The Vietnam war was one that most people thought we shouldn’t of been involved in. It wasn’t our fight to be fought, as Tim O’Brien author of The Things They Carried stats “...the American war in Vietnam seemed wrong” (40). When the Iraq war occurred, more and more people said that this was America’s war. My cousin PFC John Thomas Bishop was one of those people and he was sent over to fight as well as thousands of other soldiers who now carried the weight of the United States on their shoulders. If you were to ask tons of people they would probably say that Iraq was our way to Saddam Hussein, we needed to send our troops over. In this situation, after my cousin was enlisted, I didn’t want the U.S to have anything to do with the war because it left me with a weight that I no longer want to carry

This war has given lots of people extra burdens in their lives. There are widows, mothers and fathers with no sons or daughters. There are children without a parent. There are families that are missing a piece to their puzzle. With me, I carry the loss of my cousin. He was a private first class (PFC) military soldier. He was patrolling with his partner Lt. Cunningham in Golden Hills, Iraq. They were in a LAV-25 amphibious-reconnaissance vehicle (it’s like a tank but with wheels). They were driving when a roadside bomb went off and flipped them into the canal that ran alongside the road. The only entrances into the vehicle were from the top. Lt. Cunningham and my cousin, John, drowned on April 23, 2008. He was 22 years old. He reminds me of the character Lavender in the book. “But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed” (6). Even with the amount of ammunition he carried he was still killed. John was in a bulletproof, almost 13 ton assault vehicle and somehow he was still killed in the least likely way during a war.

In the war people die. That’s just what happens, but like O’Brien says “a true war story is never about war.” “It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow” (81). It’s been almost 7 years since my cousin has passed but it still feels like just yesterday. Every 21 gun salute, every fly over at a sports game, every tribute to our fallen soldiers brings back the tears. My cousin was one of the most dedicated, selfless people that I knew. His memory will always be part of the things that I carry with me throughout my life. He is one of the reasons I am such a big supporter of our troops. His memory and his life will always be with me just like Cross carried the memory of Martha with him wherever he went (4).

No matter what happens during wars the death of a loved one is always something that each family member will carry with them. Each person will forever look at every war differently and, like me, might look back at wars and say “their lives shouldn’t of ended like that” but also look to the future and know that their loved ones sacrificed their life for an entire country’s freedom. When O’Brien says, “We kept the dead alive with stories” (226), it puts the life back into the memories. Remembering happy times and bittersweet times are the way that we keep those who have passed on in our lives a vivid memory and not just a blur. With the memories of John I also carry the poem from his funeral service. “Don’t weep for me, O’ land of the free. When it was my time to fall Twas for my country’s call Twas for the land that I loved That i gave my all, And for the land that I loved I did freely give, And in her freedom and her courage I’ll continue to live” - Patricia Krull. Of all the stories that I have read, The Things They Carried is one book that gives life to those who have passed on and the stories from this book are just another addition to the things that I will carry.