Did the Vietnam War have any affect on you personally?

Question

(Thanks to Lt. Dan for inspiring the question!)

Answer 1

I've wrestled with answering this one, but can't get it out of my mind.

First off, it's hard to separate "personally" from whatever else there is in the world. The way we *fit* into the world is fairly personal I spose, so frmm *that* point of view, I have to say that the world itself (vis-a-vis USA society) was profoundly affected.

The US citizens who served in Vietnam in the military paid the largest price (it seems) and I suppose it would have affected them the most. If any credit for suffering is merited, they certainly deserve head-of-the-line privilege.

[the citizens of VietNam also suffered greatly ... probably more than I can know .. I can't really make meaningful observations due to my ignorance of their life and society]

I had a friend who was a school-buddy of mine in junior high school. In PE class, he was the only one who could "climb the peg-board" [a block mounted on the wall with 16 holes in it and 2 large pegs held in the hand .. requires *incredible* strength ... he flew ... He could also climb the large rope to the top of the gym faster than anyone else .. upper-body strength .

In "science class" we would both sit in the back of the sparsely populated class and share rebellious attitudes ... and score highest on all the tests ... he *knew* his stuff.

he brought a homemade "cloud-chamber" to class once with a glass bowl upside down of some dry-ice and wet sponge, nmaking 'cloud' inside the chamber .. he hung by a thread a radium-watch-minute-hand ... and you could actually SEE trails in the clouds from alpha&beta-particles emitted by the [now illegal probly] radium ... incredibly cool in a science-geeky way; he was incredbily smart in science .. and a nice guy.

He gave me a "slot-car" and we went to the arcades to "race" over the slot-tracks with hand-held controllers [this was befoire the days of video-games] ... and he didn't just "buy these", but he got down to the "making electrric motors from magnet-wires and windings . He could really *do stuff*

unfrotunately for him, he ran afoul of the law, and since he was from a pretty-low income home [live 2 blocks from me] , he got the choice of "juvi-jail" or join the military. He made a mistake, he joined the military and was shipped out to Vietnam.

He was walking "point" crossing a river on patrol and encountereed a trap/mine and was killed.

I hope he died instantly.

He had enormous potential and a good heart and suffered a loss of his life in a conflict that I think was a result of exquisitly poor judgement on the part of the US goverment. No good for the US came out of that war.

I think that that war caused a great division in the US society which has still not healed.

I never faced military combat ni Vietnam. My draft number was 350, so I was pretty safe. I did 6 years in teh navy, part of which was before it was over.

personally? no blood loss here, but for some reason I feel affected in a way that I can't define.

Tommy Sandell was killed for no good reason

Answer 2

Yes, indirectly. My parents met in a bar in San Diego where my dad was on leave (he was in the Navy). My mom was from PA and my dad was from IA but they met in this little bar in San Diego, got married 3 months later, and I was born 9 months after that -- right before my dad came home from Vietnam for good!

Answer 3

No but my grandfather did 4 tours of Vietnam he was in the Air Force.

Answer 4

I lost a very good friend in the war.

Answer 5

yess, it did.
it affected my family because it spreaded to cambodia .. and they had to leave all their belongings behind and start a new life in the US.

Answer 6

I had an uncle and a cousin who died in it

Answer 7

yes it did

Answer 8

no