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From: Jasper
Date: 6/19/01
Time: 5:44:00 AM
Charlie,
You know, of course, that I cannot account for what other people say and why they say it. It took my brother thirty years to tell me about the smell of burnt bodied (he didn't say burnt blood) that greeted him his first night in Vietnam. He sounded like Kari when he talked about it. He never once mentioned, even quickly, that he smelled blood on the job although he talked in detail about what it looked like. But he did talk about getting out of his clothes and taking long showers. He didn't have to tell me why.
Everything that everyone has said here is consistent with my experience. What Jean said about registering the odor as pleasant I also found to be true in some cases with some people (since she mentioned it). Any deer hunters out there? Is there a difference between the smell of human and animal blood (rare stake doesn't bother me a bit)? I especially appreciated Jean's comments about the subconscious associations that don't necessarily register as any kind of smell. But for me the feeling (a particular brand of nausea) was ALWAYS associated with blood. I expect that you will get a range of reactions with different people.
I, too, wonder what the deal was with Riske and Terrazas as well as Rasmussen and Boztepe. I know that people don't generally talk about the smell. Fuhrman, Phillips, Lange, Vannatter and Rossi never mentioned it. My biggest question is why they never asked anyone about it and no one asked them. -- Jasper