Don Clark
"Mr. Clark was a Marine Corps survivor.
Mr. Clark was an E-4 corporal that went to Vietnam in 1968 at the age
of 19. Mr. Clark taught me so much about the war and what happened
there. Before meeting Mr. Clark I thought that the Vietnam War wasn't
that bad, but I was very wrong. The war was very hard because you
couldn't tell who your enemy was because Viet Cong and the civilians
looked exactly the same.
Mr. Clark was a really nice and modest person, he didn't tell you anything that you didn't ask and he shared a lot of his past with me and my fellow classmates... I couldn't see anyone like him in the war especially at the age he went at. I have cousins that are 19 and I could never see any of them at the war. He told me a lot of things that really made me think about what I had heard from other people about the war. Mr. Clark told me a lot of heart warming things about the men that served with him...
Mr. Clark must have nerves of steal because him just telling me those things made me want to cry. Mr. Clark showed us his gear from the war. Like his helmet, jungle boots (that I can't believe helped at all), and he told us about his jacket. Everything was so heavy. You had to be really strong before you could go in the war...I mean the helmet must have been at least a pound or two, and the jacket was just this big bag of sand and fiberglass, then you had wet feet and those big old jungle boots with metal in the soles.
After being away from home for 14 months and 21 days Mr. Clark came home. Mr. Clark said that the first thing he did when he arrived was cry, got an ice cream, then booked it home. Mr. Clark wasn't greeted back in the U.S.A. in a nice hero kind of way, like he really deserved. When he got off the plane people were booing and calling him awful names, like 'baby killer', and other names. But none of them were true. Mr. Clark is an amazing U.S. citizen and he is a role model for younger American citizens...
Mr. Clark was a very inspirational person and I can't believe that I was one of the lucky four that got to interview him and see some small things from his past. Just knowing what went on over in Vietnam makes me so happy that I didn't have to go through what he want through and that I'm an American citizen." ~ L. Hotham
"...He explained more about what he had to do from day to day life. His squadron would have to go out days at a time to clear certain zones of the Vietcong, and sometimes they would have to do certain zones twice or three times! 'They kept popping up all the time, it seemed like they were everywhere and everyone' he states after talking about clearing zones. It has to be tough to fight an enemy that you can't see. Sort of like today in Iraq. Anyone could be a suicide bomber, but you just don't know who. After he was done clearing a zone they would go back to base camp...
While we were talking about the animals he pulled out a book full of pictures that he took while he was in Vietnam. The pictures were mostly of him and some of his buddies from his squadron. Then there were some landscape pictures, but one picture really stuck with me, I can still see it in my mind. It was a picture of a small house in South Vietnam with at least 20 children inside it. There were all cramped in and Mr. Clark told us the story behind the picture. 'None of these kids had parents, all of the parents were dead. They took care of themselves cause no one else would,' Mr. Clark said sadly while pausing to take a deep breath, 'most of them were sick and in great need of medicine. I gave them what I could but I knew it would not be nearly enough.'...
I have a learned a lot from this interview, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have a totally new understanding on war. Before I didn't think much of it because I didn't know anybody who was in it, and honestly didn't care. Now that I have heard Mr. Clark’s story, I feel for everyone in the war, and hope no one has to experience it even though some people have to. I will never take anything for granted again, because after seeing the picture of the homeless kids, with no parents, and no money who were all sick, how can you? The poverty in Vietnam is just too great to take anything for granted here. I have a nice home, a caring family, and I am healthy. That is a lot to be thankful for, and I am. Beyond thankful. I remember Mr. Clark saying that war took the 'punk kid out of me', and now that I have heard him speak, and listened to his story, some of my punk kid is gone too. After the interview, I felt so many emotions all in one it was hard to pick them out, but some did stand out. At first I was sad that some of his friends died, then mad that people would treat him so badly, and finally I was happy that I had this experience and had his time to listen to such a breath-taking story. I could almost say it was life changing." ~M. Yandian
"...He [earned] five medals, but he didn't want them. He thinks that all soldiers are heroes, not just him. If he could go back in time he would've liked to save people that he couldn't save before. He would also like to see the country again. The lasting influence on him from Vietnam is how much poverty is there....
Walking away from this interview I realize that there is so much more to war than people think. Everyone says that it helps but it doesn't. We lose more people in war than we would if we just let things be. The lesson that I learned was that fighting is not the answer; the rest of it is too hard to put into words. Some of the experiences that he had and shared with us made me tear up, and they are enough to give any normal person nightmares. What they see out there isn't right and shouldn't be seen by anyone, yet people in war see it every day, it isn't right to put anybody through that. After the interview I felt disgusted, not by the person, but by what Mr. Clark went through during the war and when he got home. I can understand not agreeing with he war and the people fighting in it and protesting it, but SPITTING on your soldiers, who have worked their butts off keeping you safe when they get home, that's just downright sickening...This is a valuable experience because I think it's important for people to know what our soldiers go through." ~ M. Sylvester
"...He was supplied with a k-bar (extremely sharp knife), M79 (machine gun/grenade launcher), extra ammunition, helmet, boots with steel plates on bottom, ponchos, jackets, and other things. Later on they were issued an M16 instead of the M79. His favorite most reliable gun was the M14. It was a rapid fire (700–750 round/min) machine gun. He said that you could bury it in the ground and it would still work perfectly fine. He was stationed in Vietnam for 14 months and 21 days. He got to talk to his wife once via satellite phone for only two minutes. The only other way he could communicate to his family and friends back home was by letter. Some days letters would come in from a week ago and then some days you would get like one letter. He really missed being home home with his family and friends..." ~ C. Bartsch
Mr. Clark was a really nice and modest person, he didn't tell you anything that you didn't ask and he shared a lot of his past with me and my fellow classmates... I couldn't see anyone like him in the war especially at the age he went at. I have cousins that are 19 and I could never see any of them at the war. He told me a lot of things that really made me think about what I had heard from other people about the war. Mr. Clark told me a lot of heart warming things about the men that served with him...
Mr. Clark must have nerves of steal because him just telling me those things made me want to cry. Mr. Clark showed us his gear from the war. Like his helmet, jungle boots (that I can't believe helped at all), and he told us about his jacket. Everything was so heavy. You had to be really strong before you could go in the war...I mean the helmet must have been at least a pound or two, and the jacket was just this big bag of sand and fiberglass, then you had wet feet and those big old jungle boots with metal in the soles.
After being away from home for 14 months and 21 days Mr. Clark came home. Mr. Clark said that the first thing he did when he arrived was cry, got an ice cream, then booked it home. Mr. Clark wasn't greeted back in the U.S.A. in a nice hero kind of way, like he really deserved. When he got off the plane people were booing and calling him awful names, like 'baby killer', and other names. But none of them were true. Mr. Clark is an amazing U.S. citizen and he is a role model for younger American citizens...
Mr. Clark was a very inspirational person and I can't believe that I was one of the lucky four that got to interview him and see some small things from his past. Just knowing what went on over in Vietnam makes me so happy that I didn't have to go through what he want through and that I'm an American citizen." ~ L. Hotham
"...He explained more about what he had to do from day to day life. His squadron would have to go out days at a time to clear certain zones of the Vietcong, and sometimes they would have to do certain zones twice or three times! 'They kept popping up all the time, it seemed like they were everywhere and everyone' he states after talking about clearing zones. It has to be tough to fight an enemy that you can't see. Sort of like today in Iraq. Anyone could be a suicide bomber, but you just don't know who. After he was done clearing a zone they would go back to base camp...
While we were talking about the animals he pulled out a book full of pictures that he took while he was in Vietnam. The pictures were mostly of him and some of his buddies from his squadron. Then there were some landscape pictures, but one picture really stuck with me, I can still see it in my mind. It was a picture of a small house in South Vietnam with at least 20 children inside it. There were all cramped in and Mr. Clark told us the story behind the picture. 'None of these kids had parents, all of the parents were dead. They took care of themselves cause no one else would,' Mr. Clark said sadly while pausing to take a deep breath, 'most of them were sick and in great need of medicine. I gave them what I could but I knew it would not be nearly enough.'...
I have a learned a lot from this interview, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have a totally new understanding on war. Before I didn't think much of it because I didn't know anybody who was in it, and honestly didn't care. Now that I have heard Mr. Clark’s story, I feel for everyone in the war, and hope no one has to experience it even though some people have to. I will never take anything for granted again, because after seeing the picture of the homeless kids, with no parents, and no money who were all sick, how can you? The poverty in Vietnam is just too great to take anything for granted here. I have a nice home, a caring family, and I am healthy. That is a lot to be thankful for, and I am. Beyond thankful. I remember Mr. Clark saying that war took the 'punk kid out of me', and now that I have heard him speak, and listened to his story, some of my punk kid is gone too. After the interview, I felt so many emotions all in one it was hard to pick them out, but some did stand out. At first I was sad that some of his friends died, then mad that people would treat him so badly, and finally I was happy that I had this experience and had his time to listen to such a breath-taking story. I could almost say it was life changing." ~M. Yandian
"...He [earned] five medals, but he didn't want them. He thinks that all soldiers are heroes, not just him. If he could go back in time he would've liked to save people that he couldn't save before. He would also like to see the country again. The lasting influence on him from Vietnam is how much poverty is there....
Walking away from this interview I realize that there is so much more to war than people think. Everyone says that it helps but it doesn't. We lose more people in war than we would if we just let things be. The lesson that I learned was that fighting is not the answer; the rest of it is too hard to put into words. Some of the experiences that he had and shared with us made me tear up, and they are enough to give any normal person nightmares. What they see out there isn't right and shouldn't be seen by anyone, yet people in war see it every day, it isn't right to put anybody through that. After the interview I felt disgusted, not by the person, but by what Mr. Clark went through during the war and when he got home. I can understand not agreeing with he war and the people fighting in it and protesting it, but SPITTING on your soldiers, who have worked their butts off keeping you safe when they get home, that's just downright sickening...This is a valuable experience because I think it's important for people to know what our soldiers go through." ~ M. Sylvester
"...He was supplied with a k-bar (extremely sharp knife), M79 (machine gun/grenade launcher), extra ammunition, helmet, boots with steel plates on bottom, ponchos, jackets, and other things. Later on they were issued an M16 instead of the M79. His favorite most reliable gun was the M14. It was a rapid fire (700–750 round/min) machine gun. He said that you could bury it in the ground and it would still work perfectly fine. He was stationed in Vietnam for 14 months and 21 days. He got to talk to his wife once via satellite phone for only two minutes. The only other way he could communicate to his family and friends back home was by letter. Some days letters would come in from a week ago and then some days you would get like one letter. He really missed being home home with his family and friends..." ~ C. Bartsch