Week 14: A Successful Interview!

    This week, I had the joy of finally sitting down with a Veteran for an interview. I seriously can't believe it's already been a whole semester already. This semester has been so difficult with multiple changing spheres within our team resulting in not many interviews taking place. I'm super thankful I was able to sit down with at least one interview.

The Interview

 This interview was amazing, as it was honestly a very rare interview to be a part of. Our subject was in the service for the entirety of Vietnam as a helicopter pilot serving in multiple battalions. Helicopter pilots in Vietnam are known to be dead men walking. Being able to sit down with a veteran who survived not only one, but two different crashes is truly amazing. Our veteran and subject enlisted in the military following his departure from school and spent the next 7 years in the  United States Army. There were two separate occasions, as I mentioned, where his helicopter was shot down and he sustained multiple injuries. First, he was on a scout run where he was forced to make several passes over enemy territory which resulted in anti-aircraft guns being able to shoot him down. He was shot in the back of the head and passed out from his injury. He woke up on the bottom of the jungle floor and was able to crawl out and radio for help. He was the only survivor of his craft. The second time, they were doing an assault run when anti-aircraft hit his helicopter again forcing his motor out and he had to make an emergency crash landing. He and one other survived, but he was outside of his mission area so even if he was reported missing, his team wouldn't know where he was. The smoke was so high that they knew Viet Cong were coming for them, so they decided to leave the aircraft. Both men had life threatening injuries, but by a miracle, as he described it, They were found by American troops and saved by a jungle penetrator. Our veteran described being on that rope as chaotic, as he machine gun fire into the jungles not knowing if he was hitting anything but wrenching in pain the whole time.

After thoughts

Probably the most noticeable part about the whole interview was his collectiveness when discussing his time during active fire and his time during both helicopter crashes. It wasn't until he started talking about his first leave when he saw his fiancé for the first time since he had left for Vietnam that he showed emotion. Our veteran practically broke down in tears recalling that moment as if he knew his service was worth it simply for that moment. Oftentimes, we get veterans who can barely recall the details of tragedy, but it was this interview where he could only tear up when he recalled the joy he experienced when he saw his future wife. Moments like this remind me that even in the stories with the hardest outcomes that demonstrate true deprivation, beauty can be found in the joy of simply coming home. It's veterans like this that remind me that while we are to honor the story, we're also to celebrate the results of the sacrifice: joy.

Next week, I’ll be working on a storyboard to close out the semester with! I'll be posting some photos here as well.