veterans come to terms with
their experiences. 11 years
after the war has ended and
more than 20 years since the
first large contingent of troops
was first sent to South Viet
nam They see men whose
physical scars have healed,
but who have unhealed emo
tional wounds from the war
"One similarity for people
who fight in all wars is that
war is traumatic People fight
wars and endure trauma and
go through a recovery pro
cess from the tTauma — Viet
nam. World War II. the Civil
War.” explains Steve Tice,
director of the Vet Center "I
think that's important because
there’s a little too much made
of the differences between
Vietnam and other wars
Despite that similarity, and
others, Tice is able to isolate
some differences that he
thinks were significant. The
first on his list is the age dif
ference The average age of
the Vietnam soldier was 19,
compared to 26 years old for
World War II veterans.
"When you have teenage
warriors at a developmental
time in their lives at 19,
developing a world view of
how they fit in and how the
world looks, and to do that in
a civil war during guerrilla
warfare is pretty damaging to
a person," he says.
The length of a veteran’s
tour of duty also had an ef
feet While the Vietnam
veteran was required to
spend only 12 months in
Vietnam. 13 months in the
case of the Marines, soldiers
in past American wars were
usually required to stay until
the war was over Yet. the
12 month tour created a
situation in Vietnam where
soldiers didn’t go to war as a
unit, as was the case in the
past Instead, Vietnam
veterans went to war alone
They were attached to a unit
where some of the men might
have 11 months or 6 months
of their tour done There was
no way to develop the
camaraderie that characters
ed the unit solidarity of World
War II and Korea, and when
it was time to go back to the
States, Vietnam veterans
came home alone as well
I had a guy tell me a story
about another guy who was
sitting next to him when he
was going home The guy
had his poncho over his head
and he didn’t come out from
under it the whole trip home
I would say that that guy was
feeling something, and it was
not joy, " Tice says, explaining
that lere's a real sense of
guilt” when a person leaves
his buddies out in the field
while he's safely on his way i
home.
While talking about dif
ferences, “I think it's impor
tant to talk about when peo- I
pie were wounded." Tice sug
gests "Modern technologies
and evacs created a situation
where we now have a large
number of people who lived
through the Vietnam War. in
eluding myself, who would
have never lived through
World War II and died in bat
tie before ever getting to a
hospital I had internal
wounds and people who had
those tended to die in other
wars."
Attached to the 101st Air
borne Division, Steve Tice
was with his platoon on a
ridge of Ap Bia Mountain, or
what came to be known as
"Hamburger Hill," in May of
1969 North Vietnamese
soldiers controlled the moun
tain and battled U S and
South Vietnamese forces for
six days, before finally
withdrawing It was during
this skirmish that Tice was
wounded
“We were involved in a
blocking manuever."
remembers Tice ‘We were in
the middle of a perimeter I
was eating spagetti nothing
heroic — when the North
Vietnamese Army gassed us
I got out of the foxhole and
went over to the radio to see if
other people were being gass
ed around the perimeter
That's when I got hit with a
rocket propelled grenade
(Continued on Page 10)
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