‘Dear America’

Character Profile Chart

Letter writer:  George Olsen

Military Rank:  Ranger with Company G, 75^th infantry, operator in the area around Chu Lai

KIA/Survivor: Killed in action on the 3^rd of March 1970. He was 23 years old.

Experiences:  First hunter kill operation North of Chi Lai. Two teams of twelve men set up around a trail and a lone VC walked in the middle of them. They tried to make him a POW but the VC panicked and ran. George had him in sights and threw three slugs at him. ‘No Hollywood theatrics – one minute he’s a living human being, the next second he’s down, just a red lump of clay.’

A grenade fire almost burned down his post which left George without a tent. ‘So now I’m sitting here cold, wet, and unbelievably dirty after eight days.’ His team couldn’t get relieved because of the monsoon weather and stuck at his post until it blows over with low food supply and with almost no water.

Feelings and points of view:  Volunteered to fight in Vietnam - ‘I’m where I want to be, quite voluntary doing what I think is right and am far from being homesick.’

Relationships: Wrote letters to Rosemary Dresch, a college friend who he calls Red.

Makes the reader think, feel, understand, learn, and consider: ‘The frighting thing about it all is that it is so very easy to kill in war. There’s no remorse, no theatrical ‘washing of the hands” to get rid of nonexistent blood, not even any regrets.’

By Zoe