Root, Madison: Archive Dive Essay
Madison Root
Dr. Andersen
ENGL 330
September 8th 2015
The War That Was More
War means many things to many people, not always the same. For some, it means going to fight, politics or mass casualties. For me, the deepest connection comes from the feelings in which arise from the war. The anger, hatred, fear, sadness, strength, happiness, and uncertainty are the most palpable, as these emotions are experienced by everyone. I intend to humanize some of the sentiments of the past through different people’s perspectives so that their voices may be heard as opposed to adding their passing to a death total of the war.
Many American citizens were either pro war, or anti war. Over time, a lot of individuals turned against the war, but there were some of the few who didn’t know exactly where they stood. One of them being Mr. Robin C. Harris, a man who lived eight and a half hours from Camarillo in a town called French Gulch, about twenty minutes outside of Redding. His letter moved me in the fact that he hears both sides of the war, but doesn’t know which side is right. He doesn’t blame anyone except for the citizens who voted for the President, as it was their choice. The letter was written in 1970, yet it is still extremely well written and logical. He examines it as a whole, and rationalizes it out, which is such forward thinking that was grown out of confusion from not knowing what to do with everything going on around him. Some faced the trauma and perils of war, but Mr. Harris is faced with the trauma of not knowing where he fits in. Being so isolated and alone yet there were surely others who felt just as he did. The war left a lot of individuals dead, but also some who were dead on the inside.
Travel three hours inland almost to the border of Nevada and you will find the city of Phyllis Arnold, a 38 year old woman who lives one hour out of Reno in California. Her support for the war was whole-hearted, yet as time progressed, she grew to dislike it because it didn’t make sense to her. More than that, she couldn’t see a purpose for war because her son will soon be drafted into a war he doesn’t understand or believe in. Another sense of confusion flows through this mother who is struggling with her support towards the war, but can’t see her son fighting in something she can’t make sense of anymore. I think she speaks for most of the mothers that had sons who were soon to be drafted, as most of them were not interested in letting their sons go off to war. Concern and sadness for those who have to blindly lay down their lives for a fruitless effort was in the hearts of many, but when it comes to being family, it is even worse.
Across the waters in Vietnam was one Captain of the Army named Larry Schwab, serving time only because he felt he was medically obliged to do so for those who were wounded in battle since he was a medical intern, and he personally was not for the war. In a letter sent to a woman named Laura Palmer in 1988, he recalls his time in Vietnam in the year of 1968, and the horror that he endured. In his letter, he talks of bunkers nearby his being blown down, but his wasn’t. He knew he would die soon, but wondered why he didn’t. He says that he is living on borrowed time, rather the people who were killed are the ones he borrowed it from. “People unscarred by combat – but scarred by the war -write eloquently, too. They left their messages at The Wall. But you are the one who blended their stories of broken lives, of unfulfilled dreams, of children loving fathers they never knew, and of fractured homes and broken families still bleeding and grieving. You have captured the essence of the enduring American-Vietnam tragedy.” (Schwab) The war not only back home in American soil but first handedly took a tool on many. Not just those who fought, but the families they came from, the cities they left, the children they had to wave goodbye to as they were walking away from their homes. He fought for the lives that were being lost, not for the continual death of them.
“I like to daydream that somewhere its floral essence might still float on a summer breeze, past the nostrils of a man now in his forties, who will pause, search the pathways of his memory and say, ‘I remember a girl……..’” (Tolbert) This excerpt from Anna Kathryn Tolbert’s memoir Imprevu is her recollection of the way and all it left impacted on her. She was a Nurse from the Army Corps who ended up helping out Americans who suffered from injuries. She was told in nursing school not to wear perfume because it would cause the patient to get nauseous, yet she did anyways. The men loved for her to walk by because it was such a great smell, and she even put it on a cotton ball which she attached to their pillows at times for the more wounded, because it reminded them of a feminine presence in a male-dominated environment. More so, it reminded them of home. A scent that made them feel safe, secure, and numb, not from anesthesia but from the sweet floral smell that reminded them of a place that wasn’t war, wasn’t combat, and wasn’t pain. Through all the explosions, casualties, and lives lost, there was still an essence of what it was to be alive. She finds her own personal comfort while working on these men and looking back on it that she provided a connection for them to feel what it was like to be back at home. It gave them a chance to remember one last time before fading into those flowers or before entering into battle that home was near and still real. It was a comforting feeling that they so longed for without knowing, and shows that although they are soldiers, they are in fact human and miss home, their loved ones, and a soft, nurturing touch. These nurses, especially Tolbert, gave them something wonderful they could cling on to, and she hopes that they would remember it always.
Works Cited
Arnold, Phyllis. Letter to Congressman Harold T. Johnson. 1 June 1970. Broome Library Harold T. Johnson Collection. Camarillo, CA. 25 August 2015. TS.
Phyllis, Arnold. Letter to Congressman Harold T. Johnson. Personal photograph by author. 25 August 2015.
Harris, Robin C. Letter to Congressman Harold T. Johnson. 16 May 1970. Broome Library Harold T. Johnson Collection. Camarillo, CA. 25 August 2015. TS.
Harris, Robin C. Letter to Congressman Harold T. Johnson. Personal photograph by author. 25 August 2015.
Schwab, Larry. “Letter to Laura Palmer [January 1, 1988]” 1988. TS. Lib. of Cong., Washington, D.C. Lib. of Cong. Web. 15 Sep. 2015. <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.23979/letter?ID=tx0001>.
Tolbert, Anna Kathryn. “Imprevu by Anna Kathryn Tolbert February 14 1992” 1992. TS. Lib. of Cong., Washington, D.C. Lib. of Cong. Web. 15 Sep. 2015. <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.15961/pageturner?ID=pm0012001>.
