‘Dear America’

Character Profile Report

Letter writer: Rob Riggan

Military rank: Doctor 1st medical battalion

KIA/survivor: Rob is a survivor, he now lives in Rowe Massachusetts, he is now and author of fire zone.

Experience:  Throughout the war Rob was based at Lai Khe, he served as a doctor. Through his experiences we can see the true horrors of war. Rob experienced the ugly side of war, of death and terror “we can only feel the human loss and terror which can never be measured in pretty medals or sweet, patriotic speeches.” Rob relates this death and lose of life in a letter to his parents, where he tells a story of a girl about 16 who was hit by an American Army vehicle, while walking along a road and how the grief of the mother was the like of which he had never witness before. This was the thing that he would have face almost every day.

Feelings and Views: rob felt that the war was a failure in humanity, he truly hated the war, “the longer I am here, the more my hatred of the war grows”. He was frustrated by the war because of it failures.

Their Relationships: wrote his letter to his parents and to Merle. This is an escape for Rob a way in which he can drift away from the war and focus on life at home.

Makes the reader think, feel, understand, learn, and consider: Rob’s letters gives us as readers a way to view and see the war as he did, he writes well which makes it easy to feel the things that he feels about the war and all its failures. We can see how painful and harsh war is through Robs writing.

 By Michael