Annotated+Grunt


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Picture 1: [] Our huey landed a few days ago. I'm scared out of my mind. I am here with a grounp of there newbies, and we are all about 19. I'm just a kid. I don't know how to fight in this war. I'm only here because of the draft. That dang draft lottery. My birthday got picked in the first third. My brother was picked in the last, so he's probably not even coming over here. The more experienced soldiers in the platoon are not around often. They don't like to hang around the new kids. One man has tried to be nice, but all he has done is scare me outta my wits. He is talking about Charlie and booby traps. Charlie uses guerilla warfare, and they place traps all over the place to jump out and get 'ya. We've only had one march. It was a short one. Two of the men in our troop were killed by an ambush that Charlie had set up. I was standing next to the man that was killed. The VC soldier almost looked me in the eye. Scariest moment of my life. Charlie is vicious. We've been lucky, and we only ran into one ambush. But they say that there are ambushes, booby traps, and all kinds of other tricks waiting for us. Picture 2: [] Dear Myrna, Only 300 more days until I come back home. I've been counting since the day I got here. Hopefully this war will be over before then. I can't take this heat. It's over a hundred degrees every day, and I'm used to 40 degrees back in Michigan. My skin boils everytime I wake up. The swamps that we are forced to trudge through in combination with the humidity are unbearable. The rain and monsoons here are such an obstacle. About a week ago, we lost half of our supplies in the monsoon. We're still trying to salvage anything that's left. Besides the awful weather, the jungle is a nightmare. Overgrown and intimidating plants surround us on marches. The US has been trying to get rid of the jungle. They've used napalm, with is almost like solid gasoline. Some men say it's like liquid fire. Also, I heard about Agent Orange. The US has dropped that to kill the jungle. Also about these secret tunnels that Charlie has hangin around. These tunnels connect different towns and stuff, and Charlie uses them to sneak up on us. Another troop found the end of a tunnel the other day, and they were able to ambush Charlie. I hope this war gets to be over soon. I don't think I can stand another day. Yours Truly, Jacob Picture 3: [] Today was an awful day. I had my first search and destroy mission. This is where we hunt Charlie, and burn the villages where we think Charlie's hiding out. This involves going into villages and moving out the citizens. At first, I had this feeling in my chest, but I thought I was just scared. Then we were in the village, and everything seemed to move in slow motion, like we were moving through molasses. I couldn't hear anything, I just saw people running past me. I looked up and saw this little girl in the center of the village. Her eyes met mine, and she stared at me with an intense curiousity. Her eyes asked me "Why?" and my eyes couldn't give her an answer. I felt a huge lump of repentance and sadness rise in my chest. But I had to keep fighting, and continue with the mission. One man in my platoon, William Erhart, said "Their homes had been wrecked, their chickens killed, their rice confiscated." The little girl flickered in my mind for the rest of the mission. Later I asked my commanding officer why these missions had to be done. He said that this specific mission was in response to the Tet offensive. This was two weeks ago when the Communists attacked US bases. It was extremely costly for Charlie. He lost about 45,000 people. The US was fortunate, and we lost only 1100. But as I walked back to my group, I couldn't help but wonder, isn't one life too many?

What was life like for the grunts in country, humping the boonies? Using the various resources in and out of class, your task is to give a voice to a Vietnam soldier. Your soldier will be in the form of a** [|**voicethread**] **that will be embedded in your Unit 8 notebook. You may work with up to two other people on the assignment, as long as you all work together! The expectations are …**
 * You have a **voicethread with images of soldiers** from Vietnam. You should have no more than four images or four slides on your voicethread. Please identify the source of each image.
 * Your annotations should all be completed in **first person** and should contain **detail and historical fact**.
 * Your annotations must cover the following topics:
 * One annotation about the **challenges** you faced in guerilla warfare
 * One annotation describing **the enemy** (the Viet Cong and/or NVA)
 * One annotation describing **the tunnels**
 * One annotation describing the **use of chemicals** by the military
 * One annotation describing **search and destroy missions**
 * One annotation describing the **Tet Offensive**
 * One annotation describing **escalation**
 * One annotation describing **the draft**
 * One annotation describing **your feelings** as a soldier
 * One annotation that is an actual meaningful quote from a soldier who served in Vietnam
 * Two to three of your annotations **should be spoken**

Use our class activities and video, Creating America (pp 840-845) and some of the links below for information. Looking for primary sources? Check out [|Vietnam Oral History Project from Texas Tech], [|The Vietnam War - Oral histories], [|Letters from Vietnam]
 * Vietnam - Combat sources
 * From ABC-CLIO - [|Tet Offensive], [|Agent Orange], [|tunnel rats], [|napalm]
 * [|Guerilla Warfare in Vietnam]
 * [|The Tet Offensive]
 * [|Vietnam Era Lottery Results]
 * animations - [|war in Southeast Asia], [|tunnels], [|Tet Offensive]
 * video - [|Underground Tunnels] and [|The Tet Offensive]

Want to spice up your annotations with some grunt language? Check out []

Images of soldiers from the Vietnam conflict
 * [|www.**vietnamsoldier**.com]
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**VOICETHREAD INSTRUCTIONS - READ CAREFULLY!!!!!**

When you create your [|voicethread] and and your annotations and comments, click on "**PUBLISHING OPTIONS**" on the bottom of the screen and make sure you "**ALLOW ANYONE TO VIEW**" the voicethread. If you want a partner to comment on it, allow "**ANYONE TO COMMENT**". Embed your voicethread on a new page in your Unt 8 notebook by clicking on "**EMBED**" on the bottom of the voicethread, copying the code, clicking "Embed Widget" in wikispaces (the little TV set), and paste the code in the "Other HTML" section. Easy stuff. none SavePreviewText Editor