Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1987)
FEATURE Vet recalls war experiences Page 8 ____________________ _ _________________________Clackamas Community College arms which hasn’t been felt since those moments, not so long ago, In Ecclesiastes, it states how when gunpowder scoured the air, there is a time and a season for death was all around and life held everything; a time to live, a time its immensest uncertainty. Part of what has augmented to die, a time to celebrate a time to mourn. Veteran’s day was a the healing process in recent years time to remember the dead, the has been the Vietnam vets being fallen, the casualties of our na able to tell their story, to talk about their experiences in a war tion’s wars. ' that, because of prevailing un It was a time not only to popularity, denied the vets their mourn the men who died for voice for too long. their country, but mourn that such a sacrifice was necessary in “I’ve seen guys go up the first place. For the Vietnam vets especial in a puff of smoke ly, wounds not completely healed when hit by a mortar often burn with the salt of out round’ ’ ■ pouring tears pumped from a Hal Devet is an example of a battle-scarred heart, shed from eyes which have witnessed too Vietnam veteran who talks freely much - the gravest devastation about the war. He’s a student that human nature can foment, here at the college who has that humanity can inflict upon returned to school for re-training itself, that a survivor could because an old war injury no possibly live with afterward, in longer allows him to work his old memory, until the memory itself job - Devet’s knees were blown out by a grenade in Vietnam. finally dies. Devet received a premature in And somewhere within the itiation into manhood which con- clearing smoke of a thousand rifle fusillade and the dusty haze ,sumed a year of his youth and still surrounding the unanswered marred his life at an early age: “I questions of Vietnam, the tears, was 17 when I went in (the army) at last allowed to flow shameless - two days after my birthday. I ly, can penetrate and carthartical- got to Vietnam on New Year’s ly wash some of the long held day, and was wounded four days anguish away, healing many vets after my 18th birthday.”/ Devet was an Airborne as they find an embrace, a hand shake, or just a feeling of com- Ranger, one of the toughest raderie with a former brother-in- trained soldiers in the army - by Scott Wyland Contributing Writer much of their training even sur passes the green berets in rigor. He described some of his ‘unof ficial' missions: “We used go on patrols in Cambodia. I mean, we weren’t supposed to be there at all. It wasn’t officially part of the war. “We went on three 10 man patrols; we came back with three men one time, six another, and all 10 another time. A lot of people were dying! I’m talking it was some hairy stuff.” About the much publicized drug problem Devet said, “I didn’t see that much dope smoking actually. It was too in tense of a situation for what dope does to you - it would make you too paranoid under those conditions. There was a lot of speed use though. We’d get viles of pure methedrine - that was government supplied by the way - and we needed it because sometimes we’d be up for fourteen days.” Devet believes there are still prisoners of war in Southeast Asia; but he’s also witnessed a more chilling incident that ac counts for some of the soldiers missing in action: “I’ve seen guys go up in a puff of smoke when hit by a mortar round; so that fast someone could cease to exist. But then, they weren’t of- fically dead either.” Hal Devet, a Vietnam veteran who talks freely about the war. When asked if he knew why he was over there fighting, Devet responded: “No. People my age didn’t. It wasn’t until a long time afterwards that I had any idea why. “I look at my son^vho’s four teen and I realize I was only three years older than him when I was over there. That was too damned young to be fighting a war that had no sensible reason.” Devet shared his thoughts concerning the drafting of men into war: “For those who went photo by Beth Coffey to Canada, I don’t really think that was the right thing to do, but then, I don’t think it was right for the country to put them into that position in the first place. “I can understand a real war -a real threat -1 mean, this kind of thing has been going on as long as there’s been two people on this Earth. But making some political action and then not giving anybody the choice of whether they want to fight and possibly die for it contradicts the freedom we’re supposed to have in this country.” McConnell shows talents on and off campus trade Blum - and she runs a bar, The Seahorse, that used to be owned by her father,” explains Pamela McConnell, theatre stu- by Michelle Walch Staff Wrifer “It’s about a woman - Ger- PIZZA • 2 CHICKEN • SPAGHETTI PIZZA FACTORY 15300 S.E. MCLOUGHLIN MILWAUKIE • OREGON ASTA AAAA O54alvZU HOURS: MON-THURS11-11 • FRI * SAT 11-MWnIght • SUN 1-10 Coupon Expires 12-7-87 TOGO »* EXTRA ‘’FREE* LARGE PEPPERONI ¿(ZZA Buy Any Large Pizza At Tbe Regular Price And Receive One Large Pepperoni Pizza PRES • GOOD ANYTIME LARGE 3-TOPPI NG PIZZA, PITCHER OF SOFT DRINK and 2SALAD BARS(1-Tripj Not Valid WWh Other Oflert. ALL FOR Coupon Expires COUPON and Dec. 4, 5, 6, at 8 p.m. McConnell also has a project underway at CCC’s McLoughlin Theatre. “I’m currently directing a play based on a Lewis Carroll poem, ‘Jabberwocky,’ called ‘The Jabberwock.’ It calls for three characters and they are played by M. Leigh Hagen, Lisa Hartenstin, and Garrett Lytle. Hagen and Hartenstin are fan tasy characters who try to lead Lytle’s character into a fantasy world. His character is trying to fight the Jabberwock (Hagen and Hartenstin) to get back into his world, according to McConnell. McConnell has' been with the CCC theatre for two of the three years she’s attended the college. Some of her roles in Boil in elude Mrs. “Mousetrap” (Winter Term, ’87) and a part in one of the Spring Term’s Festival of One Act Plays, ’87. McConnell is excited about her projects, and for good reason - they look promising. She says of “The Jabberwock,” “We’re going to have some special effects this stage hasn’t seen in along time.” “The Jab berwock” runs Dec. 1-2 at noon, and Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m„ in the McLoughlin Theatre. ^^Congratulations Not Valid With Other Otters- Limit One Free Pizza Per Coupon OLD MILWAUKIE PIZZA FACTORY • 654-1920 FAMILY SPECIAL dent at CCC. McConnell is talk- ¡ng of a play she’s currently cast in, “The Seahorse,” at the Very Little Theatre in West Linn. ‘ The part of Gertrude requires “a heavy set woman. Ge,rtrude is a complex woman, a very strong woman, but very afraid,” accor ding to McConnell. The playwright, Edward J. Moore “wrote it in the early 60’s while he was an acting student. He had a girlfriend in the same class and he wrote something they could work on together,” explains McConnell. 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