Veteran essays: Vets share stories of wartime hardship
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By The Chippewa Herald
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:45 AM CST
Editor's note: This is the fifth and final group of excerpts from the students' essays.
Students in Alice Butler’s eighth-grade class at Notre Dame Middle School interviewed a veteran and wrote an essay about him or her. In honor of Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, The Herald is reprinting excerpts from each essay provided.
Commitment to and the importance of the annual project was recognized in June when the American Legion Auxiliary Department of Wisconsin presented its History Program New Initiatives Award to The Chippewa Herald, Notre Dame teacher Alice Butler, and all Notre Dame eight-grade students who participated in the “interview a veteran” project.
Veteran Bill Greenwood
By Chris Greenwood
I chose (to interview) my grandpa Bill Greenwood because I heard that he was in the Navy. He was in the military for six years, and got out in 1961. He lived around Chippewa Falls, and he joined the military because there were no jobs at the time. He was trained in California at boot camp, but he did sail on the sea on the Navy ships...
His jobs were helping with the food, peeling potatoes, and making desserts, they even made peach cobbler. They did lots of training and got up at 2 in the morning; they had to be ready for breakfast, and then were off to their classes.
They did part of their training in the gas chamber. After the dosage of the gas they would put the gas mask on. In the chamber there were 18 guys with two instructors. In the last of five minutes you would take off the mask, and you would stand there for five minutes. Then you would have tears, because of the tear gas and when you’d shave it would hurt.
Veteran Joseph Wittrock
By Dakota Larson
Joseph Wittrock served in the army and he was drafted, because there was not enough people in the army to serve. He was proud of being in the war because he loved all the people there and the food was fair... His job was to weld tanks and all the vehicles that needed welding. He was 19 years old when he went into the army...
If they let him go back to the army it would be wonderful because he likes the army so much. He said that it is bad to see all the people today risk their life trying to save people’s lives and protecting the country. He feels bad for all the people that are living in Iraq because of all the innocent people that are dying for no reason. He was very excited person when it came to bossing people around, because he thought if you boss people around it makes them stronger. He was in the war three years regular and 26 years for sergeant, because people thought that he would be a good sergeant in the army to build up courage.
Veteran John Dolezel
By Alex Ignarski
My grandpa John Dolezel... was drafted into the military in 1956 at the age of 22. He was in the army and started off as a private and made his way up to a specialist two. He did not fight in any wars, but his specific job was to go over to Germany and make sure no more fighting started up...
When they were in Germany, Elvis was on tour and they had a guy in their squad that looked just like Elvis. My grandpa told everyone in the town that Elvis was here, so there was a bunch of people lined up for autographs and to meet him. I thought that was pretty funny.
I asked him about his whole experience about the army. He said that it was a good opportunity to learn how to live and be able to survive on your own and how to work together. He doesn’t miss the army, though, and as a matter of fact was glad to get out.
He thinks the war in Iraq was not planned very well and we didn’t foresee how the terrorists would react. He feels honored and appreciated by his service in the military because he thought it was something we needed to do at the time. I asked him if he would recommend someone to join the military. He said that it would be a great job for someone who couldn’t find a job or couldn’t afford college.
Veteran Jacques Maraist
By Ryan Liddell
Vietnam is just South of China and from 1959 to 1975 is where the Vietnam War took place... A lot of people say we won the war, and a lot of people say we lost. It really depends on whose view point you see it from. Whether you see it through the media’s eyes, the people’s, or the soldier’s viewpoint, it really all depends.
Jacques Maraist served his country in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970. Like others Jacques was drafted into the army, but when he knew he was going to get drafted he just decided to join because he would be able to choose what he wanted to do.
Jacques decided to be a combat demolition specialist, and his primary job was to blow things up. There was an exponential amount of things to blow up. Jacques would blow up mountain tops so there would be a place to put an artillery gun on, and would also take out all trees surrounding that same mountain. He would repeat this process multiple times a day. Jacques would also blow up any enemy weapons and tunnels so they could no longer be of use.
Usually everything that could be blown up usually did, so he was a pretty busy man, plus he was the oldest man in his platoon. He still wasn’t old at the time either; he was only a mere 23, yet the average age of a soldier there was 18 years old. His rank was a specialist class, which is like a sergeant.
Jacques was stationed in Vietnam for one year, and was in the military for two years. Jacques regretted and hated being in Vietnam with all the death and destruction happening. Though as the years passed he thought of it more as a learning experience and it has had a positive impact on his life. He said it was definitely something you couldn’t learn in college, but he will never miss all the tragic things that happened to him there.
After being drafted his family wasn’t all that affected. They knew everyone was getting drafted, so it wasn’t a one in a million type of thing. Actually around two million were drafted, and about 58,000 U.S soldiers lost their lives.
Jacques experienced a lot of different aspects about Vietnamese culture and ways of living. While there Jacques got to see many indigenous tribes and learned a lot about them, although none of the tribes spoke any English or Vietnamese. He also tried to use his explosives to help them.
One day he had leftover explosives that didn’t have to be used, so he wanted to make an irrigation path for one of the tribes so they could water their rice fields more easily. He was all in for this plan until he was stopped by someone who said they were here to fight a war, not help them. They could not use military equipment to do that.
Some time later he just left and went to a nearby city for about two weeks and just wandered around aimlessly. When he finally made his way back he got in trouble because he deserted his post, and didn’t report when he was suppose to. For two weeks he was considered AWOL.
Then after being in Vietnam for a while longer, he and others were sent to Cambodia hoping to get a quick end to the war. Many men died because President Nixon’s security advisor persuaded him to have a massive bomb strike which killed over 600,000 civilians in Cambodia. They continued these bombings without the Congress, or people’s consent. They hoped they could get a quick end to the war, but they didn’t. People all over the United States were mad because of what they did, and they didn’t like the idea of this war one bit.
Jacques usually ate canned foods and more canned foods, but around once every three weeks Jacques would go to a base camp and get a good full meal. He would stay there for a few days, and then go back to the battle. The time he was there Jacques wore jungle fatigue with boots and a large pack that held some supplies. They went out for three to four weeks at a time, so those packs weighed 40 to 60 pounds.
Whenever Jacques had to fight he had an m-16 to back him up. The thing is Jacques was a guy who would miss on purpose so he didn’t have to shoot anybody. That may have been the weapon he used, but he was issued an M-79 grenade launcher. He later turned it in because it was too heavy and only got one shot until it had to be reloaded.
For his good effort Jacques got an Army Commendation medal because he took that extra mile, he really excelled in his job. I guess you could say the war was rewarding to him in some way more than others.
There are things Jacques will miss about the military. He misses all the camaraderie and friends you made. Jacques also misses guard duty, when he would have to stay in a hole all night or for two hour shifts with a complete stranger. By the time your shift was over, you had told your whole life’s story to that complete stranger.
Jacques though, will never miss all the bad experiences, like the one he had with a young indigenous tribe couple. Everything you bought there was usually only a dollar, and his platoon was taking a break and sitting in their armored truck. Jacques decided he wanted a pineapple, so he went up to a native couple who had some fruit, and were just walking by, and they were about 19 years old. He handed them a dollar, so they handed him the pineapple. He walked back to the truck, hopped in, and they drove away. He was looking back at them, when a mortar went off and killed them both instantly.
This affected Jacques, and when he saw this he realized that many innocent people during the Vietnam War. What did they do to ever deserve that? They didn’t do anything to hurt or harm anyone. Even though Jacques was never injured, many of his comrades died. All of these things gave him physiological imagination, or a broad understanding of the world around him.
After Jacques served his country he went back to Vietnam after the war to get a better understanding of the country. Then he taught high school in New Orleans to a large Vietnamese immigrant population. He felt he had to teach his fellow man for all that he had done. Jacques now has a good aspect on the Vietnam War and the people, both good and bad.
Jacques has a good opinion on the Vietnam War today. He feels it shouldn’t have been fought at all. It to him was more about nationalism than communism. Jacques now feels appreciated for all he has done, but he didn’t when he got back because all the people thought the war was bad, and they had to hate all the people that fought in it. When he got back, no one threw him a parade, and no one really shook his hand and said thank you. This made him not want to tell anyone he served in the Vietnam War because he was afraid of what they would say. Only now when he looks back on his service does he truly feel appreciated.
I learned so much from doing this interview. I got a viewpoint from someone who had a first hand experience on this ordeal That is also why I think we did this interview too. I now know how a soldier felt coming back, and expecting a warm welcome and receiving no special thanks at all for serving his country. I know I feel appreciation for this man for all he has done to serve his county, and I feel appreciation for this man because he attempted to do good things in a not so good situation.
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