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Students in Maria Snapp’s Honors English class at Appoquinimink High School got to see the difference between fiction and non-fiction Thursday morning.
The 10th graders recently read Tim O’Brien’s book, “The Things They Carried,” giving them a look into what it was like for soldiers in the Vietnam War.
But O’Brien’s book was not a real live account.
“It’s important you understand what happened to us, because it’s happening to your folks today,” Vietnam War veteran Rick Lovekin told the students during the presentation.
Comparisons between Vietnam and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan were explained to the students.
Lovekin was one of hundreds of men who wrote to reporter and columnist Nancy Lynch during the war.
Between 1968 and 1972, Lynch had a column in The Morning News(now, The News Journal) called Nancy’s Vietnam Mail Bagwhere she would take letters from soldiers fighting in south East Asia and publish them. In 2008, she turned the nearly 1,000 letters and hundreds of pictures into a book with the same title.
“I made a promise to my guys in my last column in Dec. 1972 that I hope to put the letters and pictures into a book,” she said. “The column was for my guys to write in and sound off.”
She made it their forum.
“It was interesting and I enjoyed it a lot,” said sophomore Anthony Bonaventure. “I have high respect for them.”
Thursday’s presentation featured readings from her book and a slideshow of photographs compiled by soldiers who fought.
One letter detailed a collision between two United States helicopters. The soldier wrote that when the helmet bounced out of the wreckage, the pilot’s head was still inside.
“We were fighting insurgents, not troops,” Lovekin said.
Bonaventure plans on joining the Marine Corps.
He knows people who have been killed and related the way he felt to how Lovekin did when he joined.
Lovekin told the students he wanted revenge because he had a cousin who was killed in Vietnam years before.
“I also have family who just got back [from the Middle East] who said they enjoyed it,” the tenth grader said. “I want to join them when they go back.”
With popular songs from the 1960’s playing in the background, he showed old photographs – scenes from the Vietnam War.
Some showed flames and fighting and others showed the young men who spent months in the field.
On a table, the things the soldiers carried through the war were laid out.
Ken Warner, another veteran who wrote to Lynch, told the students that he always carried a Zippo lighter.
“I didn’t smoke,” he said.
But the lighter always had fluid in it.
Students in Maria Snapp’s Honors English class at Appoquinimink High School got to see the difference between fiction and non-fiction Thursday morning.
The 10th graders recently read Tim O’Brien’s book, “The Things They Carried,” giving them a look into what it was like for soldiers in the Vietnam War.
But O’Brien’s book was not a real live account.
“It’s important you understand what happened to us, because it’s happening to your folks today,” Vietnam War veteran Rick Lovekin told the students during the presentation.
Comparisons between Vietnam and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan were explained to the students.
Lovekin was one of hundreds of men who wrote to reporter and columnist Nancy Lynch during the war.
Between 1968 and 1972, Lynch had a column in The Morning News(now, The News Journal) called Nancy’s Vietnam Mail Bagwhere she would take letters from soldiers fighting in south East Asia and publish them. In 2008, she turned the nearly 1,000 letters and hundreds of pictures into a book with the same title.
“I made a promise to my guys in my last column in Dec. 1972 that I hope to put the letters and pictures into a book,” she said. “The column was for my guys to write in and sound off.”
She made it their forum.
“It was interesting and I enjoyed it a lot,” said sophomore Anthony Bonaventure. “I have high respect for them.”
Thursday’s presentation featured readings from her book and a slideshow of photographs compiled by soldiers who fought.
One letter detailed a collision between two United States helicopters. The soldier wrote that when the helmet bounced out of the wreckage, the pilot’s head was still inside.
“We were fighting insurgents, not troops,” Lovekin said.
Bonaventure plans on joining the Marine Corps.
He knows people who have been killed and related the way he felt to how Lovekin did when he joined.
Lovekin told the students he wanted revenge because he had a cousin who was killed in Vietnam years before.
“I also have family who just got back [from the Middle East] who said they enjoyed it,” the tenth grader said. “I want to join them when they go back.”
With popular songs from the 1960’s playing in the background, he showed old photographs – scenes from the Vietnam War.
Some showed flames and fighting and others showed the young men who spent months in the field.
On a table, the things the soldiers carried through the war were laid out.
Ken Warner, another veteran who wrote to Lynch, told the students that he always carried a Zippo lighter.
“I didn’t smoke,” he said.
But the lighter always had fluid in it.
