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-
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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.
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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.
Admission is $5, and the play
runs Nov 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, .
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