Vietnam: A Veteran's Perspective

Lecture: Vietnam: A Veteran's Perspective
Presented by Author and veteran Ned Ricks
Arlington Heights Public Library (Thu, Nov 17, 2005)

I was looking for excuses to give myself. I wasn't going to go. It was on a work day, it was at 7pm, and I hadn't had dinner. But this war (more than many of the others) fascinates me, and so I got on the car and went.

Now, I admit that I had a mental image of an elderly man mumbling and trying to push his book. But the minute I stepped into the auditorium, I knew I couldn't have been more wrong. This guy knew what he was doing. The sad thing was that there were less than 2 dozen listeners.

Mr. (or should I refer to him as Sgt.?) Ricks was a showman, a raconteur, an educator, a contemporary version of a patriot and a complete inspiration. First of all, you have to respect anyone who brings their own mike system to a library.

Ned Ricks has been giving these presentations for 8 years, and boy he's got it polished so it shines. He starts out giving us a feel for how innocent the town of Crawfordsville, IN was when he was growing up, and takes us along step by step, as he gets recruited and sent over.

I enjoyed his version of humor as he refered to how his colleagues get recruited ("You can go to jail, or you can join the army") . The idyllic vision of life and the army are slowly shattered as the war progresses. His combat experiences, and even more so his experience doing the "grave duty" struck a chord in me. Again he narrates these seemingly humorous anecdotes to drive the darkness home. The sargent who shot his own hand so that he wouldn't have to fight in the front line, and how that bullet cut his finger, hit the ground, bounced back and hit an 18-year old private in the chest and killed him. The experienced soldier who threw a grenade into a cave, and because it didn't go off, bent down to pick it up hoping to throw it again.

He talked about seeing the image of the Buddist monk burning himself. I then later looked up that incident so that I could provide a link here for those interested. Ned gave an interesting piece of statistic: In Vietnam, the US had 10 men supporting each soldier who actually fought. In contrast, the Vietcong had a ratio of 3 to 1.

54,000 U.S. lives lost in 'Nam, and Ned Ricks witnessed close to 5,000 corpses go by in all the time that he did his grave duty. His description of the silver coffinboxes, stacked 6-high were chilling. What was admirable to me was how one man who has seen so much suffering can still stay so positive.

He made a reference to Saving Private Ryan, and the scene when Tom Hanks whispers in Ryan's ear. We the audience don't hear the whisper. Cut forward 50 years to the elderly & grown up Private Ryan, and he turns and asks his wife if he's lived a good life. (And we infer what Tom Hanks had whispered all those years ago.) Ned ended his lecture by telling us that for 35+ years he's tried to live a good life.

During Q&A, Ned wasn't afraid to air his political opinion, saying that while he supported the war in Afghanistan, he didn't support the Iraq war, thereby making a fine distinction between the two wars that usually get lumped together. I asked him if he'd do it all over again if he had to, and he said no, not if he knew everything that he knows now.

Here's a link that references his book if you wish to read a little about Ned Ricks.