"First Blood"
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Wolran Kim
November 2013
"Nothing is over! Nothing!” (Kotcheff, 1982) Rambo, a former US Army Special Forces soldier, who also received a Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War, cries out. His trauma still continues even seven years after the end of the war. Victims of war are usually only measured by the killed and the wounded. However, war survivors continue their sacrifice mentally, alongside the physical casualties. They face the wall of reality in normal society as much as the cost of their lives in a battlefield, and the Vietnam War was especially the worst case due to defeat and public opinions of antiwar. They rely on fellow soldiers in a battlefield but face only condemnation and antipathy in the mainland. The veterans’ ongoing nightmares and traumas are vividly seen through Rambo and his difficult situation in the community.
Rambo is arrested on suspicion of possession of a weapon and drifted after he found out that his last comrade-in-arms died of cancer from Agent Orange. The authoritarian sheriff, Will Teasle, has antipathy for drifters, and other sheriffs treat the innocent Rambo harshly with ridicule. His trauma and flashbacks of POW blasts and his misunderstood situation becomes almost suggestive of real war. People, who have not experienced war, never understand people who have gone through war. Narrowing the gap between them is the responsibility of the government and the society who started the war, but it is not that easy and simple.
“War is hell,” this sentence was written on one soldier’s helmet in Vietnam. Indeed, war must be the worst man-made hell on earth. The Vietnam War (1954-1975) broke out in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia for independence and unification of Vietnam. The National Liberation of South Vietnam was formed under the support of North Vietnam in 1960, and established the provisional government in 1969 after the defeat of South Vietnam with the U.S. military.
The North and the South were unified through the South Vietnamese government’s collapse in 1975 after U.S. forces pulled out (Spector, n.d.). The defeat of South Vietnam was from political issues rather than military forces from guerrilla operations of the Viet Cong. Viet Cong kept opening pictures of wounded crying children to the public, and these horrible photos led to anti-war protests in the U.S. Coverage of the activities of war that stirred up public opinion began to be controlled after the Vietnam War, and drafting switched to recruiting.
Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about! (Kotcheff, 1982)
Rambo was a hero on the battlefield, but when returning to society, they treated him as a criminal. No rule or concept in normal society is the same as situations of war. Human experiences never clearly stop mentally as theories do. Rambo’s situation made me recall a veteran, Butler’s, testimony when I was at SLCC in 2011. He was a former Marine who participated twice in the Iraq war. He labeled the suffering and pain of most veterans as the aftermath of a mission.
The training for war never ended even after returning from war. No, not just those remaining, many people fall into a gap between normal social life and the war regime. The proportion of veterans who are homeless is 26%, and mental illness is increasing every year. According to one U.S. government report, children of veterans who participated in the 1st Gulf War of 1991 have a much higher possibility to hold congenital defects than those of parents who did not fight.
Butler reflected on the past that most of his training was all about killing enemies as a soldier. He had to concentrate and practice every day and night only to perfect how well he could kill the enemy without any hesitation. Yes! The purpose of war is victory. There are always tacit consented murders and crimes behind winning. He recalled that he had to be born again as a soldier during training. How can they be capable to murder as ordinary members of society? In addition, any planning for the future has never been allowed as a soldier at the time. However, there was only today's fighting for victory. He had to shout and remember the word, "KILL," 5,000 times every day.
Soldiers in battle are usually between 18-22 years old, the most sensitive age, so how can they live just like normal people in the land of peace after undergoing such training? Their suffering leads to domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, social maladjustment, lack of anger management, depression, and suicide, and those are just natural consequences. We might not even know the pain of a person who practiced only killing, but now has to try only to live. According to Butler, there are much more serious problems which have been ignored and there are unknown emotional harms socially, except for the issues of GI Bill and assistance programs.
Butler said, “According to Washington Think Tank Land Corporation, 20% of veterans have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), but only 53% of them are receiving the right treatment.” The Pentagon has reported that 1.6 million soldiers have served since 2001 in the Iraq-Afghan War, and 4,560 people were killed in action. Director Insel pointed out that the number of suicide or deaths of mental illness are beyond the number of the deaths in war, considering suicide from PTSD symptoms of patients (Insel, 2010).
Rambo cried as a little kid, “Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, and back here I can't even hold a job parking cars!” (Kotcheff, 1982). Rambo’s crying shows well the barriers of reality after coming back from war. Rambo’s POW memories that are flashed back from violent sheriffs were his trauma of war. The hostility of society made him a murderer again. Veterans’ trauma is not their individual problem and should be treated on a social level, because they went to war in the name of our country.
==============
Wolran Kim
November 2013
"Nothing is over! Nothing!” (Kotcheff, 1982) Rambo, a former US Army Special Forces soldier, who also received a Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War, cries out. His trauma still continues even seven years after the end of the war. Victims of war are usually only measured by the killed and the wounded. However, war survivors continue their sacrifice mentally, alongside the physical casualties. They face the wall of reality in normal society as much as the cost of their lives in a battlefield, and the Vietnam War was especially the worst case due to defeat and public opinions of antiwar. They rely on fellow soldiers in a battlefield but face only condemnation and antipathy in the mainland. The veterans’ ongoing nightmares and traumas are vividly seen through Rambo and his difficult situation in the community.
Rambo is arrested on suspicion of possession of a weapon and drifted after he found out that his last comrade-in-arms died of cancer from Agent Orange. The authoritarian sheriff, Will Teasle, has antipathy for drifters, and other sheriffs treat the innocent Rambo harshly with ridicule. His trauma and flashbacks of POW blasts and his misunderstood situation becomes almost suggestive of real war. People, who have not experienced war, never understand people who have gone through war. Narrowing the gap between them is the responsibility of the government and the society who started the war, but it is not that easy and simple.
“War is hell,” this sentence was written on one soldier’s helmet in Vietnam. Indeed, war must be the worst man-made hell on earth. The Vietnam War (1954-1975) broke out in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia for independence and unification of Vietnam. The National Liberation of South Vietnam was formed under the support of North Vietnam in 1960, and established the provisional government in 1969 after the defeat of South Vietnam with the U.S. military.
The North and the South were unified through the South Vietnamese government’s collapse in 1975 after U.S. forces pulled out (Spector, n.d.). The defeat of South Vietnam was from political issues rather than military forces from guerrilla operations of the Viet Cong. Viet Cong kept opening pictures of wounded crying children to the public, and these horrible photos led to anti-war protests in the U.S. Coverage of the activities of war that stirred up public opinion began to be controlled after the Vietnam War, and drafting switched to recruiting.
Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about! (Kotcheff, 1982)
Rambo was a hero on the battlefield, but when returning to society, they treated him as a criminal. No rule or concept in normal society is the same as situations of war. Human experiences never clearly stop mentally as theories do. Rambo’s situation made me recall a veteran, Butler’s, testimony when I was at SLCC in 2011. He was a former Marine who participated twice in the Iraq war. He labeled the suffering and pain of most veterans as the aftermath of a mission.
The training for war never ended even after returning from war. No, not just those remaining, many people fall into a gap between normal social life and the war regime. The proportion of veterans who are homeless is 26%, and mental illness is increasing every year. According to one U.S. government report, children of veterans who participated in the 1st Gulf War of 1991 have a much higher possibility to hold congenital defects than those of parents who did not fight.
Butler reflected on the past that most of his training was all about killing enemies as a soldier. He had to concentrate and practice every day and night only to perfect how well he could kill the enemy without any hesitation. Yes! The purpose of war is victory. There are always tacit consented murders and crimes behind winning. He recalled that he had to be born again as a soldier during training. How can they be capable to murder as ordinary members of society? In addition, any planning for the future has never been allowed as a soldier at the time. However, there was only today's fighting for victory. He had to shout and remember the word, "KILL," 5,000 times every day.
Soldiers in battle are usually between 18-22 years old, the most sensitive age, so how can they live just like normal people in the land of peace after undergoing such training? Their suffering leads to domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, social maladjustment, lack of anger management, depression, and suicide, and those are just natural consequences. We might not even know the pain of a person who practiced only killing, but now has to try only to live. According to Butler, there are much more serious problems which have been ignored and there are unknown emotional harms socially, except for the issues of GI Bill and assistance programs.
Butler said, “According to Washington Think Tank Land Corporation, 20% of veterans have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), but only 53% of them are receiving the right treatment.” The Pentagon has reported that 1.6 million soldiers have served since 2001 in the Iraq-Afghan War, and 4,560 people were killed in action. Director Insel pointed out that the number of suicide or deaths of mental illness are beyond the number of the deaths in war, considering suicide from PTSD symptoms of patients (Insel, 2010).
Rambo cried as a little kid, “Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, and back here I can't even hold a job parking cars!” (Kotcheff, 1982). Rambo’s crying shows well the barriers of reality after coming back from war. Rambo’s POW memories that are flashed back from violent sheriffs were his trauma of war. The hostility of society made him a murderer again. Veterans’ trauma is not their individual problem and should be treated on a social level, because they went to war in the name of our country.