“Well, first off, it was a war the same as any war.”
They’re the same, everywhere you go
“Do I really want to go to Vietnam?”
I was going to be a hero
It was always so important to win

This is not like watching the war on television
The war was right on our doorstep
I can get killed here
This is their country
Now it all seemed different
The war started to seem real
All hell is breaking loose
The hopes all seemed crushed now
All the faces, the torn green fatigues
For days we live believing that all of us are going to die
Everywhere was a combat zone
This is what serving your country is about
The guy’s head with a gaping hole through his throat

“How can this horror justify a war?”
Quiet voice doesn’t ask again
He’s answered his own questions in his mind
Vietnam had a way of playing on your mind
We couldn’t let ourselves feel fear and anger
It was hard to let yourself cry
None of us had faith
The whole thing was incredibly stupid

A situation develops
Shotgun refused to kill
They had killed but they were not killers
The world shifted, and we all knew it
It was just surrealistic
Vietnam had the capacity to destroy
I felt I’d aged twenty years

“One of those things you learn in the war.”
Many brave men did not win medals for their bravery
He’d had the opportunity to be brave
You always felt vulnerable
He had learned to step lightly
He knew many lies
He knew it is a lie that only stupid men are brave
He knew that a man can die of fright

I had been shot
I was still alive
I was frightened to death
I feel cheated
All I could feel was the worthlessness of dying right here in this place at this moment for nothing
It was a schizophrenic experience

“There’s nothing more to do here.”
The was was over and there was no place in particular to go
There was no feeling at all
A terrible boredom set in
We couldn’t be here if we hadn’t been there

Sources:
Judy Jenkins essay
“Speaking of Courage,” by Tim O’Brien
Slow Walk in a Sad Rain excerpt, by John McAfee
Born on the Fourth of July excerpt, by Ron Kovic