American Humanities

5 May 2015

The Trek of a Woman in War

Mary Anne

Mark Fossie

Rat Kiley

Tim O’Brien

ALL

*A “cute blonde--just a kid, just barely out of high school”

* “White culottes and this sexy pink sweater”

*“A tall, big-boned blonde”

* "long white legs and blue eyes”

*“complexion like strawberry ice cream”

Mark Fossie: That was my girl my sweet Mary Anne

Rat Kiley: This isn't some made up story

Tim O’Brien: I call bull

Rat Kiley: I swear he flew her right to the compound and that’s where my story begins

Tim O'Brien: Okay tell me more

Mark Fossie: Well she came and I couldn’t be more excited she was the love of my life!

Mary Anne:  I was so excited to see my man and all that encompassed his life at war I was so intrigued

Mark Fossie: It was the perfect distraction from the chaos of war, but she wanted to explore the land of Vietnam

Mary Anne: I just wanted to see what it was like

Mark: So I took her to the village I couldn’t resist her wants and needs

Mary Anne: I loved it the new scenery and the different culture intrigued me. “Everything I want is right here”

Rat: I just want to say from that moment she was a changed woman, she just wanted to help

Mary Anne: you couldn’t help but want to help the injured, you just need to do the job

Mark: By God she just took charge she “wasn’t afraid to get her hands bloody”

Rat: I think that was the moment we realized that this wasn’t just a sweet girl she was in charge she “had a new composure about her”

Mark: I started to feel her slipping away from me, “it made me uncomfortable”

Mary Anne: I had never felt more in charge, “I’ve never been happier in my whole life. Never”

Rat: She had “a new authority in the way she carried herself. The war intrigued her. The land, too, and the mystery.”

Mark: The scariest moment of my life was when I couldn’t find Mary Anne

Rat: “We [had] a problem” I couldn’t find her either

All: She was found with “six grungy weirded-out Green Berets.”

Mary Anne: I wore “a bush hat and filthy green fatigues”. I carried an “M-16 automatic rifle” and my “face was black with charcoal.”

Mark: I didn’t like how she was acting, so I decided to give her a talking to. You could say I laid down the law.

Rat: After Fossie talked to Mary Anne, things got weird between the two of them. [[Hannah leaves pack]] After a few weeks, “arrangements [were made] to send [Mary Anne] home.” After that she “seemed to disappear inside herself”

Mark: I tried to talk things out, but she wouldn’t stop looking at those dark, green mountains.

ALL: “The wilderness seemed to draw her in.”

Rat: “The next morning she was gone. The six Greenies were gone, too” The grief was a lot for Fossie to handle

Mark: It took three weeks for Mary Anne to come back, but she did not come to see me, so I went to her.

Rat: I told him to “knock real extra super polite.” I waited a while and watched the hootch with Mark, then decided to leave.

Mark: I didn't know what to do. I was lost

Rat: Eddie Diamond and I went to find Fossie, we found him “squatting near the gate in front of the special forces area.” He was listening for Mary Anne

Mark: I could hear her humming and singing. I couldn't take my attention off of her voice.

Rat: It was like he was hypnotized. He ran for the hootch, hit the door and fell inside.

Mark: The scent of the hootch “paralyzed your lungs.”

Rat: I stepped inside and saw a “decayed head of a large black leopard.”

Mark: There were bones. Stacks of bones.

Rat: “She wore her pink sweater and a white blouse and a simple cotton skirt.” But something about Mary Anne was very different

*"Her eyes seemed “utterly flat and indifferent.”

*At her throat, “a necklace of human tongues.”

*She would say none of it mattered, “I know exactly who I am.”

* ‘For Mary Anne Belle, Vietnam had the effect of a powerful drug.”

*Mary Anne Belle was “ready for the kill.”

All: The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong