Interview With a Veteran

One reason I wanted to be a librarian was to preserve history. Well, that and I love books, but that is obvious for most librarians. I recently met the Librarian of Congress Mr. Billington and asked him many questions. One of them was "What is a librarian?" his response was, "Librarians are the keepers of knowledge in a throwaway culture." His reply made me glad since our culture does tend to toss the old out every few years and cover it up with the latest trendy thing or topic. 

One of the things I learned at the Library of Congress was how to interview veterans of war for a project called the Veteran's History Project. I really wanted to do it but was a bit nervous of confronting seasoned war vets and hearing sad war stories. History must be preserved though, just as it happened. I posted the notice in my town's newspaper and before long I had one bubbly, chubby sweet Vietnam Vet ready to be booked for the first filmed interview. I need to be prepared for the interview so did my  best:

1. Sing the Dixie Chicks song "Traveling Soldier" (Vietnam sad country song) all week to get emotionally prepared in case my Vet was going to tell me gory stories. 

2. Read 3 encyclopedias of the Vietnam War and understood nothing. Why it happened is beyond me.

3. Rented a super digital camera for the day

4. Prepared the necessary forms for the Library of Congress (they need forms to release info)

5. Printed the suggested interview questions

6. Tested the camera

7. Staged the interview room to look nice...it normally looked drab. 

Finally, I was very nervous, so practiced interviewing the old maintenance man who served 3 years in the Army based in Italy. He took the practice questions seriously, sat down and folded his hands serenely over his belly and gave me good sincere answers. It made me feel a lot more like Diane Sawyer and less like a kid. In North Jersey, if you are under the age of 50 you can expect to be called Kid, or Kiddo daily. When someone finally calls you Boss or Chief, you know you are now an adult.

The interview with my Vet lasted three long hours. His sign is Libra and they are the chattiest sign, never at a loss for words. They can go on, and on, and on and on.  I really enjoyed interviewing him and thought less and less about being a brown version of Diane Sawyer and more about what he was telling me. Here are the things that impressed me the most:

1. He drove today through 5 inches of snow to  come to the interview risking his health.

Today's weather

Pretty but dangerous to drive.

2. While in Vietnam, he told me that the entertainment venue on base was build like an amphitheater so to speak, it was next to the hospital. Sometimes entertainers would be flown in to cheer up the troops. While they were performing, helicopters with the wounded and dead would land next to them at the hospital and body bags would be carried out. 

3. Food: the smaller the mess hall the better the food. Some of the enlisted soldiers had to do pull-ups before eating so they were more in shape than the officers. My vet was an officer. The Vet I interviewed said they were told to drink two beers a day to avoid intestinal parasites. It worked!

4. He is Jewish and not particularly religious but had a funny story. When he arrived he was the highest ranking Jewish officer. The unit was waiting for a rabbi to come from the US to hold services but needed to wait for a while. The main chaplain appointed my Vet to Jewish Chaplain to hold service every Thursday. When my Vet told him he never did this before and didn't speak Hebrew he was told it would be ok, and they gave him a little suitcase. In it were two prayer books and a scroll of the Torah. He told me that each faith had that little suitcase: the Catholic with the cross and Eucharist, the Muslim with the Quran: all packed up neatly in a little doctor bag. In a funny series of events, the Rabbi never arrived and my Vet had to serve as Jewish chaplain till he left Vietnam. Upon returning to Jersey, marrying and settling down he joined a congregation where he learned that the Rabbi there was the one who was meant to go to Vietnam but was able to wiggle his way out of it. 

5. Phones. My Vet told me that he was in charge of the communication center for the troops in Vietnam. I had no idea but they were basically Verizon! They had real offices, WIRED their phones underground, the whole nine yards. 

6. Life's fragility: a rocket attack fell on his camp. A rocket flew through the Officer's Club and landed a foot away from him, propelling him and his fellow officers to the ground. It miraculously didn't explode, but surrounding rockets did and killed many of his fellow soldiers.

7. It wasn't worth it. My vet stated that the war in Vietnam was a big waste: a waste of money, lives, time, people. It displaced his life for several years and of course the lives of many other soldiers.

I was glad to interview this guy and he was proud of himself for recalling his war experience in such a permanent and memorable way. His recording, pictures and manuscripts will all be available to be viewed on the Library of Congress's website soon. And lastly, anyone can do an interview. There is a whole kit here with the instructions. Pictures can also be submitted.