A Medic's Story of Vietnam

Terrance Duddy was born in Coldwater, Michigan where he was raised by his mother and father on their farm. Growing up in Michigan, Mr. Duddy was not exposed to many Asian people or diverse cultures. After graduating high school, Mr. Duddy didn’t have very many choices as his peers tended to have a negative influence on his studies growing up. Thus, Mr. Duddy turned to military service and enlisted into the army, as he saw this as a way to further his life and fulfill his duty as a good American citizen. When enlisted, Mr. Duddy was given the option of going to West Point Military Academy, but declined because of the long-term commitment it involved to the United States military. With this refusal to enroll to West Point, he was then sent to Vietnam where he preformed his duties of a medic, after he had received training from the military. While in Vietnam, Mr. Duddy did his best to perform his duties to excellence, while trying to keep his sanity. Even with the widespread use of drugs and prostitutes by the American soldiers, Mr. Duddy did not indulge those vices that were present during the war. However, due to the extent of his service and the obvious pressure of war he did reach out to those mediums as a way to relieve his stress from time to time. After Mr. Duddy's service in the military, he found himself in Southern California where he eventually chose to enroll into school. While attending college he took particular interest in acting, which occurred completely by accident. With this newfound love, he spent 20 years on the sets of small budget productions and commercial shoots. However, Mr. Duddy soon realized that part of his success in acting was accredited to the fact that he has developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, the reason why it took Mr. Duddy to realize that he was no longer the same person as before the was was due to the little known medical knowledge of the disorder around the time period of the War in Vietnam. Thus, with our knowledge of Mr. Duddy possessing PTSD our interview was largely controlled by his needs and preferences, as we did not want to invoke and alienate his condition. However, at the end of our interview, our group was pleased with both the information extracted from Mr. Duddy and the natural feel of the interaction between us. Today, Mr. Duddy is employed at American Legion where he works to educate the public of the many suppressed details of the War in Vietnam. In addition, given Mr. Duddy’s conditions and with many soldiers currently living with PTSD, he actively reaches out to those in need of help, and works endlessly to assist veterans find ways to live their lives without being controlled by PTSD.Payam Almasi: From Burlingame, California, just south of San Francisco. I am a sophomore student at the University of Southern California majoring in Economics.; Ochanya Ogah, from Houston, Texas. Junior studying Health and Humanity at the University of Southern California.; Chiao Sz Chuang is a senior at the University of Southern California and is majoring in Economics