Thomas R. John's Life During The Vietnam War

In 1955, Vietnam was just beginning. Numerous young men from poor families were being drafted into the war. Many of these men did not come back from the war, but the ones who were lucky enough to make it back home sometimes struggled with adjusting back to their normal life. A lot of men struggled with this, some of them did not know how to get back to their normal life so they went back to the war. Survivors of the Vietnam war have told their own stories of their time was during this war. During war people do things that they never would have imaged themselves doing just to stay alive. Thomas R. Jones was a Vietnam veteran, who believes the war changed him. He was raised to respect others, and he says Vietnam changed that. The war was

Thomas never had a silent peaceful moment during his time in the war. He could never relax because of the fear of dying. During his time in the war his home felt so far away, he never had a moment of internal silence to really think about home. His memories of home were in snapshots and seemed so distant. Thomas served in the war for thirteen months, after returning home it took him some time to adjust back to life without war. After the war he was placed in charged of Radioisotope and Nuclear Medicine Laboratory at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital, where he counseled Veterans returning home from war. Thomas claimed that helping others really helped him cope with his own problems he had from the war. Thomas like most veterans say that the war changed them for the worse, but some however say it changed them for the better. Although, they had endured many horrific events some may say that it changed them for the better. Dwight F. Davis was a infantry platoon sergeant during the war. Dwight

Mike A, was a combat corpsman during Vietnam. He endured a lot of death while he was there. He explains in The Torment of a Distant War, that he had to deal with survivor's guilt. There was a lot of soldiers that he could not save on the battlefield, but he says the ones he could help, ease the pain of losing the ones he could not save. Mike said that he has dealt with survivor's guilt for many years after he returned home from the war. When returning home from Vietnam he says that he was always on edge and paranoid. The war caused him to be on edge every second of every day, because that is what it took to survive in Vietnam. Many veterans experience this when returning home. Thomas R. Jones, like Mike A, experienced a hard time adjusting back to their normal life. Both veterans learned that the war changed drastically. Survivor's guilt is a hard to get over for many veterans. Jack Estes struggled with survivor's guilt, he held the guilt of not saving his fellow soldier in the war and also felt guilt for not being seriously injured during the war while others were. Jack Estes felt guilt about not being able to save his friend, although he did everything he could have to save him. Many veterans have this guilt when returning home from war. They reply the horrible memories they have from the war and think about what they could have done differently. Also, veterans may struggle with the guilt of surviving and