Sec 2 Home-learning 2010 Term 2
Rainbow Death
Hubert Wilson |
Firstly, let’s start off with some background information of Hubert Wilson. He was a Vietnam War veteran (as were his four brothers) who served in the USAF Security Service. He, along with a dozen or so
intelligence school grads, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating to be sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia in 1970. About half of them ended up
in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. The rest of them, along with
Hubert Wilson, were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what
eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang!
This poem talks about a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering
not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people. “Agent Orange”, which appears to be the code
name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD (Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin) —used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. From 1962 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called "Rainbow Herbicides" employed in the herbicidal warfare program. Thus, the title of this poem is “Rainbow Death”. During the production of Agent Orange, dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused numerous health problems for the millions of people who have been exposed.
Rainbow Death is a poem that shows the different fatal reasons of war. This is shown as the fact of
death caused by war is reconsidered. The innocent and unborn are shown as the victims as "toll" shows. The second stanza shows that war led America astray and its major causes are illnesses, birth defects and prematurely dead. It shows that the uninformed generations will have to suffer much, especially
orange poison gas in the last line.
Point of View
In this poem, the writer, Hubert Wilson suffered from unexplained headaches and limp pains. Four years ago his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches,
progressive limb pains. No physician diagnosed the specific illness nor provided medical assistance. The
number one educated guess is the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. Fortunately, his brain is still functioning well and he turned to writing.
Personal Response
I feel that it is very selfish, in a sense, to cause suffering to the innocent just for one's gain. Furthermore, the Vietnam War was not worth all the casualties and suffering. It was not a war of patriotism, it was more like a clash of ideals, between communism and anything anti-communist. Thus, we can see why Hubert Wilson had written a poem entitled Rainbow Death. This poem, Rainbow Death, may remind us that wars actually are not over when the wars are over.
References
www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
http://www.poemhunter.com/hubert-wilson/
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
