“Sweetheart of the Song of Tra Bong” is about a girl who comes to Vietnam. The story is told by the character Rat Kiley. Rat describes how the girl’s boyfriend, Mark Fossie, arranged to have her travel out to a Vietnam outpost so they can live together. Her name was Mary Anne. Mary is described as being young and sweet when she arrives. She has blue eyes and blond hair. She is intelligent and wants to learn more about the surroundings and military life. She learns to cook and eat like the locals. She even travels to a nearby hostile village where she acts like she has no care in the world. She learns about the weapons and instruments of war. They teach her how to maintain and use a firearm. She learns how to shoot. She even helps the medics with surgery. She seems to change after a while. She grows more distant and less carefree. She starts staying out later at night and one night doesn’t return home. Rat and Mark look for her but can’t find her in camp. They don’t find her till morning when a troop of Green Berets return from an ambush. She had gone with the Greenies on the ambush. Her boyfriend Mark freaks out and lays down the law. She stops dressing like a solder and starts acting like a girl again. Only thing is, it’s just an act. When it comes time for Mark to make arrangements for her to return home she becomes depressed and just stares off into the jungle. She won’t talk about what is bothering her. Well the next time the Greenies disappear on a mission she goes with them. When she returns she doesn’t even try to talk to Mark she just goes into camp with the Greenies. Mark waits outside by the entrance to the Greenies camp. In the middle of the night Rat goes to check on Mark. They hear a strange singing coming from the Greenies tent. It sounds like Mary’s voice. Mark enters the tent and freezes at the doorway. They find her inside the tent wearing a necklace make of human tongues. She explains to them she belongs to the war, and Vietnam, and wants to be a part of it. They leave her there realizing there was nothing they could do to change her mind. Rat is shipped out to Alpha Company but reports hearing that Mary ends up disappearing into the jungle. Her body was never found. Some believe she is still alive hunting in the shadows of the jungle.
I wonder when I read this story: Would some women react differently to war than a man? Mary Anne is quite enamored with the war. She describes “It’s like this appetite… I feel close to myself. When I’m out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it’s like I’m full of electricity and I’m glowing in the dark –I’m on fire almost cause I know exactly who I am. You can’t feel like that anywhere else.” (O'Brien 108). When she arrived at Vietnam, Mary Anne immediately began immersing herself in the local culture. She was under no obligation to be in any way apart of the war. She was simply a civilian living with medics in a military base. But she wanted to take in the sites. She wanted to learn about firearms and instruments of warfare. She wanted to join the medics in their gruesome duties. And then she went even farther. She became even more involved than her medic comrades. She joined the group of Green Berets on an ambush. Where, she was driven to be a part of her surroundings; the men around her were content with leisure. “Most mornings were spent on the volleyball court. In the heat of midday the men would head for the shade, lazing away the long afternoons, and after sundown there were movies and card games and sometimes all-night drinking sessions.” (O'Brien 88). They were only there because they had to be. It’s possible that in some way her being a woman effected how she dealt with her surroundings. She wasn’t content with just being on the sidelines, she wanted to be a part of what was going on. Most of the men I know would much rather let others face drama than bring it in on themselves. I can’t say the same is true for most of the women I know. They are constantly thinking about situations and how they feel about them. They become personally engaged in the events in their lives. A man on the other hand often time’s just lives threw things, having little thought or feeling on the matter, just dealing with things as he sees fit. It’s not necessarily a better way of doing things, just different. But is becoming personally and emotionally involved with something as gruesome as warfare really a good idea? In Mary’s case it took over her life so that she left civilization and disappeared into the jungle. She wasn’t even useful as a solder any more.
"womansolder." Withers: Discharged soldier offers ideas on how to dismantle DADT. Web. 3 Oct 2010. <http://www.365gay.com/blog/020510-anthony-woods-offers-ideas-on-dadt/>.
