Vietnam War Veteran
John Hopkins

Interviewed by:
Savana Vida

"It's kind of a, like a, a um, a movie. And you're in the movie."
~ John Hopkins

John Hopkins' Story:

John Hopkins was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on October 1st, 1948. He is one of four with two brothers and a sister. He decided to join the U.S Army after he was told to leave town, due to consistent run ins with the law. John started basic training when he was seventeen and finished when he was eighteen. He went to Phu Bai Vietnam on Mothers day of 1968. He served in Vietnam for an exact year. While he was in Vietnam he was a gunner on an OV1 Mohawk . They would search for signs of people in the woods. During this conflict people were driven into the cities, so if you were in the woods you were considered the enemy. When John returned to the states he got into the construction business.

While in Vietnam he mentioned getting a book that a church group had dropped in their box called The History of Vietnam . While reading it he realized all of the wars that the Vietnamese people have had to fight. First the French, then the Japanese, then they lastly fought the Americans. He said, "It was an eyeopener to be faced with that knowledge and to sort have to still do your job."