Ordinary Lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War

Ordinary Lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War

In the summer of 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, eighty young volunteers arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, from all over the Eastern United States. For the next eight weeks, as Platoon 1005, they endured one of the most intense basic training programs ever devised. Parris Island was not a place for idle conversation or social gatherings, and these men remained from start to finish almost complete strangers. Ehrhart did get to know one Marine, his bunkmate John Harris, who quietly shared his sweetheart's letters. He was a friend who died in Vietnam only a year later. Twenty-seven years after basic training. Ehrhart began what became a five-year search for the men of his platoon. Who were these men alongside whom he trained? Why had they joined the Marines at a time when being sent to war and of the country that sent them to fight it? What does the Corps mean to them? What Ehrhart learned offers an extraordinary window into the complexities of the Vietnam Generation and the United States of America then and now. Based on supporting materials from military records and family members as well as interviews -- some of which Ehrhart held in such active secondary roles as dairy farmhand, fishing companion, and impromptu guest at a family wedding -- this book records the more-than-30-year journey that each man took after his boot-camp graduation on August 12, 1966. Photos of the men, both then and now, accompany the profiles. Their stories are diverse, but as Ehrhart says, "It was, in short, history, and each of these men was and is a part of that history....There are, no doubt, scoundrels and liars and losers among these men, but as a group they have mostly impressed me with their decency and their loyalty and their hard work and their perseverance in the face of hardships and hurdles, the everyday obstacles that make ordinary lives extraordinary." The Vietnam War continues to generate a wide variety of memoirs by the soldiers, sailors, and Marines who served as enlisted men and an equally large number of small unit histories that rely on the experiences of these men to outline one unit's service in a particular battle or period. Ehrhart (Busted: A Vietnam Veteran in Nixon's America, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1995), a Vietnam combat Marine, presents an interesting twist on this formula by following the Marines in his training unit through their wartime service and into middle age, interviewing them in the 1990s. While the work lacks the emotional impact a reader expects from personal accounts, it does provide a glimpse into the lives, motivations, and attitudes of the volunteers of 1966 while simultaneously contrasting this world view with that of the middle-aged civilians assessing their roles some 30 years later. Recommended for comprehensive Vietnam War collections.AJohn R. Vallely, Siena Coll. Lib., Loudonville, NY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. In the summer of 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, eighty young volunteers arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, from all over the eastern United States. for the next eight weeks, as Platoon 1005, they endured one of the most intense basic training programs ever devised. Parris Island was not a place for idle conversation or social gatherings, and these men remained from start to finish almost complete strangers. W.D. Ehrhart did get to know one Marine, his bunkmate John Harris, who quietly shared his sweetheart's letters. He was a friend who, Ehrhart learned almost thirty years later, died in Vietnam in 1967. In 1993 Ehrhart began what became a five-year search for the men of his platoon. Who were these men alongside whom he trained? Why had they joined the Marines at a time when being sent to war was almost a certainty? What do they think of the war and of the country that sent them to fight it? What does the Corps mean to them? What Ehrhart learned offers an extraordinary window into the complexities of the Vietnam Generation and the United States of America then and now. Drawing from military records and family accounts as well as interviews--some of which Ehrhart held in such active secondary roles as dairy farmhand, fishing companion, and impromptu guest at a family wedding--this book records the more than thirty-year journey that each man took after boot-camp graduation on August 12, 1966. Photos of the men, both then and now, accompany the profiles. Their stories are diverse, but as Ehrhart says, "It was, in short, history, and each of these men was and is a part of that history.... There are, no doubt, scoundrels and liars and losers among them, but as a group they have mostly impressed me with their decency and their loyalty and their hard work and their perseverance in the face of hardships and hurdles, the everyday obstacles that make ordinary lives extraordinary." In the summer of 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, eighty young volunteer