Personal Narrative: When My Father's Life

When my father was 20 years old his life was changed forever. He was drafted into the Army during the height of the Vietnam War. During his two years in the military, especially the year he spent in combat, he experienced things he could not have previously imagined. This all led to making my father grateful for his life and his freedom and not taking either of them for granted.

After he was drafted my father was sent to Kentucky for basic training. Then he went to Alabama for advanced infantry training. At that time two of his brothers were in Vietnam so the military did not allow him to go there when his training in Alabama was finished. Instead he was sent to Fort Carson, Colorado where he received further training. In July 1968, when one of his brothers came back from Vietnam, …show more content…
He read the army literature about the war which stated that because of SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) it was America’s duty to go help the South Vietnamese people. They felt they were bound by their obligation to stop the spread of Communism to Southeast Asia. This gave my father a sense of duty and the belief that he was doing what his country needed him to do. His experiences taught him to never take his life for granted. Being in such an extreme situation made him value his life more. In addition, his experiences during this time expanded his horizons culturally and gave him an appreciation for cultural and ethnic diversity. Lastly, as he witnessed the poverty in Vietnam and how the South Vietnamese people were being attacked by their oppressors, he gained a new appreciation for the United States, which by comparison was a more wealthy and free land. My father spent one year in Vietnam, during which his life was changed forever. He became a man during the war. A man who learned to never take his life or freedom for