The U.S. has been through numerous wars throughout it’s lifetime. Just to name a few, there is the Vietnam War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, all of which  America sent soldiers to fight for our country, risking their own lives for the greater cause. What can be lost in all the logistics of war is the toll that war can take on soldiers; it can scar them or change them forever.

A Sweetheart named Mary Anne

In the section titled “ Sweetheart of Song Trabong” found in The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien, Mary Anne is brought to a medical base displaying  sweet, young, bubbly and stereotypical young high school girl characteristics. The guys, including Rat Kiley, fall in love with her. She is a taste of America and life before the war that is foreign to them, now that they have to be away for so long. Throughout her time, Mary Anne gradually becomes immersed in the war, changing her whole personality and completely turning the other direction to the girl she was as she stepped off the chopper on her arrival. The war took a girl and turned her into a stone cold soldier, her future plans forgotten, the love of her life left behind, and ambitions disregarded. An attractive, likeable young woman like Mary Anne changed for the worse. She exemplifies  the many young people being thrown into action, many of them going through the daunting process of the draft.

  The Aftermath

War quote

 As one would fear, Mary Anne didn’t want to go home when Fossie insisted, there was no going back to being the girl from Cleveland Heights. After Mary Anne shows her crazy, fearlessness by bathing in the Song Tra Bong River, another one of the medics named Eddie Diamond picks up on what is really going on. It says, “ ‘She’ll learn,’ somebody said. Eddie Diamond gave a solemn nod. ‘There’s the scary part I promise you, this girl will most definitely learn.’ ”(92, O’Brien). Mary Anne isn’t just showing her bravery, the war has taken a hold on her and taken her to the other side. Towards the end of the chapter, we get a sense for how drastically she has changed when Fossie storms into the Green Beret hut. The quote describes Mary Anne and says, “In part it was her eyes: utterly flat and indifferent. There was no emotion in her stare, no sense of the person behind it.” (105, Obrien). This statement embodies the transformation from girl to hardened soldier, she represents all the other Vietnam soldiers affected or even destroyed by the brutality of war. (see link for statistics on PTSD in American soldiers.). 

To finish, I believe that everyone should understand that War is disgusting. It can take Mary Anne and make her unrecognizable to a friend back home, drag a boy with dreams to be a protector of the country, and internally scar a human being for the rest of their life. Soldiers are those human beings. They shouldn’t be seen as just soldiers, but as those who sacrificed their lives and their future to protect the nation, to forever be haunted because of what they have seen.