Ron Kovic had a typical blue-collar family, suburban childhood in the early post-World War II years, except for one thing: his birthday. As the title says, he was literally born on our nation's Independence Day. So every year the entire country celebrated his birthday. It made him quite proud.
A few weeks after his high school graduation, when the reality of his probable future as a low-level supermarket employee began to set in, Ron signed up for the Marines. The recruitment office was close to the supermarket where he worked, but even before that, he had been exposed to their seductive techniques of persuasion in his school. They wore impressive uniforms and made inspiring speeches to the male students, who were not exactly boys anymore but were also not quite men yet either and were only too ready to be inspired by talk of heroism and eternal victory.
Ron was sent to Vietnam and seriously wounded. He came home paralyzed from the chest down. This book is a record of his experiences there and following his return home, a "war hero" whose loss and and very real and urgent needs were dismissed and ignored by those who supposedly revered him and his service. He found it almost impossible to adjust to his disability and reconnect to civilian life, until he encountered the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In the VVAW he finally found a group of people who spoke to his fear, his loneliness, and his anger, and helped him channel those negative feelings into positive action to prevent other young men from suffering as he did. I was at least as moved and inspired reading it as he probably was listening to those Marine recruiters so long ago.
A few weeks after his high school graduation, when the reality of his probable future as a low-level supermarket employee began to set in, Ron signed up for the Marines. The recruitment office was close to the supermarket where he worked, but even before that, he had been exposed to their seductive techniques of persuasion in his school. They wore impressive uniforms and made inspiring speeches to the male students, who were not exactly boys anymore but were also not quite men yet either and were only too ready to be inspired by talk of heroism and eternal victory.
Ron was sent to Vietnam and seriously wounded. He came home paralyzed from the chest down. This book is a record of his experiences there and following his return home, a "war hero" whose loss and and very real and urgent needs were dismissed and ignored by those who supposedly revered him and his service. He found it almost impossible to adjust to his disability and reconnect to civilian life, until he encountered the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In the VVAW he finally found a group of people who spoke to his fear, his loneliness, and his anger, and helped him channel those negative feelings into positive action to prevent other young men from suffering as he did. I was at least as moved and inspired reading it as he probably was listening to those Marine recruiters so long ago.
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