Interview, Steve Pratt, USA, with Connie Pratt

Steve Pratt (b. 1948) was born in Warsaw, New York, and grew up in Brockport, New York. He and his five brothers all served in the United States Army. Pratt was drafted into the Army in 1968, shortly after finishing high school. He completed basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and was sent to Vietnam, where he was on convoy duty and then worked as an engineer on riverboat patrols. Pratt served in Vietnam for one year and eight months and was honorably discharged on December 14, 1969. After leaving the service, Pratt returned to the Rochester area, joined local veterans groups, and found employment at the University of Rochester.

This interview features both Steve and his wife, Connie. Steve offers a soldier’s perspective on the war and discusses his impressions of Vietnam, serving with his brothers, and the war’s long-term effects on him. He recalls the horrible sights and smells that greeted him as he entered Vietnam amid enemy fire and the culture shock of visiting a country that seemed like it was hundreds of years behind the United States. He discusses drug use and eating C-rations left over from World War II. He also talks about patrolling the river with two of his brothers. Steve shares that he would not have joined the Army if he had not been drafted and reports that he has developed diabetes as a result of his exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.

Connie offers a view of the home front during the war. She remembers waiting for Steve to return from Vietnam and missing out on parts of her high school experience in the process. She recalls the “Dear Mary” letter that he sent her in which he broke off their relationship and how when he came home, he asked her to marry him, but she said no. She explains that they both married and divorced other people and then reunited with each other after 30 years apart. At the time of this interview, they had been married for nine years. Connie feels that Vietnam was a psychological war that was hard on the women at home as well as on the men overseas.