on our choppers. We reverently evacuated them to an area where they could be cared for, prior to their final flight back to their loved ones. I have the utmost respect for the guys we called "grunts". Though our military technology didn't always work, the helicopter was a very useful tool for putting our troops right where they needed to be - deep within the enemy's lair. More importantly, the choppers saved innumerable lives that in other wars would have been snuffed out. I am grateful to have been a part of the First Team in Viet Nam. In my personal stories that you will read, I have used actual names whenever possible. In other cases, names have been changed in honor of the families. It is my most sincere hope that these accounts will be read by many who have lost loved ones in this most unpopular war. Many soldiers involved in Viet Nam, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others have declined to tell their own stories to those they love back home, as they actually happened. The feelings that war veterans have, run very deep and are often very traumatic. Many don't want to relive those horrendous nightmares. Severe cases of PTSD, guilt, or not wanting families to know what they went through are prevalent and very real. In many cases, their stories are relived here as they actually happened. Here, you may finally read about what your son, grandson, husband, father, or friend endured. Though honorable and often heroic, you can be sure the memories are horrible, and something they will never forget. Throughout these stories, you will see the word "grunts." It seems that all wars have their own nomenclature. In Viet Nam, a grunt fought the toughest part of the war, in my mind. I pray that knowing what your loved ones went through may bring healing to many of you.
Download or read book Against Football written by Steve Almond and published by Melville House Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With American Football becoming an increasingly popular sport in the UK, concerns are also being raised about the health impact the sport can have on players. The scary facts about American football causing brain injury have become a hot topic in the media, especially as the same worries are surfacing for other full contact sports such as rugby. Steve Almond was a keen American football fan, but, in light of recent scientific studies about the prevalence of injuries within the sport has slowly turned against the game.
Download or read book Why Didn t You Have to Go to Vietnam Daddy written by Steve Wilken and published by Truesource Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Didn't You Have To Go To Vietnam, Daddy? It's a question children have been asking since the 1960's. Only a true Vietnam War veteran could write such a biting, satirical, revealing look into the everyday lives of soldiers within Vietnam. In the tradition of MASH and Catch 22, Why Didn't You Have To Go To Vietnam, Daddy is brutally honest about the widespread drug use among GI's, and a new insight into the antiwar feelings of many in the US Army. It's a snapshot of America in the late 1960's, the time of the military draft that singled out those sent to Vietnam, and those left behind. It's not like any other book you may have ever read about the Vietnam era, including the cruel twists of fate that awaited many returning veterans. The book is part anti-war novel, part history book, and part biography of the counter culture from the Vietnam Generation. Why Didn't You Have To Go To Vietnam, Daddy is a must-read for all who lived during those tumultuous times, and anyone who wants a better understanding of the Vietnam War's legacy among the baby boomer generation.
Download or read book Very Crazy G I written by Kregg P. Jorgenson and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010-02-24 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AMERICAN BOYS AT WAR IN VIETNAM--AND INVOLVED IN INCIDENTS YOU WON'T FIND IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES In this compelling, highly unusual collection of amazing but true stories, U.S. soldiers reveal fantastic, almost unbelievable events that occurred in places ranging from the deadly Central Highlands to the Cong-infested Mekong Delta. "Finders Keepers" became the sacred byword for one exhausted recon team who stumbled upon a fortune worth more than $500,000--and managed, with a little American ingenuity, to relocate the bounty to the States. Jorgenson also chronicles Marine Sergeant James Henderson's incredible journey back from the dead, shares a surreal chopper rescue, and recounts some heart-stopping details of the life--and death--of one of America's greatest unsung heroes, a soldier who won more medals than Audie Murphy and Sergeant York. Whether occurring in the bloody, fiery chaos of sudden ambushes or during the endless nights of silent, gnawing menace spent behind enemy lines, these stories of war are truly beaucoup dinky dau . . . and ultimately unforgettable.
Download or read book American Reckoning written by Christian G. Appy and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? Christian G. Appy examines the war's realities and myths and its lasting impact on our national self-perception. Drawing on a vast variety of sources that range from movies, songs, and novels to official documents, media coverage, and contemporary commentary, Appy offers an original interpretation of the war and its far-reaching consequences for both our popular culture and our foreign policy.
Download or read book The Vietnam War in Popular Culture written by Ron Milam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering many aspects of the Vietnam War that have not been addressed before, this book supplies new perspectives from academics as well as Vietnam veterans that explore how this key conflict of the 20th century has influenced everyday life and popular culture during the war as well as for the past 50 years. How did the experience of the Vietnam War change the United States, not just in the 1950s through the 1970s, but through to today? What role do popular music and movies play in how we think of the Vietnam War? How similar are the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—and now Syria—to the Vietnam War in terms of duration, cost, success and failure rates, and veteran issues? This two-volume set addresses these questions and many more, examining how the Vietnam War has been represented in media, music, and film, and how American popular culture changed because of the war. Accessibly written and appropriate for students and general readers, this work documents how the war that occurred on the other side of the globe in the jungles of Vietnam impacted everyday life in the United States and influenced various entertainment modes. It not only covers the impact of the counterculture revolution, popular music about Vietnam recorded while the war was being fought (and after), and films made immediately following the end of the war in the 1970s, but also draws connections to more modern events and popular culture expressions, such as films made in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Attention is paid to the impact of social movements like the environmental movement and the civil rights movement and their relationships to the Vietnam War. The set will also highlight how the experiences and events of the Vietnam War are still impacting current generations through television shows such as Mad Men.
Download or read book The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English written by Tom Dalzell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 5135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang offers the ultimate record of modern, post WW2 American Slang. The 25,000 entries are accompanied by citations that authenticate the words as well as offer examples of usage from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, musical lyrics, and Internet user groups. Etymology, cultural context, country of origin and the date the word was first used are also provided. In terms of content, the cultural transformations since 1945 are astounding. Television, computers, drugs, music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all substantial factors that have shaped culture and language. This new edition includes over 500 new headwords collected with citations from the last five years, a period of immense change in the English language, as well as revised existing entries with new dating and citations. No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and citations that will, and should, offend. Rich, scholarly and informative, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English is an indispensable resource for language researchers, lexicographers and translators.
