A tribute to the combat vets

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 2002)

The first time I saw "Saving Private Ryan" I was in a good theater
with a superior sound system. No big deal, no trauma, but I did get
emotional memory flashes of the rocket and mortar attacks that I
frequently experienced when serving on DaNang Air Base between 1969 and
1970. We used to feel the mortars coming and going as they were
"walked" over the base by the NVA in the hills raising and lowering the
mortar barrels. In addition to the obvious technical superiority of the film, I
think "Saving Private Ryan" does capture the essence of guys in a war
zone. Most of the film is brutally beautiful. Although I was in
Vietnam during the war, and although I did come close to being "blown
up" over there, I was not a combat soldier but with an air force
intelligence unit that was located just across the dirt road from the
U.S. Marines. We had been selected because of our high paper test
IQ's and given relatively extensive training at specialty tech schools
before getting to Vietnam. In other words, we were all Corporal
Uphams. "Saving Private Ryan" causes me a lot of soul searching
because I loathe the Corporal Upham character and I know if I had
somehow been assigned to a U.S. Marine combat squad, I probably would
have acted like Upham, the jerk. Here's to the Vietnam combat vets.
You guys really were something special.