Vietnam, Part 6

This is the fifth and last person I spoke with.   If you haven't seen the others in this series, you can read "Barry's" story here, "Jesse's" story here, "Ted's" story here, and "Jim's" story here.


If you recall, I asked for each vet's year of birth, what year he went to Vietnam, and where he was stationed.  I also asked if he enlisted or was drafted.  Then I asked for some personal feelings about things he remembered from the war.

Please be aware these stories were told in my own words, based on the information and facts each serviceman provided me.  All names are fictitious, their stories are not.

Because this affects how I feel about Vietnam and how these veterans bared their souls, I'm adding it to Elke's theme, Landscapes of the Soul at Art Journal Journey. 

"Ralph" was the last person to speak to me.  The other three didn't want to talk because they were afraid I might divulge something they didn't want told or they had left the war behind or thought it was too painful to bring up.  Clearly, these were the men who needed the most understanding and help because they were definitely still experiencing PTSD in one form or another.  But let's return to Ralph.

I was trying to determine a way to embellish this page some way, when I ran across an article in a magazine about medicine and healthy eating.  I was thrilled when I spotted the caduceus, the symbol used these days by physicians and EMS workers.  It wasn't always that way, though.  It actually started during  World War I when all medical ambulances bore a caduceus on their sides. This was a better known insignia than the Red Cross, since the caduceus was the symbol of truce, mediation, and the need for speed.  However, according to Dr. Baily:

Professional and patient centred organisations (such as the NZMA, in fact most medical Associations around the world including the World Health Organization) use the "correct" and traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb. Asclepius (an ancient greek physician deified as the god of medicine) is traditionally depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe that leaves his chest uncovered and holding a staff with his sacred single serpent coiled around it symbolizing renewal of youth as the serpent casts off its skin.

Ralph had many stories, but I could only include a few.   

He was most impressed with the Navy corpman who was assigned to his group.  He told me he proudly called him "Doc," an honor that had to be earned.

I  couldn't find an image of the area where Ralph was located, but found this image from a travel magazine from the Mekong River.

Ralph told me about his time in the VA Hospital.  It was not a pretty sight, he explained.  He thought his country had turned against him, and so had his government.

He remembered hearing stories of World War II veterans who were treated like heroes, while he wasn't even greeted at the airport on his return home.

The materials I used for this page include a sheet of heavy card stock I sprayed with bubble wrap, then stamped onto the page.  Next came the computer generated text, the two images I found in a magazine, a picture from a travel magazine, and an image of a helicopter I found on the internet.

I have my own story to tell last, and will do so soon.  Thanks for joining me on this voyage to Vietnam and the men who fought there.  And let's thank "Barry," "Jesse," "Ted," "Jim," and "Ralph" for sharing their stories from Vietnam.  Now let's head to Art Journal Journey to see what others have created.  Maybe I'll see you there, too.