Personal Narrative: An Interview With A Vietnam Soldier

I know many veteran’s, but none of them, I realized, I truly know. This interview was opportunity to understand this one man I have known since I was little. He is a friend of my parents from church that has seen me grow up all these years, yet I barely knew much about him. Ed Lawrence was born in Kinston, North Carolina in 1949, and he is currently 68 years old. While Kinston itself had started increase in size by the time he was in high school, it still felt small town. He played at a local baseball field for fun with his friends because it was popular at the time, but he did not play it at the high school and wasn’t really involved in sports; however, I could tell he missed those days. After high school, Ed wanted to attend college, but

He recalls being young and not knowing if he had the willpower to participate in combat, but truly respects those who could and had to. He called himself very lucky because he saw the rise in tensions and the way the government wanted people to enlist, so he went ahead and enlisted before he could be drafted and possibly placed in a war zone. He was glad he enlisted when he did because the following year he would have been drafted anyway through the number system they had early on. He knew he should have enlisted as well because he had multiple uncles who had served in the military during wars. He wanted to show some respect and honor them before he could be drafted. Ed is also very proud to be American, as he said “Always have been. And every little bit of help, helps the country.” Ed first trained at the Randolph training base in Texas. Training did not last long with the increasing need to get people serving out there. After a little over half a year he knew there was talk of sending more and more people to Vietnam. For a little while, he thought for sure he was going, but instead a couple of friends that he had made got sent. He got sent back to North Carolina to the Seymour-Johnson air force base near Goldsboro. There he became a skilled air traffic control officer. His focus was sending squadrons out to Thailand because it avoided war zones around that area. Morale was mixed, but it was mostly okay since he was not in a war zone. Most of his comrades were proud to be serving their country in some one; however, rumors started. He said he heard of the increase of attacks within the army itself and the tensions that rose Vietnam. He knew that the government said they would start pulling troops back home, but it did not happen for a while. Ed