Stanley Kennedy |
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The War in a Word
What were you doing before you were drafted? Were you just out of high school?
I graduated from high school, and then I enrolled at a junior college, Arizona Western College, for two reasons: to actually get an education, and to dodge the draft! Like so many of us were doing. They wouldn’t bother you if you were going to school. I’m originally from California, so I wanted to go back to school in California. I made a dumb decision. Instead of finishing my freshman year, I dropped out to take a semester break. When I came back to Los Angeles, and I got the letter in the mail as soon as they found out I had dropped out. They sent me the letter “Greetings. This is Uncle Sam.” I tried to tell them I was going back, but they said you can go back when you get back from Nam. So, August 30, 1966, I was drafted into the United States Army.
My name is Stanley Kennedy. I am a combat veteran from the Vietnam era.
The one word to describe the war, and it sounds kind of strange, would be obedience. I obeyed my country when so many others didn’t and because of that, I think I’m a much better person today. Even though I didn’t really like what I was involved in at the time, it was something that I personally needed evidently to make me really focus in on the positives and everything that I needed to do to become that mature individual that I try to be today. I took something that could have destroyed me and let it make me a better person. I was forced to do it, they made me go over there, but I obeyed my countries call when they called me to, in some roundabout way, protect them from some type of a force that wasn’t even a threat to us here in this country. I didn’t dwell on the “whys”. I just did what I was told.
Object Description
| Profile of | Stanley Kennedy |
| Title | I Was Focused on Getting Back Home |
| Profile bio | Stanley Kennedy was born in April of 1947 in Yuma, Arizona. He was drafted into service for the U.S. army after dropping out of college for a semester break in 1966. He served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam from March of 1967 until March of 1968. He spent most of that time in combat in the Mekong Delta. The largest engagement Stanley took part in was the Tet offensive, where he was in close combat with Viet Cong forces in and around Saigon. After leaving the military, Stanley developed a career in the garment manufacturing industry. He is now retired and living with his family in Southern California. Though it was not by choice, Stanley is proud to have obeyed and served his country. |
| Profiler bio | Shonita Peterson is a senior from Los Angeles, CA majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership and Development.; Riti Chandiok is a junior from Northern California majoring in environmental studies. He aspires to go to law school after he graduates.; Michael Kennedy is a sophomore from Denver, Colorado majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business Administration. |
| Subject |
American Combat Drugs Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Stanley Kennedy |
| Profiled by | Kennedy, Michael; Chandiok, Riti; Peterson, Shonita |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Yuma; Los Angeles; Saigon; Ho Chi Minh City |
| Geographic subject (county) | Yuma; Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | Arizona; California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Vietnam |
| Coverage date | 1947; 1966; 1967; 1968 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/stanley-kennedy/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 3 video files (00:13:24); 3 transcripts |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
| Filename | kennedystanley |
Description
| Profile of | Stanley Kennedy |
| Title | The War in a Word |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | kennedystanley-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | The War in a Word What were you doing before you were drafted? Were you just out of high school? I graduated from high school, and then I enrolled at a junior college, Arizona Western College, for two reasons: to actually get an education, and to dodge the draft! Like so many of us were doing. They wouldn’t bother you if you were going to school. I’m originally from California, so I wanted to go back to school in California. I made a dumb decision. Instead of finishing my freshman year, I dropped out to take a semester break. When I came back to Los Angeles, and I got the letter in the mail as soon as they found out I had dropped out. They sent me the letter “Greetings. This is Uncle Sam.” I tried to tell them I was going back, but they said you can go back when you get back from Nam. So, August 30, 1966, I was drafted into the United States Army. My name is Stanley Kennedy. I am a combat veteran from the Vietnam era. The one word to describe the war, and it sounds kind of strange, would be obedience. I obeyed my country when so many others didn’t and because of that, I think I’m a much better person today. Even though I didn’t really like what I was involved in at the time, it was something that I personally needed evidently to make me really focus in on the positives and everything that I needed to do to become that mature individual that I try to be today. I took something that could have destroyed me and let it make me a better person. I was forced to do it, they made me go over there, but I obeyed my countries call when they called me to, in some roundabout way, protect them from some type of a force that wasn’t even a threat to us here in this country. I didn’t dwell on the “whys”. I just did what I was told. |
| Archival file | Volume6/kennedystanley-vid1_tr1.pdf |
