BEING TIMED
Hi Vern,
Got your letters today. It was great hearing from you. Actually, I can’t summarize my feelings of my trip to Australia [for R&R—“rest and relaxation”]. I don’t know if I had a fabulous time or not. It was weird. Getting back to a completely English-looking and -speaking country made me feel kind of ashamed of the way I’ve thought and acted over here [in Vietnam]. I realize that I’ve actually enjoyed some of the things I’ve done which would be repulsive to a healthy mind. This place does make you sick in the head.When one starts to enjoy the sickness of war, he is sick. . . .
—From Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, 1985
Why did this soldier have mixed feelings while on R&R in Australia?
a.
He felt ashamed of his actions in war.
b.
He was wounded.
c.
He felt under the weather.
d.
His R&R was too short.