The War in His Home

by BaileyFPeriod6

The Vietnam War was the first televised war and the average age men were drafted at was nineteen. Margaret Carter finds her husband and her brother-in-law on the screen in her house in Washington in the US. Margaret prays for her family while they are in combat and Robert prays to get back to his wife while Robert and Jack's parents pray that Jack will be the one to come home.

2. Chapter Two

Robert Carter, age 26

I hate myself for thinking this, but every human life taken means I am one step closer to getting out of this hellhole. Well, that's until they send more troops. My friend Edmund Mason is more excited to get out of here. Charles Montgomery is pretty neutral in the situation. He does not want to kill people who are or are not involved in this, but clearly does not want to stay. John Wilson is a closed book. There is no way to know what he is thinking; he keeps to himself. And then there is my brother Jack. He never wanted to be here in the first place. He was drafted alongside John, myself, and quite a few other men.

I look over at my brother when I have a chance back at the camp. His sandy hair is disheveled and there is dirt on his cheeks. Jack is the average age in which men are drafted into this war. Nineteen.

Mother and Father send me letters, and I read them when I can. They are practically begging me to keep him safe. I feel as his older brother I am obligated to do so. Okay, I don't feel obligated because I do love him, but I feel more… under pressure when I am asked by our parents to keep him safe. That bothers me in a way. Yes, I will do everything in my power to keep Jack breathing, but what about myself? Jack is nineteen as I am twenty-six. I have a wife and her sister to take care of at home.

Do my mother and father ask Jack to keep an eye out for me? Of course they don't. I'm not surprised, he always was the favorite out of the two of us boys. Our sisters are by far the favorites, but Jack is the baby.

Edmund interrupts my thoughts when he calls me over.

"What is it?"

"Did you hear? We are going to be a part of 'Operation Swift' in a while." I sigh. This is our search and destroy mission.

"Lovely." It is the only word that comes to mind, so it pops out of my mouth. I sigh again.

"I know you want out, Robert," We all turn to the voice that belongs to John. He is often so quiet we forget what his voice sounds like. It is in the higher range of men. "I want to go home, too."

"Well we have to go out there and beat those Vietnamese," Edmund shouts. A few soldiers shoot him looks, but the rest of us remain silent. Jack walks over and flanks my left.

I sigh again and tell them I will be back shortly.

I pull out a piece of paper and a pen. The white is smeared with brown and the ink has almost run out, but I write with whatever little ink I obtain to my wife who must be wondering what is going on. I would like to know too. I tell her how I have been doing, but omit the parts about the battered bodies and lifeless children and citizens there are. She already sees that on television.

What is the effect of this? Why should this be televised? It only sets the image that we are all monsters in people's minds. That is not what I want my wife to think of me as. This is not what I want anyone to think of me as.