Extra Credit: Women in Vietnam

[Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)]

Post a personal response to one (or more) of the stories we read in
class today, making a connection to TTTC or another text we've read
during this unit. Be sure to put in the same effort you normally
would so that this can replace the grade of an earlier post.

Also, remember to study for the c-quiz! The format will be crossword
puzzle (word bank supplied) along with a few synonyms, antonyms, and
analogies.

[Megan]

Mrs. Baran, when is this due? You kept our notes that we took on the
women ...

On Feb 7, 2:24 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)" <hannah.ka...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Hannah Baran]

Oh shoot, I meant to give them back.  Stop by my room tomorrow to pick them up if you like.  Due end of the day Wed.

[Emily Barnes]

To get back on topic, I noticed one thing that somewhat reminded me of
the novel. The 'Work(& Operation Baby Lift) reminded me of the 'Spin'
chapter. In the author testimony, she mentiones how the war was
acctually fun at times because she didn't really see any viiolence of
killing, like the author of the novel said in the beginning of the
chapter, "The war wasn't all terror and violence. Sometimes things
could almost get sweet." To my mind, this somewhat makes sense. In
life and in war, there are the good parts and there are some horrible
parts.

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[Jarrett Talley]

That is a really good point Emily, I noticed that the accounts told in
'Coping' had direct correlations with the novel. The women talked of
never knowing where and attack was coming from and they were always
scared for their lives. One of the women said, "As soon as we arrived
our base was hit by mortar attacks; we were scared for our lives, the
building shook". That woman said that she feared for her life until
the day she left. The men in the novel also feared sneak attacks and
ambushes from the unseen enemy during every patrol they went on.
Another woman mentioned, "I still drive around trash in the road at
home to this day". She feared the trash in country because any bag
lyying in the road could have had a bomb in it. She never could break
herself of the habit of swerving to miss trash, almost wrecking her
vehicle on numerous occasions.

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[Madison Stanley]

One of the accounts from "Coming Home" represented the value of
empathy to the soldiers which has been expressed throughout the novel.
In the account, a woman said that when soldiers returned home from
war, they were annoyed and uncomfortable by the men and women in the
U.S. who wanted to hear about Vietnam. O'Brien depicts empathy as one
of the most important and stable factors to dealing with the war. In
the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," Rat Kiley shows how
important it is to soldiers to have their stories believed and
understood, in order to not feel alone. At one point in the novel it
is also mentioned that the soldiers could not really talk about the
war with their girlfriends or family because everyone pretended to
understand, but they actually had no idea what took place in Vietnam.
The importance of empathy in both the women's memories and O'Brien's
book prove that it was certainly an important aspect of the Vietnam
War, and may in fact be an important aspect of warfare overall. Every
war is unique and different and only those who served in it can
understand what took place.

[Maeha Karlow]

Emily makes a good point. The war could actually be fun, if one was
in a low stress environment. In "Adopting," Kathy Oatman seemed to be
in a benificial situation. Similarly, Rat Kiley benefited from staying
at a small medical detachment. Here, Kiley experiences less violence
from battle, and more of an entertaining story to tell, for many years
to come, (the "Mary Anne" incident). Kathy Oatman adopts two lovely
children in Vietnam. Although it was a struggle to get them to
America, the frustration it caused seemed well worth it. Kathy
wondered "about [whether] either of [her] kids [would have] any desire
to go back [to Vietnam]." When her daughter, Kimmy, was asked if she
wanted to see her real mother, Kathy was assured when she replied,
"she is the only mother I know." The stress Oatman experienced was
comparatively mild to those who went through battle.

On Feb 8, 7:12 pm, Emily Barnes <emilyrobinbar...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Zoe Kopin]

I mostly agree with Jarrett's point about how the reading "Coping"
relates to the novel. In Vietnam, everyone feared an unseen enemy,
which could be frustrating at times. Although I agree with Jarrett, I
also believe that this fear was slightly different for the women.
During the war, all men in the military were armed, giving them a
method of defense against the enemy when they were attacked. This was
not the case for women. The women serving in the military during the
war in Vietnam were unarmed, making them even more fearful of the
enemy. This had to be extremely frustrating for them, because they
always had to worry about being attacked, such as the woman who could
have been blown up by a bomb planted on a car right next to the one
she drove. If women were attacked in Vietnam, they had no way to
defend themselves. This left a lasting effect on their mental state,
which is seen in the woman who says she still swerves around bags or
boxes in the road for fear of it being a bomb. The Vietcong used an
intense form of psychological warfare, which is seen throughought the
novel, but is seen even more through the women who served in Vietnam.

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[carla downs]

You all have made great points. I noticed in the "Aftermath" of the
women's memories, they really only remembered the bad events that
happened. It was interesting that their spouses didn't want them to
speak of Vietnam. I thought their husbands would want them to be
happy that the participated in the war and lived, but I guess it only
made the women reminisce about the bad things. These memories
reminded me of Vernado Simpson who said he feels like the war is his
"Life,past,present and future; it made me who I am." He had to deal
with the terrors of war everyday, just like the women. Both men and
women had to continued to live with sicknesses, mental or physical,
that developed while in Vietnam. Simpson had to take multiple
prescriptions. One women said she had "Nightmares of sweating and
fighting," like Simpson who also had sleepless nights. This shows that
no matter what gender you are, the aftermath of a traumatic event has
mostly negative effects.

[Robin B.]

Mrs. Baran, I still don't have my notes on the women. It didn't cross
my mind to ask today. Will I still be able to submit tomorrow? I will
come by your room at lunch if I'm back. I am having an allergic
reaction to my medicine for my cold so I might have another
appointment tomorrow.

[Katelin]

I agree with Zoe. In the "Coping" articles, all of the women had
feared their death. They believed that at any given moment they could
or a close friend could be killed. Not knowing when they could go
makes plenty of people become paranoid and some may even go crazy,
just like in "The Things They Carried," numerous soldiers had gone
crazy due to the fear of dying or losing a close friend and any given
time. The women in Vietnam had begun to lose their since of self, just
like Mary Anne, because of the fear. The women were unarmed, which
made them even more fearful of death. The warfare strategy the
Vietcong had used made all of the people that had served in Vietnam
lost themselves and this showed much more in the fearful women.

On Feb 9, 7:47 pm, "Robin B." <brizendin...@gtest.lcps.k12.va.us>
wrote:

[John]

I agree with Jarrett in that "Coping" has a direct correlation to the
"Dear America" movie that we saw at the beginning of the chapter.
When, in both accounts, the veterans admitted to being scared for
their lives during the war. In one of the stories, a woman said she
"I dropped to the floor when a can hit the floor of the store". These
survival habits do not leave the soldier even after multiple years of
living in the United States. In both recollections of the Vietnam war,
veterans had to live in fear every day for their on survival, as they
could not see their enemy.

[Andre]

I feel the "Coping" discussions are very accurate and I would like to
speak of Marylyn Roth in "Aftermath." I believe she is a direct
contrast to Tim O'Brien because she coukd block out of her memory each
and every experience she had in Vietnam. She would speak of the war
when others brought the topic up, and much of her experience she
didn't even remember unlike O'Brien, "..the thing about remembering is
you dont forget -- memory traffic feeds into a rotary up in your head,
where it goes in circles for a while" (O'Brien 34-35). Unlike Roth,
O'Brien can't forget, he can't simply block the horrors of the war
which is why he tells his stories.