readdressing my honors thesis.
Oct. 26th, 2004 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7For my B.A. in English, I did an Honors thesis at University of Rochester.
I had been interested in computer literature and hypertext, telling a tale in a non-linear fashion, but primarily, using the Internet as a form of dissemination for literature.
But i couldn't come up with a plot, or anything worthy of writing about.
I ended up doing my first nonfiction piece. It was a website, in which I presented the story of my father's experiences in Vietnam.
I got an A but mostly because they hadn't seen anything like it, didn't know what to do about it, and well, my thesis advisor had never discussed it with me. The website wasn't very good. it's down now.
What was good about it, what was transcendentally redeeming, was the beautiful, mostly spontaneously-composed email that Dad sent me wherein he briefly outlined what he did and why.
I think that's more relevant today than it was in '01 when he sent it to me.
(There's more. He went through and found all his old maps, found his notes-- he had every scrap of paper he'd been given, he had letters that had been sent to him. he had the shirt-pocket notebooks whereon he'd written the day's radio call signs. He had reports he'd written of actions. He had the cleaning kit from the AK-47 of the NVA soldier he shot. My father is a historian and a pack rat, and he still has everything. And he transcribed it all for me, and he retold the story from his perspective of 30+ years later.)
I have to re-do that website and get it online again, and forget the froufrou art crap.
I also want to do a sequel to it. I want to ask my sister how she feels about having been to Iraq once, and being about to go again. This is something I keep dwelling on. I don't want to make anything political about it. She's not political. I don't talk about the politics with her. She is a thoroughgoing professional, has been in the Army since 1996, and is doing her job, to the absolute best of her ability. I want to hear about that.
I had been interested in computer literature and hypertext, telling a tale in a non-linear fashion, but primarily, using the Internet as a form of dissemination for literature.
But i couldn't come up with a plot, or anything worthy of writing about.
I ended up doing my first nonfiction piece. It was a website, in which I presented the story of my father's experiences in Vietnam.
I got an A but mostly because they hadn't seen anything like it, didn't know what to do about it, and well, my thesis advisor had never discussed it with me. The website wasn't very good. it's down now.
What was good about it, what was transcendentally redeeming, was the beautiful, mostly spontaneously-composed email that Dad sent me wherein he briefly outlined what he did and why.
I joined up for two reasons; first, because I had studied military history, and wanted to know if what I'd read was true, such as the camaraderie, and the pride in one's unit that made one act for the common good rather than self, and the absorption of combat. Secondly, I wanted to know if I could do it, both the difficult and demanding training, and actually being "brave" in combat (and what that might actually mean). An added wrinkle was that I had been in the Civil Air Patrol, an Air Force Auxiliary, and had become an officer, so I wanted to see if I could successfully lead soldiers in combat. So I volunteered for the Infantry, and signed up for Officer Candidate School.
I enlisted in the Regular Army… on 6 September 1966, and did Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Dix, NJ. I then went to Ft. Benning, GA for OCS -28 weeks' worth. Commissioned 2LT, 7 July ‘67. Went to Ranger School later that same day (took off my hard-earned rank; none worn in Ranger school) at Benning, and later Dahlonega, GA. They put me out after 5 weeks because of an infected chigger bite on my leg, so I came home on leave. I was then posted to Ft. Benning, GA, assigned to 2/52 Infantry, 1st Armored Division, Ft. Hood, TX as a Mechanized Infantry platoon leader.
I studied Vietnamese, and in April was sent to -- Chicago! There was racially motivated rioting, and 1 AD was sent to restore peace, which we did. It was interesting patrolling the streets of an American city with troops, many of whom were black. I did as I'd been taught, made my men soldier, and no one (them or us) got hurt.
[Afterward we went] back to Hood, and in June of '68, I was sent to the Jungle school in the Canal Zone for two weeks, [then, after a leave,] to Viet Nam. I had a feeling I wouldn't come back (statistics often quoted on the life expectancy of an Infantry platoon leader in combat didn't encourage long-range planning), but as I had no girlfriend or any kind of commitment other than family (and I really needed to do this for me) I didn't dwell on it; I had to prove myself to me.
I think that's more relevant today than it was in '01 when he sent it to me.
(There's more. He went through and found all his old maps, found his notes-- he had every scrap of paper he'd been given, he had letters that had been sent to him. he had the shirt-pocket notebooks whereon he'd written the day's radio call signs. He had reports he'd written of actions. He had the cleaning kit from the AK-47 of the NVA soldier he shot. My father is a historian and a pack rat, and he still has everything. And he transcribed it all for me, and he retold the story from his perspective of 30+ years later.)
I have to re-do that website and get it online again, and forget the froufrou art crap.
I also want to do a sequel to it. I want to ask my sister how she feels about having been to Iraq once, and being about to go again. This is something I keep dwelling on. I don't want to make anything political about it. She's not political. I don't talk about the politics with her. She is a thoroughgoing professional, has been in the Army since 1996, and is doing her job, to the absolute best of her ability. I want to hear about that.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 05:55 pm (UTC)I certainly will link to it when I do it. I was just going to e-mail Katy now and ask her if she would mind putting together something quick for me that we could go over at Thanksgiving.
I would be really interested in hearing more of her daily-life kind of stuff, as well. It was fascinating to visit her when she was posted to Germany, and see what a weird little sub-planet they lived on-- even the milk in her fridge was "Armed Forces Europe" brand milk. (I'm not kidding. I have a photo.)
And while I don't want to get political, I want to know what she thinks of all this.