Question 723

He was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona to a Native American (Navajo) father and an Italian American mother. He graduated from Rangeford High School, and then was drafted into the United States Army at the age of 17 on June 8, 1964. He was deployed to South Vietnam in September 1966. He returned to the U.S. in 1967 and began training in the Special Forces (Green Berets) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In late 1969, he was re-deployed to Vietnam. In November 1971, he was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured. He escaped captivity in May 1972, but was then re-deployed. At some point in his military career he also apparently received training in flying helicopters.

Upon his return to the U.S., he discovered that many American civilians hated the returning soldiers, and he himself was subject to humiliation and embarrassment by having anti-war "hippies" throw garbage at him, call him "baby killer", and exclude him from society. His experiences in Vietnam and back home resulted in an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder. At the same time, inner questions of self identity and reflectiveness cause him to lash out at society rather than handling difficult situations in a "civilized" manner. Who?

Answer: John Rambo