Interview, Jeffrey Kraus, USA

Jeffrey Kraus (b. 1949) was born in Rochester, NY. He joined the United States Army on September 30, 1968. Kraus completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and specialized as a truck driver. He drove trucks in Vietnam for 14 months. After his honorable discharge from the Army in May 1970, Kraus returned to Rochester and went to work in sales.

In this interview, Kraus discusses both good and bad times he had in the service and the effect Agent Orange exposure has had on his life. He tells a playful story about stealing an officer’s hat, which he kept, and recalls how he passed the tests for his international driver’s license because his instructor gave his class the answers. Kraus reflects on his exposure to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange, explaining that he worked in one of the most heavily sprayed areas of Vietnam. He reports that it took 30 years before he began to notice symptoms such as impaired speech and fine motor skills. Kraus acknowledges Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital as a leader in treating Agent Orange exposure. He shares that he feels very lucky to have survived the war, but that he thinks his time in Vietnam and the violence he experienced there desensitized him for a while.