Boonierat brothers: RTOs of the company CP, Recon/2/502/101 Abn Div; 1970. At that time, we had an adage, “An AK round doesn’t care about the color of your paint job.”
John M. Del Vecchio reminds us about family: It is deeper than blood and includes everyone regardless of race, creed, gender or politics.
___
“An AK round doesn’t care about the color of your paint job”
I was born into a large, Italian-American family; and my earliest memories are full of Sunday dinners at Nonno’s and Nonna’s. There’d be aunts and uncles, family friends, and often a dozen or more cousins. I was grandchild 12 of 20, and that was only on my father’s side. Add another 20 cousins on my mother’s side, multiply the total by ten, and you get an idea of the number of second cousins. Add years, marriages and births, and relocations. We’re now spread across the country, but the feelings haven’t changed.
We’re now spread across the country, but the feelings haven’t changed.
Family has been and is very important to me. A half dozen times each year I get together with many of my male cousins for a Festa. We cook the traditional meals; we eat, drink, laugh, tell jokes and lies; and we debate politics. We are one; we are family.
The zest for life, the ethos, extends to friends, to co-workers, to new acquaintances. As children we emulated our elders—as all children do—and we defined ourselves by and against what we observed. That is my background. It established my life-long beliefs, and my approach to all others—my extended American family.
On this occasion I would like to focus on brothers—specifically on combat brothers; and on the new or revived ugly divisiveness ripping at the soul of America. I’ve been writing about this in historical novels for more than four decades. The following passage is from the Author’s Note to the 30th Anniversary edition of The 13th Valley. It was written in 2010, prior to the nation’s latest descent into racial dissonance.
On Race: In Chapter 14, the character Jax (William Andrew Jackson), a black infantryman from the old South, while on silent patrol in deep jungle, fantasizes:
… if his child would be a boy or a girl. Girls is so pretty, he told himself, but boys is so much mo fun. William Andrew Jackson, Junior, an announcer said within Jackson’s thoughts, the son of the Vietnam War hero, the great-great-great grandson of a slave, today was inaugurated as the first black President of the New United States of America.
On this occasion I would like to focus on brothers—specifically on combat brothers; and on the new or revived ugly divisiveness ripping at the soul of America.
|
In 1970, Jax’s thoughts were admittedly fantasy. To deny that or obfuscate it would be to lie about the racial situation in American society during that time. There were racial tensions in military units in Viet Nam, and some modern readers may find the racial tension in this novel overwhelming. Race has been the single biggest social issue in America for the post-WW II generation. It progressed from 1950s sit-ins and forced integration, through the ‘60s Civil Rights movement, to the riots and near urban warfare of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. And it showed up in military units fighting in Viet Nam.
Race has been the single biggest social issue in America for the post-WW II generation.
|
It was in this historical context that The 13th Valley was written. On rereading the novel in preparation for the release of this anniversary edition, I was taken aback by some of the scenes, some of the dialogue and jargon—accurate to the time, but so removed from the way we think and talk today.
That last emphasis does not appear in the original. Media stories then, and now, tended to emphasize the tensions and discord between groups; but the media missed the real story 50 years ago, and it continues to miss it today. Neither color nor creed was the defining measure of relations between boonierats brothers. The interracial harmony amongst combat brothers during the Vietnam era was unprecedented in our history. How would society have changed, and how would it change today, were the emphasis of the story told solidarity versus one of animus. Again from the Author’s note:
The story we tell ourselves of ourselves, individually or culturally, creates our self-image. Behavior, individually and culturally, is consistent with self-image. Story determines behavior. When story is badly recorded or purposefully misreported the effects on national self-image, and in turn on our behavior, is an aberration of reality…
The story we tell ourselves of ourselves, individually or culturally, creates our self-image. Behavior, individually and culturally, is consistent with self-image. Story determines behavior.
|
Human genome studies tell us that all humans trace their origin to the same few individuals. We are, indeed, all related—if not brothers and sisters, at least cousins. Cultural, ethnic and religious differences are real, but race is a theoretical concept used for millennium to separate and oppress. Yet it has become so ingrained in language and law as to be nearly universally accepted and believed. Pigmentation characteristics, like all human traits, are a continuum not specific to particular geographic zones but spread and mingled around our planet. Again from the Author’s note:
My mentor on race issues, General Harry Brooks, noted in 1971 that it was not a problem if black or white soldiers chose to congregate socially with those of similar skin tone, but it was a problem if a black wanted to associate with a white, or a white with a black, and he was ostracized by his peers and prevented from doing so. Over the last four decades, in much of our nation, that problem has substantially dissipated. Today inter-racial marriages comprise between five and ten percent of all domestic unions.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free
We should recognize and celebrate this transformation, and we should condemn national political, entertainment or business figures who accentuate race or promote racial division for their own political or economic gain.
The world today is a very different place than it was 40 years ago, and yet is very much the same. Against a backdrop of amazing social, scientific and technological advances, the problems ripping us apart today are mostly mutations of the problems which were ripping us apart 40 years ago. To this aging curmudgeon, these problems are exasperated by a national media so self-centeredly desperate for ratings and survival that it has become not only a shaper of false reality but also a source of disinformation and an instigator of greater societal problems.
The more we stress our differences—our diversity—and the more we disregard our similarities—our unity—the more we find a reason to fracture and fragment, to segregate and to become distrustful. It is a process which can only lead to resentment, animosity and violence.
|
The more we stress our differences—our diversity—and the more we disregard our similarities—our unity—the more we find a reason to fracture and fragment, to segregate and to become distrustful. It is a process which can only lead to resentment, animosity and violence. So I call upon my cousins, my combat brothers, my American family to halt this scourge of divisiveness.
Let us celebrate our differences, but let us not allow that to impair our unity.
◊♦◊
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John M. Del Vecchio was drafted in 1969 shortly after graduating from Lafayette College. In 1970 he volunteered for Viet Nam where he served as a combat correspondent for the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile); in 1971 he was awarded a Bronze Star for Heroism in Ground Combat. Along with The 13th Valley, Del Vecchio is the author of For the Sake of All Living Things, Carry Me Home, Darkness Falls, numerous articles and papers including the widely quoted, “The Importance of Story”; the forward for Wounds Of War and the afterword for Code Word: Geronimo.
He has lectured extensively on the history of the Viet Nam War in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and has appeared on FOX News as a military/political commentator.
◊♦◊
“An AK round doesn’t care about the color of your paint job” Neither does an M16 round when you are hit by friendly fire; however, It doesn’t excuse the fact that you had race riots in the US military during the war plus enlisted men fragging their officers and NCOs because they got tired of being treated as sub-humans. It also didn’t help that the US military was illegally spyingon the American people beause they thought that the whole country was going to be red. The US Armed Forces were one sorry mess after the Vietnam War because the officers… Read more »