Question

I remember distinctly the thrill of climbing aboard a U.S. Army helicopter in the cool of the morning and taking off across the rice fields with a South Vietnamese battalion for a day’s jousting with the Vietcong guerillas. I was proud of the young American pilots sitting at the controls in the cockpit and I was grateful for the opportunity to witness this adventure and to report it. We are fighting now, I used to think, and some day we will triumph and this will be a better country. Based on this excerpt, it can be inferred that

A.the war provides the author with his first flying experience.
B.the author once felt pride and optimism about the war.
C.the US soldiers are trained in hand-to-hand combat.
D.the author has a begrudging respect for the Vietcong.

Answer 1

I think it's B because the narrator was excited to aboard the plane for the war but towards the end he slowly starting recognizing that we are in war and we are trying to save the county so it's a serious thing.

Answer 2

B.the author once felt pride and optimism about the war.

In the passage the author talks about how he was proud of the American pilots and grateful to bear witness. He speaks about he feels that the war efforts will bring about "a better country". We do not know if this was the author's first flying experience. There is nothing mentioned about hand-to-hand combat for US soldiers. We also don't know if the author has any begrudging respect for the Vietcong.