Today I will have the pleasure of interviewing a close friend of the family. He has been a friend of the family for about fifteen years and I've personally known him for about ten of those years. Off course his identity will be kept confidential. I will be asking him many questions on his views and opinions of the Vietnam war. I will also be asking him questions about life at home during this painful time in American society. The aftershock left from the war and how life went on after this horrible experience.

During the 1960's my subject was a young eighteen year old with a bright future ahead of him. He was growing up in a small town just north of Corpus Christi Texas. Life at home was comfortable in

By doing this interview I gained so much and learned so much about this era in American society. I would learn the feeling from a small community. How there views of the war were so different from the bigger cities in America. I was shocked to hear how this small community and many other small community's around the Unites States had so much pride in their children who were fighting for their country. I also didn't know that people were getting rejected from entering the war. I thought that the United States was in so much need for soldiers that anyone and everyone were being taken. I was shocked to hear they were rejecting some who wanted to be in the war therefore having to draft those who didn't want to be in the war. During the interview my subject pointed out how even though he was flat footed and couldn't see that good he would of been more useful then a scared eighteen year old who was lost and confused and probably ended up being killed. He was sad when he said that. But if you think about it that does make sense. Its like someone who wants to be in the game will have a better chance of succeeding compared to someone who is scared and doesn't want the ball hit to them. Its sad to think of these kids thrown into war not prepared. Another aspect I learned from this interview that I had never thought about was the young men who had to go to war. I sat for a while and tried to imagine some of my friends in war. I tried to imagine how I would be in war. I have trouble with everyday small activities I couldn't imagine the pressure of having to go out into war and fire at someone. Seeing someone killed in front of me would terrify me. Trying to imagine how scared these kids were. Some not ever being away from their family's or even out of their state and now they're in a country fighting in war.

When I brought up "draft dodgers" my subject would take a moment to think about his answer. For this answer he also had mixed feelings. He would then reply with Coming from such a small community that everyone was brought up on respect and becoming men his early opinions about draft dodging was they were cowards. People who didn't have the strength and courage to fight for their country. But as time went on he would later view draft dodging as "hey they did what they had to do". If they were avoiding a war that the US should have been in they would be cowards. But we shouldn't have been in this war and there was no good for us in this war. So his simple answer was they did what they had to do. He doesn't really remember being told any war stories from people that actually experienced the war. But he remembers hearing stories that were pass to him from friends who had relatives in the war. He does recall one main point about the war from stories heard. In all the stories he remembers being told how the Vietnamese were so battle ready. How one minute they were there shooting and the next minute they were gone. Many traps were set up all through the fields and many tunnels would be found. It was like they had been preparing for war all their lives. He also recalls many horrible killings and battles. His comment on that was they were so gruesome that he doesn't know or at least he hopes they were being exaggerated when they were being to

Some common words found in the essay are:
Antonio Texas, Vietnam War, Texas Life, fighting war, vietnam war, lost lives, volunteer war, american society, fighting country, war war, fighting country community, flat footed couldn't, didn't war, friends relatives war, mixed feelings, entered war,
Approximate Word count = 2200
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)