NotNormativelyHuman 295
Representations along these lines are collected on the internet
platformExperiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project.
Hosted by the Library of Congress,Experiencing Warpresents video
interviewsin which war veteransshare their experiences. Also included
are interviews with veterans who got disabled in action. As one such
interview will be analyzed below, I would like to make clear that the
ideology-critical perspective which sustains my readings is in no way
intended to imply disrespect for the hardship experienced by the
interviewees.
Myexamplehereisatranscriptofa2006interviewwithSgt.Connie
RoseSpinks,recipientofthePurpleHeart,whowasseverelyinjuredby
a suicide bomber while on patrol in Iraq in 2003. In this interview,
conducted under the auspices of the Oral History Program of the
WomeninMilitaryServicefortheAmericaMemorialFoundation(note
the multiple institutional anchoring here), Spinks, a young African
American, recounts the incident that caused severe facial burnings and
left her partially paralyzed for a time: "I can remember hearing the
machinegunslayingdownalltheserounds...Ididn'tfeelanypain.All
I can remember was yelling help." Soon after, and before she continues
to tell the story of her hospitalization, her thoughts turn to her fellow
soldiers who were both killed. Then Spinks, who also lost her skin
pigmentation temporarily because of her burns, goes on to speak in
detailaboutthefrustrationsshefeltduringtherecoveryprocess:"AndI
couldn't do all the stuff I wanted to do.... So I was at a point of
frustrationwiththewhole...[ellipsisoriginal]beinginjured,havingto
takeitslowandtakeiteasy,andIwasjusttiredofit."Atthispoint,the
narrativetakesamajorturn.Theinterviewersuddenlyshiftsperspective,
asking "I'm assuming you got the Purple Heart?" Prompted by this
(rhetorical) question, Spinks then recalls how "ecstatic" she was about
being honored that way: "I felt honored because I was survivor. That's
whatitmeant,justsurviving.Facingdifficulty,adversity,andnotgiving
up.Notjustlayinginthebedandacceptingyoursituation,buttryingto
change it." To make a good thing even better, she receives the Purple
Heart from one of her greatest idols, African American actor Denzel
Washington,whohugsherandgivesherakiss.Thetranscriptconcludes
with Spinks's response to the almost unavoidable question whether she
had any regrets: "No, I don't." She concludes on an upbeat, slightly
feminist note: "I definitely want more females to be encouraged"