David Stremer, a native of Athens, Wisconsin, analyzes his Army service in the Vietnam War, his subsequent PTSD, and his interest in photography as a coping mechanism. While attending the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Stremer relates that he received his draft notice and signed up for the Army's Officer Candidate Program (OCP) in order to complete college before being drafted. In 1967, he first graduated from UW-Stevens Point and then went into the Army. He comments that although there were campus protests in Madison, people at UW-Stevens Point either accepted the war or were not aware of it. Stremer relates that basic training at Fort Knox (Kentucky) was a "very humbling experience" in which his ego was broken down and he was treated "like an idiot." Advanced Infantry Training was at Fort McClellan (Alabama) and Stremer signed up for Armor Officer Candidate School (OCS) thinking that he would go to Germany and "be able to play on the big planes of NATO." With Armor OCS at Fort Knox (Kentucky), Stremer reveals that in the summer of 1967 he began having problems with the war in Vietnam, how the Army was transforming him, increased military time commitment due to OCP participation, and growing distrust of the military and the country. Stremer discusses various assignments after dropping out of OCS, eventually resulting in his final assignment to the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and relocation to Fort Carson (Colorado) in March 1968. He recalls receiving his orders from a first sergeant at Fort Knox who said that "the 5th Mech was going to Vietnam and then he kind of grinned." With the Tet Offensive underway, Stremer recalls discussing issues concerning the war with other military personnel, his increasing awareness of the opposition to the war, his own problems with the war, and the credibility that Dr. Benjamin Spock's anti-war stance created. Expecting to be a clerk at Fort Carson, Stremer tells how he was assigned to a reconnaissance platoon, trained in the foothills of the Rockies for three months, and then the entire 1st Battalion of the 5th Infantry was sent over to Vietnam as a unit. Stremer states that the unit was in Da Nang for three weeks to become acclimated and pick up their tracks and tanks and other gear before being sent to Con-Thien in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). He describes the area as an open-fire zone: an open kill zone regularly encountering North Vietnamese regulars. Although civilians were not supposed to be in the area, Stremer tells a story of one hundred villagers who entered the DMZ to gather wood only to be loaded onto his unit's armored personnel carriers and returned to their village. He explains that because his two-year commitment would be over in six months, his service went from August 1968 to January 1969. Stremer relates that the 5th Mech was in Con Thien for three months and faced daily bombardment either from mortar, rocket or machine gun. He states that everyday life was a twenty-four hour job with guard duty split between the four members of their track and tells of going twelve days without taking off his boots. Stremer identifies three traumatic things that happened in Con Thien: contracting dysentery and being holed up in a bunker alone for a week, walking though a thousand North Vietnamese corpses after a big battle, and that battle being where his friend was killed. He analyzes his hardening feelings toward the Vietnamese people, his inability to distinguish the enemy, and the conflicting emotions this brought him in terms of his actions and self-concept. He feels that the ruthlessness and brutality between the South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, and Viet Cong was something he was not prepared for and believes that Americans were caught in the middle with their "European model of gallantry." He analyzes and questions several premises concerning American involvement in Vietnam. Stremer discusses personal conflict that the election of Nixon brought with his feeling that the division between the military and people brought about a conservative backlash that put an end to things he valued such as the War on Poverty and the civil rights movement. He says that he came to view the war as destroying the movement towards Johnson's Great Society. "So the Vietnam War, I think, in addition to costing me friends and my innocence, also in a way cost me my dreams." He explains that his discharge took him from a situation in Vietnam where they were being mortared to being back in the United States for out processing at Fort Lewis (Washington) in a forty-eight hour time period. He caught a plane to Wisconsin where it was about twenty below zero. He characterizes his return to Wausau as one where his college degree and his veteran status was a benefit for him, although perceptions of Vietnam veterans as stupid, mercenaries, or pro-war made speaking of his involvement difficult and sharing experiences with other Vietnam veterans depressing. He reflects that by 1982, he had career and family problems, ended up at the VA hospital in Chicago, filed a PTSD claim, and started counseling and medications. He joined the organization Viet Now in 1985 and came to identify his daily rage as related to the Vietnam War. Stremer details the increased difficulties and internal conflicts the Persian Gulf War caused him, his increased need for VA counseling, lack of work support, VA support for disability claim, photography and communication classes at UW-Stevens Point, eventual placement on 100% disability, and his path to peace through his photography. The interview concludes with a lengthy discussion of a 1997 exhibit of Stremer's photographs that was apparently held at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
