nothing compares to having been there

[Anonymous Vet]

You can read books, watch movies (or even news clips of Vietnam during the War), listen to vets talk or whatever but nothing compares to having been there. That tropical, humid rotting smell when the doors first opened on the plane that had just deposited you at Bien Hoa. The smell of your own and others sweat as you huddle in a bunker during in-coming. The smell of burning shit or an overflowing 55 gal. drum urinal wafting up in the hot air. Being smacked in the face by a Giant flying cockroach or having Giant tom cat sized rats crawling on you, snakes, atomic mutant Giant spiders are all like going on some diabolical Disneyland ride. Movie special effects are way too much like the 4th of July; the reality is dirty, filthy and ugly. We watched John Wayne in The Green Berets over there, that was a comedy wasn't it? Death in war is real and when that becomes the norm then The World became unnormal. Have a nice day! 268 [e-mail] <[e-mail]>

[Tobe]

Having served two tours (66/67 & 70) in Viet Nam in a direct support capacity (3 different MOSs), I developed a mindset that was very uncomfortable and yet very necessary to survive mentally.
I had numbed myself to the sights and sounds of human beings being shot, torn apart, mutilated etc. It seemed to come naturally as a way of coping with situations that ripped me apart mentally and yet the lives of many others depended on me doing my job with a clear and focused mind.
By numbing myself to the realities of war I was able to mentally survive but the incidents I witnessed were only supressed, not forgotten. Today I still seem to have the ability to numb myself to the injured and dead. My problem is, many of those incidents are still haunting me.
The realities of war are very difficult to live with and "Nothing compares to having been there!"
Tobe