John Craven Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Richie Holden, Vietnam War- The Effect on a Generation, March 11, 2016.
a. The interview was conducted in person at the residence and convenience of the subject, John Craven. The interview was done using Audacity on a Macbook Pro computer using a Plantronics P420 as a microphone. To schedule the interview, I traded several emails and texts with Mr. Craven. I also emailed the subject a list of possible questions in advance of the interview to help jog his memory of the events at that time. I also conducted a pre interview in which Mr. Craven gave me permission to share the interview publically. In that preinterview I tried to make him relax as much as possible, as he seemed a bit nervous. I told him that his words would not have an effect on my grade. For the interview we used a private room in Mr. Craven’s home with no electronic devices or other persons present except us and the equipment for recording. It was a quiet, pleasant environment which made for a good recording and a comfortable interview.
b. John Craven was born on February 16, 1947, in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Thomas and Ann Craven. He had one brother and two sisters: Thomas, Patricia and Bonnie. He spent three years in the U.S. Army. He spent one year in Vietnam and the rest of his time in the military was spent in the communication center, which was in Germany. When he came home he went to Keystone College, La Plume Township, Pennsylvania. Upon graduation he worked for thirty-four years as a computer programmer at Metropolitan Insurance, where he met his wife Cathy. They had a daughter named Carrie Craven in 1992. John is now retired and lives with his wife Kathy in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. They have been married for 26 years.
c. To prepare for the interview I did research on the draft, and most specifically the Vietnam War era draft. I looked at draft evasion techniques that were used including deferments for education. I also reviewed some information on the makeup of the soldiers asking questions on the results of the draft and if the soldiers thought the draft was a fair way to select people to serve. I also reviewed government web sites and historical information on veterans benefits, specifically the GI bill and how this would affect soldiers after they came home from the war. I reviewed pieces from famous journalists of the era, and used the standard reference sources to get a chronological view of the war and get a better historical perspective of the time period. I concentrated on the effects of the war outside of the combat, and interestingly Mr. Craven had several answers that were very close to the research. I thought he gave an excellent feel for the history of the war as a personal event and how it affected people who served.
d. Interview Transcript
RH = Richard Holden, JC = John Craven
RH: Are you ok with this interview being shared with my class of about 30-40 people?
JC: Yes, sure, I have no problem with that at all.
RH: Are you ok with your name being used?
JC: Yes. You can use my name.
RH: Remember that if there’s a question you don’t like you don’t have to answer it. Are you aware of that?
JC: Yes, I understand.
RH: Alright, cool. Let’s get into it. Before the war, 2 questions, what was your education?
JC: High school graduate.
RH: Were there any particular circumstances that you recall that made it more difficult or easier for you to leave home to go to war?
JC: At the time I was single, that made it easier. I had a lower paying job that I could leave easily.
RH: During the war, what years did you serve?
JC: I served from 1968 to 1969.
RH: Just one year? And then you went and volunteered? Is that true?
JC: That’s true. I was drafted and then I volunteered in order to select my military training.
RH: So how old were you when you served?
JC: In Vietnam? 21 to 22
RH: Can you describe your experience with the draft?
JC: Sure, it’s like most people at that time had to register for the draft and then you just waited around to see if you got a letter…a draft letter, which I did.
RH: And so, after you were drafted you said you volunteered. Can you describe that for me?
JC: Sure, when I went into the service there were a few options, just go to basic training or select where I wanted to go into basic training and then select my military occupation.
RH: And you selected…?
JC: Communication Center Specialist.
RH: And what did that job entail?
JC: Mostly it was working in a center that had machines that looked like teletype machines and they also had tape feeds that came out of them.
RH: What did you do there?
JC: I would take the messages that came in from headquarters; they would be printed off on the teletype machine and with the tape. I would roll up the tape, attach it to the printed message, whatever it was, and then deliver it to where it needed to go. It would either be sent out to another unit or to someone on the base.
RH: So based on your experience, with the draft now, was the draft a fair way to get people into the military? Based on your experience?
JC: I thought it was semi-fair. When I was in the service, I served with people that were obviously wealthy, wealthier then I was, and you got to see a wide range of people. But I also thought that because there were some deferments or people that were in college that a lot of kids from wealthier families used that to stay in school and avoid the draft.
RH: So you thought that it could have been more fair? There could have been some kind of thing in place to avoid the whole draft dodging, so to say?
JC: Yes, yes, I think they could have done away with the whole college deferral all together.
RH: Interesting…so, were there any particular circumstances that you recall that made it easier or more difficult to leave home. Besides what you said earlier, being single, low paying job.
JC: No, that was what made it easier. It was more difficult because it was my first time away from home, being away from family and friends.
RH: Were other members of your family in the military? Uncles?
JC: My father was in World War II and I’m sure a couple of my uncles were in the war also.
JC: My Uncle Wendal was in World War II and my Uncle William was in World War II and the Korean War.
RH: Because some of your family members were in the war, do you think you might have been expected to be in the military? Like more so if they had not been?
JC: I believe I was expected to serve in the military if I was drafted but not necessarily to join the military.
RH: While in Vietnam, what was the biggest change you saw in yourself based on your experiences there? It’s a tough question.
JC: It is. These were formative years for me for maturing and learning to focus on getting a job done right.
RH: You mentioned earlier that when you worked in communications you volunteered for that so that you could do it “the best way it could possibly be done”, something like that…
JC: Yes, when I first went to Vietnam, I decided I would do as much as I could to help the war effort, and for me that was to do the hardest job there was in the communications center and to do it as well or better than anybody else there.
RH: That’s honorable.
RH: Do you still keep in touch with any of the people you served with in Vietnam, or in your communications experience?
JC: I did have correspondence with some of them for a while but because of the geographical distance between us and everyone was getting on with their lives we just lost touch.
RH: I understand. Okay, a couple more questions…we are almost done. So after the war… these are tougher questions, more thought provoking.
JC: Okay, go for it.
RH: After the war, did you use the GI bill?
JC: Yes, I did, while I was in Germany, I took four German classes from the University of Maryland campus which was in Munich Germany. So I got 12 college credits there and after I came back from the military I went a year and a half to Keystone College where I got my Associates Degree.
RH: Associates Degree in?
JC: General Studies.
RH: So that was a benefit of the war right? What was the biggest benefit from serving in the military?
JC: The biggest benefit I got I guess was just learning how to focus. It did give me chance to restart in life, basically. When I came back, I was a little more mature. I was able to go to college for a while. And work on starting a career.
RH: Do you think college was something you would have done if you hadn’t gone to the military?
JC: No, no, I probably would not have gone to college at all if I hadn’t gone into the military.
RH: So that leads me to this question, would you recommend the military to young people today?
JC: No.
RH: Would you like to elaborate more?
JC: Yes, it seems like if you join the military you are going to spend a couple of tours in a war zone and it seems like it is a pretty dangerous place to be right now.
RH: What effect do you think the Vietnam War had on history (based on your experiences, if you could tie it back to your experiences that would be ideal). What effect did this huge war have on history? It obviously had a huge effect. There were a lot of opinions on the Vietnam War.
JC: It was really controversial. I really think that the way they had been fighting wars in the past had been to just amass a large group of forces and march against an enemy. In Vietnam, they were learning they had to adjust more to guerilla warfare. I guess that’s it.
RH: The differing opinions… I know that there were a lot of people who (around that time period) thought that the Vietnam War was not such a good idea. Public opinion turned against the Vietnam War, I guess you would say.
JC: Right.
RH: So how has history painted that in a different way then you experienced it? Or has it not?
JC: Well, at the time I was over in Vietnam… it’s just when you are in the military you just do what you’re told basically. So at the time I thought it was a just war. In looking back at it I’m not so sure we stopped communism and the domino effect from happening to other countries over there.
RH: Is there any situation today that reminds you of your personal experience in Vietnam? So with what you experienced with the Vietnam War, do you think there is any situation going on in the world today (maybe in the news right now) that is similar to what happened in Vietnam?
JC: I think the war in Afghanistan right now is very similar to Vietnam.
RH: In which way?
JC: It’s more guerilla warfare and I see they’re adjusting some of the military tactics a little bit to try to combat that.
RH: Having been involved in a major historical event (we already kind of covered this), do you think history has the whole story or that my history textbook (has the whole story), which I don’t have by the way, thanks to my teacher, who is listening to us right now. Do you think history textbooks told this story in a different way than it actually played out or do you think it was fairly accurate?
JC: From what I’ve read it seemed pretty accurate that they have noted the controversies involved where we were trying to stop communism but there was a lot of antiwar protest at times. People who didn’t think it was a just war. I think they treated it pretty fairly.
RH: Thank you I think that’s about everything we’ve got, if you have anything else you want to say. Otherwise I think we pretty much covered it all.
JC: No, if that’s all you need. Good luck with it!
RH: Thank you so much!
e. I think the interview went fairly well but there were some things that I wish flowed better. I was very glad that I gave the interviewee a list of possible questions so that he could put some thought into his responses prior to the time of the interview. I tried to structure the interview into categories, before the war, during the war, and after the war. For the most part that worked well, however, I think because of that structure it sometimes distracted me from continuing my current thought and “digging in” to the responses more fully. I thought the interview itself was very pleasant and comfortable and I felt the technical aspect regarding the recording was handled very well. Although I gave him the list of possible questions, he still seemed nervous and, therefore, did not answer the questions as thoroughly as he would have otherwise. One thing I can say for certain is that I have a newfound respect for reporters who make this process seem so easy!