Americans Soldiers are affected by every kind of war they may fight in. After being shipped off half way around the world, they can be hit in a tremendous amount of way. Some turn to drugs, some commit suicide. Others are affected more after they have to return to normal life after war. The Vietnam War affected Soldiers in every way possible. Vietnam is one of the farthest places a soldier may have to travel. It is also a completely different climate and culture than where the troops are coming from. Having to adapt quickly for this extremely young group of soldiers is hard to compare to anything that a regular person ever has to do. In the story “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about the things soldiers brought along with them over to the war. Some of these items were personal, physical, or they could be a thought or memory a soldier would constantly think about. All the soldiers who ever had to serve in the Vietnam War had to carry some form of object like the ones in the book. Soldiers from the Vietnam War were forced to take on large physical and emotional burdens during the war. Because of these burdens, it made soldiers lives change for the rest of their lives after being involved first handedly in the war.

Each person, who was in Vietnam during the war, was affected in a completely different way from each other. “Most combat soldiers witnessed violence and lost friends to the horrors of war.” (Berman) Someone having to watch and sit their as one of their best friends dies is unimaginable to think about sitting through. This happened on a regular basis to soldiers there. Horrible events lie this can be comparable to the lives of the soldiers in “The Things They Carried”. During the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross lost on of his low ranking men, Ted Lavender. Cross only would blame himself for the loss of one of his men. Soldiers in modern day have a typical process they go through. The soldiers would first bond with the other men in the camps to get to know their unit. They would then become close with each other overtime, and finally, when they would have to fight, many of the men they became so close with would die right in front of them and they would to have to try and conserve their friend’s dead body. These soldiers were also forced to bear other horrific experiences. 

Another reality the troops had to face while abroad was the fact the war was tearing on the inside and outside of their bodies. Many of the American veterans from this war, had large physical and emotional injuries that would be with them for the rest of their lives (Berman). While the military members in Vietnam walked around the country, they were forced to carry around massive bags of equipment and ammo that the men needed to survive. The average person would have no chance of being able to lift the bags like the soldiers do. Not only so the troopers have to take on a large physical toll while in another country, the emotional burden is just as difficult to face. The men were in a completely different country a long way away from their family and loved ones. They would have to sometimes have to be away from their family members for way too long a time. This is one of the reasons it was so hard for them to adjust back to regular life. Bombs would normally be going off around them and then all of the sudden they were sent back to their peaceful homes in America. These constant changes are exactly what made many of the soldiers have PTSD (Oaklander). The PTSD in the soldiers after the war was a number that is unacceptable for our veterans.

PTSD is prevalent in many of the soldiers who were involved in the Vietnam War. Dr. Charles R. Marmar from the New York University Langone Medical Center, led a group of people to find out the full truths of PTSD. “The team determined that even now—40 years after the war ended—about 271,000 Vietnam vets have full war-zone-related PTSD plus war-zone PTSD that meets some diagnostic criteria.” (Oaklander) That amount of troops is way higher than soldiers should be dealing with 40 years after a war. Nothing as intense as bombs going off by one’s face and friends dieing right in front of friends faces is some of the only experiences that would make someone have such terrible flashbacks so long after they happened. The people who did the study of the veterans are starting to find out why these veterans had such terrible effects from the war. One of the big things that the researchers have come to realize is that soldiers need to be able to have much more access to evidence-based mental health services (Oaklander). These services would help the veterans that have to deal with large mental problems coming from the war. “An important minority of Vietnam veterans are symptomatic after four decades, with more than twice as many deteriorating as improving,” (Oaklander) People really need to spend more time researching this subject. The soldiers need our help like we need their help. They protect us overseas and we need to keep them safe when they come back over after the war while they are weak.

Other veterans say they have a different type of PTSD than the typical veteran. “Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD sometimes describe themselves as having “split personalities” who have to “keep the tiger in the cage”. (B. Bower) When a refugee from vietnam says that they deal with something like “split personalities” it is referring to the soldiers having essentially two lives: one at war overseas, and one that they live with their families at home. When the soldiers have to go back and forth between these two lives it is hard for someone’s mind to comprehend how they need to act in different environments. One is extremely calm and relaxed while the other is one of the tenses moments a person has. In Tim O’Brien’s story, “The Things They Carried” when Jimmy Cross thinks of Martha, his girlfriend back home instead of guard, Lavender dies. This could definitely happen to someone who lives two lives. It would be tremendously tough to try to separate these lives as much as possible. “The intensity of the bombs going off around someone can not be compared to the live of one back home. No one back home can sympathize to the extremes the soldier's face. The soldiers have to dissociate from the other people because it is a defense against the painful events that they have once been in (B. Bower) This really makes sense that the soldiers have to do something like this. No one can truly feel all the compassion that they need to help. The soldiers have to face this on their own and it is not something that someone should have to go through on their own.

“At first dissociation is a positive adaptation to severe trauma, but once the self is divided in a powerful way, it becomes difficult to reintegrate the personality. (B. Bower) ” Some of the veterans can never gain their true personalities that they had before they went off to war. They become a completely different person. Families do not know what to do in a time like this. They do not know how to feel the way that a family member feels when they are not the same person. Like Tim O’Brein showed the soldiers in “The Things they Carried”, it is easy to see how someone who went through similar times can gain PTSD. The PTSD is also unquestionably difficult on all families with someone who struggles with it. It is obvious that they need to help soldiers and families out way more than ever.
