Interview Transcript

Interviewer: Hello, my name is Emily Jackson and we are broadcasting live from a hospital full
of recovering army men who just came out of the jungles of Vietnam. These men have seen
many horrors, and are now recovering from either physical injury, mental injury, or both. Today
we are going to be speaking to one of these fine men. Sir, what is your name and occupation?
Rat: Im Rat Kiley and Im a medic for the Alpha Company of the US army.
Interviewer: Oh, so youre a medic? How did you get involved in the war?
Rat: I saw all of those war heroes who came back from Korea when I was a kid and I decided
that I wanted be like them. I wanted to help the world and make it a better place. If I couldnt do
that all on my own, I at least wanted to help all of the other soldiers fighting on the front. Thats
really why I became a medic. If I couldnt save the world, I wanted to save the lives of the
people fighting for my same beliefs.
Interviewer: Going from life in the United States to life in Vietnam must have been tough. Did
you carry anything from home around with you to make things easier?
Rat: I carried a few things from home. I carried comic books and M&Ms for especially bad
wounds(OBrien 5). I also carried brandy.
Interviewer: What would you say is the hardest part about the war in general, or personally as
a medic?
Rat: Well, in general, the hardest part of the war is the goddamn bugs and other creatures
(220). They are everywhere and they eat at your soul. Sometimes, at night, I would be
sleeping out there in the dark and then I would see these disgusting bugs chewing tunnels
through me (223). I could see mongooses chewing through my bones. I cant sleep because
of them. Personally, the hardest part about being a medic is how I view other people now. I
cant even picture my company as alive anymore; all I see is dismembered body parts, like
bodies without arms or legs (222). When I look at someone, all I see is a guys body parts,
and the worst part is that it doesnt give me the willies (222). I cant see anybody anymore as
a friend. All I see is death.
Interviewer: Wow, that sounds awful. How do you cope with more difficult times like that?
Rat: There are many things I do to cope. One thing I did was write letters to people back home.
When a friend of mine got killed, I wrote a letter to his sister saying what a great brother she
had and I [told] a few stories to make the point(67). I almost bawl[ed] writing it(67). It helped
me cope with his death and let my feelings out. I also coped with the long walks through
minefields and the heavy burdens I had to carry by ma[king] up a rhyme that caught onwith the
other men in the company (33) . It made it easier to keep my mind off the fact that any wrong
move would lead to my death. The rest of the Alpha Company and I all told stories about the
dead. It helped us keep them alive in our minds and cope with their deaths. One I really liked to
tell was a story about one of the men that died, Curt Lemon, going to a village trick-or-treating
on Halloween. I liked to spice it up with extra details(239). I tried to make it so that youd
never know that Curt Lemon was dead(240). Instead of grieving about their deaths, it made it
easier for us to laugh about them together and remember the good times.
Interviewer: I agree that the best way to keep someone alive is through the good stories about
them. Speaking of stories, are there any weird stories that you have about your time in
Vietnam?
Rat: There are a lot of weird stories; fighting in a war is a weird experience. The weirdest story
that I have is from when I was first stationed in the mountains west of of Chu Lai (90). Some
of the men in the medical detachment wondered if they could bring a girl to Vietnam, so one day
this guy shipped his girlfriend to the detachment and she showed up one day wearing these
fancy white pants and a pink sweater. When I told people in the Alpha Company they thought I
was [exaggerating] and [overstating], but I really was telling the complete truth this time (89).
So this girl who was just as young as we are came, and she was so naive and so pure. She
didnt really understand what was going on. After spending a few weeks with us though, she

went completely crazy. She even started going out on raids with the Green Berets, and youd
have to be crazy to be associated with them. The weirdest thing was one night she didnt come
back to the bunkhouse, and we were all really worried. Turns out, she was with the Green
Berets in their little bunker, and she was just standing there laughing with a necklace of human
tongues around her neck (110). I dont know what happened to her in the end, as I left that
station not long after that. She probably is still really crazy if not dead.
Interviewer: Oh my. What do you think is the point of this war and what do you hope will come
out of it?
Rat: You know, I am going to tell it to you straight. There really isnt any point to this dumb war.
Its as simple as that. I just hope that we come out alive in the end, and that justice is served.
Most of the time when we were out fighting, we werent doing anything. We just sat around
waiting for people to die, whether its from grenades blowing them to pieces, gunshot wounds to
the head, or even those goddamn bugs eating at your eyeballs. When we werent sitting, we
were just marching to wherever they told us to go. This war just needs to be over; it is wrecking
everyones sanity. If anything is to come out of this war, I hope it is that people realize the hell
the soldiers are put through. People back home think that this is just a fun game for us, and
they are dead wrong. Nobody could understand until they are physically out there fighting for
their life.
Interviewer: Well, you heard it here folks. Thank you Mr. Kiley for agreeing to share your story
with us today. I hope your foot wound heals quickly. This is Emily Jackson signing off.