Ordinary lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War

Abstract

Ordinary Lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War. W. D. Ehrhart. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999. 333 pp. By any measure of his work, W. D. Ehrhart stands as one of the most accomplished and seasoned contemporary nonfiction writers who has devoted his pen to the Vietnam War experience. With his work divided between narrative and poetry, Ehrhart has managed to become well known, well read, well liked, and highly respected. He is an artist who writes in a plain style devoid of far-flung imagery, popular myth, or furry references to literary or psychological jargon; yet it is just this quality of honest simplicity, call it a mix between integrity and forthrightness, that makes Ehrhart's work so engaging and appealing. In a little more than 300 pages, he writes Ordinary Lives with mixed emotions about a diverse group of American Marines, himself included, who suffered traumas, wounds, sometimes death and heart-breaking defeats; and others who bathed in real victories. Whereas Vietnam-Perkesie: A Combat Marine Memoir (1983) was Ehrhart's first offering, which initiated his readership into the seemingly chaotic but highly organized world of the Marine Corps in Vietnam, Ordinary Lives introduces his readers to what happened to nearly all the eighty members of Ehrhart's recruit platoon during and after the war. This book is a result of Ehrhart's deep curiosity and respect for his fellow Marines. His methodology, which evolved from his experience with detective-style journalism and called for patience and persistence after many years of searching, required enormous numbers of phone calls and interviews. The results? There are no stereotypes here, no caricatures or composite characters. Ehrhart listened to everyone he could find and who agreed to talk to him. He explains how he attempted to find the right Marines from cumbersome lists of men with the same names; how he would talk to wives or family members; how he double-checked service jackets with FOIA requests; how he discovered that some men were dead, and others just wanted to be left alone. The joy, of course, came when many of these men and their families welcomed him into their homes with grace and hospitality. To be sure, this book is anything but simple. Ehrhart manages to put aside his own feelings about the Vietnam War and its effects on him as he seeks out the perceptions of others. What makes this book different is that Ehrhart goes beyond Ehrhart into the minds, hearts, and experiences of his fellow Marines of Platoon 1005 with a good deal of grace. As a result, Ordinary Lives not only tackles the requisite themes of initiation, disillusion, personal survival, random death, and human tragedy so often found in the broad spectrum of Vietnam War literature and films like Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), but also takes into account the common positive traditions of American individualism, diversity, ingenuity, and success. The story begins in 1966, when Ehrhart and other recruits arrive at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina (1-7). Tired from a long bus ride from home, each man gets off the bus in the middle of the night and crosses the dividing line between civilian and military life. …