Vietnam victim.

• Author: McCormick, Michael
• Position: Wartime America - Sean McBride of the United States Marine Corps

"Many of the Marines ... were taking on the thousand-yard stare. It is a vacant, distant, frightened, exhausted look that those who have been in combat for long periods of time with no sleep and little sustenance would recognize."

THE VIETNAM WAR was rumbling in a distant land across the sea. Sean McBride was about to graduate from high school. He had decided not to attend university next fall. High school had been much like jail for him.

The Marine recruiter swaggered onto the stage of McBride's high school auditorium. He stood ramrod straight in his dress blues, talking about God and country, invoking the memory of Pres. John F. Kennedy, who said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

The Marines always had held special significance for McBride. He had grown up listening to the stories about the incredibly brave Marines of World War II. The Marines were heroes to McBride's father and to other men he looked up to. In his mind, the Marines were legends, bigger that life. They had helped save us from fascism and tyranny at places like Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Okinawa. McBride realized that it was his destiny to become one of these Marines. He knew that meant he would be going to war in Vietnam. He did not understand the war and had not even thought about it much. In his youthful enthusiasm and political naivete, he accepted what he was taught in school and trusted his leaders.

McBride was being told by the media that the majority of the American people supported the war in Vietnam. Considerable, subtle pressure was being put on him to join the fight. He was about to make one of the most important decisions of his life, at a very early age, with virtually no factual information available to him. He would not learn for many years that the generals in Vietnam, as well as the president of the U.S., had lied to the politicians in Washington and that they in turn had lied to the American people. McBride's father, uncles, indeed, every man he respected and trusted, had served in the military.

After school, Sean found his girlfriend, Christy, at cheerleading practice. He told her he wanted to talk. "I've made a decision," he said. "I've decided to join the Marines."

"That means you'll have to go to Vietnam. Sean, I love you. I don't want you to go away."

"I love you, too, but this is something I feel I have to do. I don't understand it really, but I know I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't go."

"It's not our stupid war," she said. "We could get married, and you could get a deferment."

"I won't; you know that."

"Yes, I guess I've always known that about you."

They drove along silently the rest of the way. The heavy snow muffled all sound...