The Life We Choose: A Vietnam War Story

I sat beside my window staring into the morning sun as people went on with their activities on this fateful spring morning. I had just returned from a foreign mission in Vietnam and I had been released by the military after my faithful service of almost 20 years. This was going to be a new life for me as a civilian and I was looking forward to it. I was fascinated by the new challenge. However, I was hounded by the horrors of war, in which I lost most of my friends. I had been released from the military a day before. I bought myself a gun and a bottle of whiskey to enjoy as I reflected on the new trajectory my life was taking. As I sat at the window looking at the streets, I noticed a red car park close to a local grocery store. Three men came from the vehicle and quickly dashed at a popular electronics store, took out their guns and started firing indiscriminately. There was a sustained shootout for about five minutes. The three men ran away with several electronic equipment and lots of stacks of cash. They began running for their lives when the police men arrived at the scene after a 911 call.

One of the dashed into the red car parked outside and drove away to the opposite direction. One of them entered a nearby building and managed to find his way outside without being noticed by the shocked onlookers including myself. However, when the police came chasing him, they believed the guy had hidden in one of the houses around. They quickly began conducting a search in al the surrounding houses. When they got to my house, they came across a bottle of whiskey ad a fully loaded hand gun at the table. The immediately got hold of me and accused me of being an accomplice in the robbery mission. However to put this into perspective, I need to take you back to my time in the military service.

My name is Robert Andrews, a former war veteran. The first time ever stepped out of this country into a foreign soil was during my mission in Vietnam. We arrived in Vietnam in March 1954. I still remember my first day in Vietnam like it was yesterday. We stepped off the barracks C-248 troop transported in the Da Nang Republic of Vietnam. While in the barrack, I met a lot of interesting people with whom we forged great friendships. One such individual was John Griffins, a devoted military officer from Chicago, Illinois. John and I had a lot in common besides just being military officer in a foreign land. Both of us came from the state of Illinois back at home. We grew up in similar environments, which helped us develop a passion for military service. On this specific mission, John and I had been assigned to the same platoon and sent to the same firebase at a filthy hilltop in one of the valleys that would eventually turn out to be a serious battle ground during the mission. This for us was going to be an interesting time serving our country in a foreign place and we were ready for the challenge.

Our squad leader was called Clint Jefferson. We commonly referred to him as CJ. He was mostly known for his anger and vulgar language. He frequently used obscene words and abusive language when talking to his juniors. Due to his anger and seriousness, most of us feared him and always respected his instructions and orders without questioning. Clint was also a short man but very strong and very tactical in his approach to strategic planning during the mission. However, Clint also had a bad attitude. He was known to have serious psychological issues that were only reflected in his meanness.fr example, he openly disrespected his senior officers while he demanded the same respect form those under him. Furthermore, he also treated enlisted men and new guys, who he despised and treated like pests. However, he was still seen as an asset to the mission because of his strength, brutality, anger, and cruelty, which he reserved for use against the Vietnamese (the Gooks).

I served with the 3rd Squad/5th Cavalry, 9th Infantry Division (Black Knights) in the US Army. Upon our arrival in Vietnam, John and I were introduced to our new commander, Captain Marcotte. He was an accomplished military officer who had played a significant role in many other battles our nation had been engaged in. He was well-respected both for his achievements over the years and for his role in the mission. When he noticed us, he called us by the side to explain to us the mission and its objectives. He explained that the President Eisenhower mandated the war of attrition, which means we must kill more of the gooks than they could kill us. It is a strategy that relies upon body counts, Captain Marcotte said. He wanted us to be on the same wave length as far as understanding the mission was concerned. He stressed the fact that the president was so much interested in this mission and that he was evaluating our performance in a day to day basis. He continued, The two of you have been sent to this mission because we believe that you have a lot to offer in terms of enhancing the capacity and the capability of the team to accomplish the mission, dont let us down. We told him that we would not let him down and that we were going to help the mission in the best way possible. He then released us to join the rest of the team.

This was going to be an interesting and challenge 12 months period for my time in the mission. My first patrol mission was quite a long night and day. I walked around with seven clips of M16 with 18 rounds in each of the clips, 240 M60 rounds, the M16 riffle and two clay motors for me and my friend John. This night was quite rainy, which forced us to lay in mud and water al night. The rest of the mission was coupled with both moments of fun as well as scary moments and near life situations. My worst experience was when I lost a colleague, James Sharp, with whom we had worked closely on some patrols. James died during a fierce gun battle with the enemies. In addition, I had a near death situation when I wounded my leg at bag ass explosion.

I returned home a year later and discharge from the service with the rank of SP/5 (E5). When I got back home, I moved to Chicago and started over a new life as a civilian. My experience in Vietnam had impacted on my life significantly for the year that I was involved in the combat mission. Like most Vietnam veterans, I kept my time in the military to myself when I settled in Chicago to embark on a new life. This was mostly because few people seemed to care about life in Vietnam and the experiences that the veterans had, expect mostly for the veterans themselves. Everyone around me looked at me like I was a dangerous and bad person. People do not consider us to belong to families, when in real sense we have parents, siblings, wives, and children. The reception back in my home country after my time serving the country was not a good one.

Therefore, to deal with the challenges in such an environment, I decided to look for a gun just to keep myself safe from any insecurity that I may be subjected to. Therefore, on this fateful morning, I bought a gun and a bottle of whiskey. The next thing I know the police knocked at my door and they arrested me for the crime I did not commit. The police had been trailing a gang in Chicago for several months and were getting some useful leads. They had received a tip from my one of my neighbors who had been looking at me suspiciously and linked me to a criminal gang that had been terrorizing residents for a long time. Some suspected members of the criminal gang had been involved in a robbery with violence incident in the neighborhood, right opposite where my house was located across the street. The thugs had managed to escape unharmed. Two of them escaped with the stolen merchandise and cash through a red van hat hey had packed strategical across the road. The other one ran towards the direction of the flat I live and managed to vanish to the other side of the road unrecognized because he had disguised himself.

When my neighbor notified the police of the incident through a 911 call, he informed them that the escapee had passed through my house before changing his apparels and vanished within the crowd to go and reunite with his colleagues. When the police came at my door to conduct a search, they were heavily armed ad ordered me to surrender. Before I even responded to them, they broke in to my house and found a loaded hand gun at my table and a bottle of whiskey. This was immediately mistaken to be evidence that I was an accomplice in the crime and any other crimes that had been perpetrated by criminal elements in Chicago. I had little time to explain myself to the police as they did not want to listen to my version of the events until I was locked up in a cell.

I believed that several factors contributed to my arrest at the time for example, my neighbors failed to understand and appreciate my time in Vietnam and always looked at me suspiciously during my short stint staying in the flat. They did not care to listen to me to understand what I was going through at the time in terms of dealing with the horrors of my time in Vietnam. Secondly, the fact that I was of a different race and a different skin color contributed to the arrest because immediately the police officers came at my house and found a gun, the did not care to ask how it came about, but only had one mind that was a criminal. Therefore, I had to deal with the challenge of being mistakenly identified as a criminal, lack of appreciation for my service to the country as a former war veteran, and the prejudice of being profiled as a criminal just because of skin color, race, and ethnicity.