Vietnam is not, as George Bush and United Technologies would have us
believe, merely a memory; it is a fundamental part of our history and,
therefore, a fundamental part of who and what we are. In the face of such
willful denials ofhistory, the experiences and stories of veterans represent
what Michel Foucault has described as "disqualified" or "illegitimate"
forms of knowledge. The task ahead is to recover and interpret that
knowledge. 15
..APPIMG THE LOSSES
"We all ended up going into the service about the
same time-the whole crowd." I had asked Dan
Shaw about himself, why he had joined the Marine
Corps; but Dan ignored the personal thrust of the
question. Military service seemed less an individual
choice than a collective rite of passage, a natural
phase of life for "the whole crowd" of boys in his
neighborhood, so his response encompassed a circle
of over twenty childhood friends who lived near the
corner of Train and King streets in Dorchester ,
Massachusetts-a white, working-class section of
Boston.1
Thinking back to 1968 and his streetcorner bud-
dies, Dan sorted them into groups, wanting to get
the facts straight about each one. It did not take him
long to come up with some figures. "Four of the guys
didn't go into the military at all. Four got drafted
by the army. Fourteen or fifteen of us went in the
Marine Corps. Out of them fourteen or fifteen"-
here he paused to count by naming-"Eddie, Brian,
Tommy, Dennis, Steve: si.x of us went to Nam."
They were all still teenagers. Three of the six were
wounded in combat, including Dan.
His tone was calm, almost dismissive. The fact
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geocities.com/yaoleechenb2)