Heidi Sheehan

At first, I thought that Gambones book seemed alittle to “patriotic” and glossed over many of the troubles that veterans faced, but towards the end of the reading segment I think that it picked it up a bit and told about some of the struggles that veterans truly faced after the war. Overall, I think it was nice summary of what happened after each war and it was a nice last reading.

 I was alittle surprised when reading “Wages of War.” I thought it would close by focusing more on veterans in general instead of primarily of Vietnam War veterans. Although, the final message seemed to be a good, strong one. It reminded the reader that the more you know, the more educated you are and as a result, you will better be able to hold government and people in general accountable. In this way, Servo and Milford believe that pressure can be put on the government so that they can correct the mistakes of the past and give veterans the rights they truly deserve.

Finally, I really enjoyed learning about the Iraq War veterans. It is very current and relevant to today’s society so I think that is why it was interesting to listen to and read about. Also, sometimes I think that we tend to forget that some of the problems that veterans faced during the World War I or the Revolutionary War are still problems that many veterans face today. In other words, we like to think that things are better now and while they are in many respects, the treatment of veterans could greatly improve in other areas as well.

Sorry…I forgot to post this before class…

I didn’t really enjoy this reading/listening segment. While it was nice not to have to read a lot, I found that listening to the women talk about their experiences was almost harder because it allowed me to become distracted easily. Other then that, it was interesting to learn about the women’s experiences during wartime. I think it is amazing how they were willing to sacrifice their lives for the country, risk losing and breaking up their families, and simply making a statement by doing what very few women had done before them. My favorite interview was the one that talked about the families on NPR and how much women were risking serving. I also found it honorable that women did not want any special treatment and that they wanted to be out there serving just like all the other men.

I found it interesting to look at the Spanish American War in such a different perspective. When we learned about it in previous years, we were always told the war was sort of a good war—a quick and easy victory. Of course we learned that the diseases after the war killed more people than the actual fighting but I never thought it was such a big deal as Wages of War made it out to be. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in the soldier camps in New York and on the ships and boats coming home. In many ways it reminded me of what it might have been like when African Americans were brought over from Africa as slaves. Still, I can’t believe that the government would allow something like this and continuously claim that conditions were fine and the press was blowing this situation out of proportion. Granted, society did not have the ability to treat some of those diseases at that point, they could have, at the very least, have made the men more comfortable. Also, it surprised me that the men were all sent to live together—well in some ways this made sense because the diseases would not spread to the rest of the population, I thought it would spread quickly among people living so closely together. In the end, I guess the after effects of the war were a lot worse then I originally thought.

Also, I found the parallels that the authors drew between Vietnam and the war with the Filipinos interesting and it was something that I had never heard about before or even thought about.

Two things that I found interesting:

1)      Why we have Monday Holidays: I never knew that we had Monday holidays because of Americans love of “consumerism.” Congress voted to change these days in order to allow more three day weekends which world. It not only benefited business because it lowered absenteeism at work, but it also allowed for better family dynamics. Families would be able to “visit extended family, take vacations, and visit tourist attractions connected with the nation’s history.” I don’t know why but I just found this very interesting. I know this doesn’t really have anything to do with veterans really but I found it intersting. (170-171).

2)      Lessons from Vietnam: Although there were some disagreements over the lessons from
Vietnam, the main ones the author seems to mention are

a.       United States must not be as involved in the third world

b.      Avoid using force in settling international disputes

c.       Make sure the American people as a whole or at least as a majority support the war

d.      United States must only enter wars they are determined to win

The first three ideas were liberal ideas and the last one was a conservative war. These lessons only confirmed to me that Iraq is becoming more and more similar to Vietnam and this is a scary issue that Americans must currently deal with and face. Maybe another lesson that we need to learn is that we need to pay more attention to our history because it is a very powerful teacher.

(Sorry I forgot to post this earlier!)

I hated this reading. I found it really technical, boring and really dragged out. I was sort of disappointed to because usually I like Wages of War for the most part because it is interesting but it also sort of like a story. This reading though was not like that at all.

The reading talked about the troubles that Vietnam veterans had upon returning to society. But instead of giving us a range of troubles that they faced I feel like I just read four chapters on “Agent Orange.” Because of “Agent Orange,” soldiers were had to deal with different issues because of radiation then any other veterans before. I had never heard about “Agent Orange” beforehand so it was interesting to read about for a little bit but once the reading just continued to talk about “Agent Orange” it wasn’t so interesting anymore. Still, it astounded me how much the Veterans Administration tried to avoid and dodge this issues, especially since they were suppose to be on the side of veterans and assist them in their needs. The actions of the Veterans Administration also seemed to make government seem very, very corrupt. Finally, I the language that Servo and Mills used in this reading segment definitely reminded me that they were on the side of the veterans. Often times, they used sarcasm to reinforce their points and as a result, made the government seem like the bad guy and turn the sympathy of the reader to towards the veteran.

One of the things that stood out to me about this reading was at the end where Kovic would have given anything to be injured. Although he didn’t want to die, he really, really wanted to get injured badly enough to be sent home. He wrote, “And it was about then I started looking for booby traps to step on, taking all sorts of crazy chances, trying to forget about the rain and the cold and the dead children and the corpal” (204). I thought it was amazing how willing he was to ultimately put his life on the line just so that he could be sent home. Going along with this, I found it sort of ironic that he thought that being sent home as a wounded soldier would bring him a heroic reputation. He wrote, “It was a rough kind of game to play. I remember walking along, knowing goddamn well exactly what I was doing, just waiting for those metal splinters to go bursting up into my testicles, sending me home a wounded hero” (204). In reality, when he does get sent home and finally does get wounded it is not as great as he thought it would be. He is not the hero he imagined and even worse, he will never be able to walk again.

Overall, I liked Kovic style. It was interesting and right to the point. The book was also rich and detail and it made me feel like I was in the battle and living his life right alongside him. At the same time, I thought there were certain points were it was rather disgusting and maybe not all the detail was needed. Still, it was a powerful novel and I think it changed my perspective about a lot of things.

Starting off with such gruesome scenes, Kovic immediately grabbed my attention. Although we have talked about it before, I never realized how bad hospital life was and how desperate the men must have felt. Kovic then goes on to discuss his childhood and from this discussion it is clear that he always had the desire to serve in the military. First of all, his birthday was the same as Americas, making it a constant celebration of patriotism. Next, his coaches and parents instilled in him an attitude of striving to be the best and never settling for less. Finally, he was drawn to war movies and made a pledge with one of his best friends that they would join the marines together.

I really liked this book so far—it’s real and true and draws the reader in right away. I enjoyed the introduction and how Kovic related it to the Iraq War making the book even more current and relevant. I think he is justified in hating war after his experiences and I think that we can learn a lot from him because of his experiences.

I enjoyed the film. I thought it was well done and I especially enjoyed the fact that they used real war veterans because it made the movie much more realistic. It was amazing to see the struggles that the veterans went through and the ways in which they dealt with it. It was clear though that they weren’t exactly the best actors. In the end, I did feel like the movie was alittle bit drawn out and could have been shorter.

The first part of the reading and the reading in Wages of War, mostly seemed to emphasis the minority rights of veterans during World War II. I liked how this book took a more broad approach to minority rights in the service and didn’t just focus on African Americans but instead looked a the service of women, Hispanics, and Japanese Americans and their experiences during the war as well. I think that sometimes it is easy to forget that African Americans were not the only group that suffered during war and that others did as well. In my opinion, this reading segment did a good job at reminding the reader not to be so narrow minded in this regard.

In regards to the African American experience, I found it very interesting that soldiers used their military skills to become effective leaders in the civil rights movement. Although this would make sense, because they learn valuable skills like leadership, courage, and bravery while serving in the military, this is something that is not emphasized enough. Instead, this fact is often not taught in high school classrooms and I think its very important. Another thing that we see is that the GI Bill played a HUGE role in the advancement of the minority groups. Veterans, regardless of race, sex, or whatever could receive the benefits of the GI Bill and this therefore allowed them to gain an education or vocational skills and therefore advance their economic well-being. For the first time ever, minorities had a chance to go to college and this must have provided a huge boost in the push for civil rights. As I have said before in my prior posts, I never realized how big of an impact the GI Bill had on veteran’s lives and ultimately, society in general. I think it is something that definitely needs to be emphasized because it is something that is so important to so many people.

I like this book as well. I think it is well written and nicely laid out so it is easy to understand and follow which makes reading so much more enjoyable.

One of the first things that stood out to me about this reading was how much more effective the medical treatment of veterans was since the First World War. For the first time in war, soldiers actually had a chance to survive their wounds and wounds were not a death sentence. Still, World War II produced the most number of wounded Americans of any conflict (38). Contagious disease still remained a problem, but medicines such as penicillin greatly affected the amount of people who survived the war. Another medical advancement came in the terms of people accepting the fact that mental illness was not necessarily a bad thing and could happen to ordinary people, not just crazy ones (40). This was a major factor in the veterans actually receiving aid and public support.

When coming back from war, it seemed like public support for World War II veterans was greater then in any other war beforehand. This acceptance was shown in the benefits that the veterans received as a result of the GI Bill. Not only did the bill provide them with medical benefits, but it also played an extremely important role in educating them. It was very generous in providing educational and vocational benefits to veterans, helping them become resocialized within civilian life and advance themselves into the middle class. As a result of this bill, veterans were not left out of the postwar growth and were actually able to thrive and succeed, unlike most veterans in the prior wars that we have talked about so far. But, it is important to note that veterans did not do all the taking. What I mean by this is that they were able to influence the formation of the school systems and help make the schools adjust to “modern” society. In my opinion, the GI Bill is the one of the most powerful acts that I have ever learned about and should be given more attention in regular, high school history classes—I never would have guessed its impact before reading this book and talking about it in class.