Mommy, Did You Kill Anybody in the
War?
NamNews
, 2-02, Page 32, 6
Feb 1988
By Norma Boris, Omaha. Nebraska
As I read my January '84 issue of the VVA Veteran, my 6-month old son sleeps soundly in
his room. The articles are tingling, unnerving. Particularly unnerving is one on the last
page. I read about a man who carried a gun, who was face to face with the enemy, and who
killed. I shudder as I contemplate the day my son asks me the question above. After all,
I'm mommy, not daddy.
It makes me think. Least painfully I think of the time limit we imposed on the Vietnamese
patients with "no hope" of improvement. Our doctors, knowing their litters would
be left on the dust-off pad at the ARVN hospital, wanted them kept in our Casualty
Receiving. We wanted them transferred to simply die elsewhere. Sure as hell, they died.
Before a twelve hour limit was imposed, there were patients who just stayed until they
stopped breathing - sometimes that was days. The memories of those patients are more
painful. After a while I didn't suction so often, finally not at all. I sat there as they
breathed more and more irregularly, less and less frequently. The died too - finally,
taking just a little of me with them.
Then there are the most painful. They are of the ones I told, "I'll be right
back..." Even when I was, it wasn't soon enough for them. Their staring eyes were
round, their skin American, no matter what color.
Last, there are the memories that I do not yet allow entrance into my consciousness. They
are the memories of the children. I never knew that tiny, slanted eyes could open SO
wide and that
children in such pain could be SO quiet. I still handle them in my nightmares.
So, son, what do I tell you when you ask, "Mommy, did you kill anybody in the
war?" I have a few years, a few years to hope the history books do NOT add the
information that women went ...and that women killed.
I have a few years to practice my "pat" answers and to hope, against hope, that
you never hear the word "Vietnam".
"Mommy, did you kill anybody in the war?" Oh my God...yes...
Norma Boris served at the 67th Evac in Qui Nhon 1969-70.
My Vietnam Related Websites:
Women in
Vietnam ~ Read about ALL the women who served . . .
Dusty's Home
Page
The
Irish on the Wall ~ An effort to locate the Irish who died in Vietnam
Tim
O'Brien's Home Page ~ National Book Award Winner and Americal Vet
Emily's Poetry
~ By a Red Cross Donut Dolly
Shrapnel in
the Heart ~ The most moving book you will read on Vietnam
All About
Vietnam ~ An annotated bibliography of books about Vietnam for
sale thru Amazon Worldwide!
Battle
Dressing ~
Project Hearts
and Minds ~ Help put Viet Nam back together
Photos
from a Holts' Military History Tour ~ My trip to Vietnam, February 1998
My Other Websites:
Maybe
Later . . . ~ My Creative Nonfiction
Irish
in Korea ~ Irish men and women who gave their lives in the Korean War
Literature
of the Korean War ~ Don't let the literature be forgotten
Samuel
Pepys ~ One of my favorite authors
Chicago
Theatre Z - A ~ This is the best theater town in the country!
Soccer
Literature ~ I'm a fan and I read
O'Leary Lantern
~ Fire! Fire! Fire!
Gil
Thorp ~ THE Coach (apologies to The General!)
Poetry
of the First World War ~ Owen, Hardy and others
Chi-COW-go
~ Cowz plus Commentary (this used to be a cow town)
Graham
Fulton, Scottish Poet ~ Charles Manson Auditions for the Monkees
Other Important Websites:
The
Truth About Caroline ~ a really good Young Adult book by
my niece, Stacey M. Lane Grosh
Remember
Oklahoma City ~
The Civil Service and Military will
NEVER forget!
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