A very ugly truth. We seem, as a race to come up with more "modern tech." to wage war, and kill each other. But you have it nailed. I don1t know if you are quoting someone or if it is your own statement, a very true one. If you kill with a sword or an axe in chainmail, you see, hear, smell and taste war just like killing with an automatic machine gun and grenades and artillery. Blood, urine, vimit, raw meat, bone shards, teeth, feces, urine just get strewn about more quickly today. In Vietnam, a G.I. came in from the bush after about 3 months of constant combat. He went to the chow line and got a heap of warm food, his first in a long time. He went to sit down to eat and noticed the whole chow hall was staring at him in silence. He realized he had his left arm around his tray guarding it. He looked at his filthy hands, and his BDU`s were ripped to shit, with nothing even where the seat of his pants were, just his bare ass. Everyone else was starched and clean. He flipped out and left the mess hall. He had become an animal. Only months before he was goofing off at his H.S. football games and trying to get laid. War took all of his humanity from him. I know him.He was a Spec. 4 in the 173rd "The Herd" at that time, but he was soon placed in a different unit. He still has dreams, but they have faded, and some smells bother him. No Purple Hearts, but his mind never got a medal, it got a crash course in brutality.
This is the best and most realistic film of the Vietnam War. All Americans should be deeply proud of these young soldiers, who were lied to, betrayed, scapegoated, and abandoned. I was trained as an infantry mortarman at Ft. Gordon, Ga. in the spring of 1966, and then got orders to attend Officer Candidate School. I trained with some of these young men, I was nineteen, and was so proud to be a part of them, I arrived in Vietnam in 1968 as an LT, 2 weeks before the Tet Offensive. God bless these young GIs and all Veterans of that terrible war.
The Grunts who served in that meatgrinder that was Vietnam deserve our total thanks and praise. We must never forget what they went through, or how they were treated them when they came home.
@@fjb4932 Hey pal, LBJ and McNamara started the war, Jane Fonda traveled all over the US to military bases, entertaining troops and giving support to anti-war GIs, whose numbers were legion. Why don't you whiz on LBJS' grave, it's centrally located in Texas. Besides, Jane Fonda apologized.
Joe Anderson is a West Point graduate. At USMA in the early 70s, we had a class called Military Psychology and Leadership. This fil was shown in it’s entirety to introduce us to the environment we expected to graduate into. Also shown during this course was another film called the Battle of San Pietro. Both of these films were graphic but show what war is really like-brutal! It also introduced cadets to the many leadership challenges they would face in motivating men to do things that no civilian would ever ask of their workers. Fortunately, none of my USMA class of 1974 had to experience this first hand in Vietnam as the war was over when we graduated. However, it was the Army portrayed in this film that we inherited. The experiences of the Vietnam War were imbedded in our doctrine, our training, our Army lingo and the NCOs and the soldiers were led. It had a major impact our psyche and the future of the Nation.
Welcome home. Alot of Americans will always love our Vietnam vets. Agree with the war or not, they still fought. Hope yall the best. RIP uncle Scott wish I you told me your stories instead of hearing about them
My heart smiled when we learned that Anderson survived the war, despite clearly fighting 'deep' into the jungle, etc. He clearly was no desk jockey. Well done Joe!
I remember being allowed to watch "A Face of War" around that time. A documentary of a Marine Rifle Company in Vietnam. Its on here (RU-vid) for anyone interested. I watched it again all these decades later. I had not seen nor heard of "The Anderson Platoon". I will search and watch. I joined the Army in 1974...this generation of Soldiers trained me. I'll be forever grateful. Anderson probably would have been at least a Major then. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for sharing this... I often wonder about the horrors my father has to survive through but know better to directly ask. What he has shared is brutal. The lingering effects on his body and conscience are even worse.
Wish I was younger to watch the Vietnam war on television,I remember the pol pot stuff and the Chinese invasion of Vietnam and Idi Amin on the ABC australia.hate war but fascinated by the twists and turns of conflict,how the British told the yanks don't go there.kind regards Roy Bennett from Wollongong Australia
I've been aware of footage shot by this filmmaker ( and others ) from the French Indochina War . The French ECPA film unit covered a lot , including a rare French victory at Na San , in 1952 . Brave soldiers and brave photographers ...
Welcome home to those that served in Vietnam I Pray for all the souls who sacrificed everything and those who came home I pray for salvation and restoration for you all God bless you and yours
Correct: that a man who did the gruesome killing required by the USA gvernment should have been treated at home ... like a survivor . Correct: that those who did their job ALSO killed a million UNarmed Vietnamese women , children, farmers.
