Exploring “The Things They Carried” at the Museum

The senior English classes found themselves in the museum during the first full week of school. To complement the students’ summer reading of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Mrs. Bynum gave a presentation about soldier gear, Huey helicopters, and the terrible weight of both the physical and emotional things the American soldiers carried during their time in the war.

As Mrs. Bynum described shirts and flak jackets and weapons, she had a student from each class gear up with actual items used in the Vietnam War. By the time she was done, the students could see that soldiers were loaded down with pounds of pounds of gear when they journeyed out into the bush.

To end her discussion each class, Mrs. Bynum retold stories of veterans she had met here in Brook Hill’s museum. Even today, decades later, she explained, soldiers are still laying down some of the emotional and psychological things they’ve been carrying since their days over in South Asia.

One man even apologized to his wife for his terrible behavior toward her when he returned from the war. Mrs. Bynum related how the man sat in the Vietnam section of the museum, turned to his wife, and said, “I don’t know why you stayed with me all those years I behaved that way, but you saved me.”

Talk about bringing history and the summer reading to life. The students will not soon forget Vietnam and the things the soldiers carried.

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