Personal Narrative: My Family In The Vietnam War

My father’s side of the family has been militarily involved in multiple wars. Three of my grandmother’s uncles and her father served in WWII, and her brother was in the Korean war and the Vietnam War. Her oldest son Bobby joined the air force, and my father was in the navy, though neither of them served in a war. In an interview with my grandmother, Katherine Moss, we discussed her brother’s experience in the Vietnam war, and the effect it had on herself and their family. Over the course of the Unites States extended involvement in the Vietnam war, nearly 60,000 American lives were lost with 350,000 casualties. The war wreaked havoc on the soldiers who served and their families. Approximately 830,000 soldiers suffered from PTSD, and of them, 480,000 were so affected they were considered disabled. At home, this war became very unpopular quickly, and strikes, anti-war demonstrations, and rallies became very common. Lyndon Johnson faced harsh chants concerning his policies and the war, and the American people became increasingly less optimistic, as the pace of the war was controlled by the North Vietnamese. This war involved 525,000 troops, billions of dollars, resources, soldiers injured, dead, and missing, and extensive bombing; all without progress.

While her brother never served on the front line, and never had to experience being shot at directly or being captured, his job wasn’t easy. Every moment was tense, and he never knew what was going to happen. Bob had one experience, when he was traveling near North Vietnam, where he hit a mine that blew a hole in the tanker. He and his partner had to jump out of the truck. If my grandmother and her family were correct in their theory that Bob suffered from PTSD, it may have been this event that caused it, and not the exposure to chemicals. Her brother and his partner were alright, but this shows that no matter what the job was, soldiers in Vietnam were constantly in danger, and the worries of family members were very