Understanding our wartime experiences...

[JMA]

When I came across Karl Marlantes' book 'What it is like to go to war' in a bookstore I was thrilled to find a discussion on how Marlantes - a Vietnam veteran - was trying to come to terms with his war experiences (both on a personal and a broader level).

I was looking for a more recent equivalent of the earlier seminal work of Lord Moran 'The Anatomy of Courage' covering his WW1 experiences. Marlantes' work does not rank alongside Moran's work but its valuable nevertheless in that it is written by one who has experienced actual warfare - was awarded the Navy Cross - even if for only a year.

A study of both Moran's and Marlantes' works - in tandem - would, I believe, benefit those who have been exposed to combat to try to 'make sense of it all'... and help those who have not to understand the effect this most horrific pursuit of man has on the soldiers themselves through the accounts of people who have personally 'been there'.

The work of those who have written about the effects of war but not personally experienced it - such as Keegan, Holmes, Bourke, Beevor, even Grossman and others - have their place. There are no doubt other works by those who have experienced combat and written about it - J Glenn Gray, James R Mcdonough, Tim O'Brein, Philip Caputo, Michael Herr, etc - which no doubt will also contribute to a greater understanding.

Marlantes and Moran focus specifically on the effect of war on the participants.

Marlantes' first chapter - The Temple of Mars - displays perhaps the American tendency to over analyze a situation and maybe find something which may not be there - reminds of Shay's book 'Achillies in Vietnam' where he compares 'the soldiers of Homer's "Iliad" with Vietnam veterans' - and therefore is more of a distraction than IMHO a valuable contribution. I will skip it... but others who read it differently may choose otherwise.

Chapter two - Killing - deals with what has been discussed in a thread here:

How soldiers deal with the job of killing. Some may wish to reopen discussion on this aspect.

As I commented in the other thread: "I am involved with a compilation of narratives by individuals who served in my regiment during my little war." Here is an extract from one account from the oral history project:

... Literally the minute we hit the ground the $hit hit the fan. All hell broke loose and a long and fierce fire fight took place. I experienced just about everything a soldier could expect to face in a lifetime in the army. There were airstrikes that nearly hit us, a terrorist threw and hit me with an empty AK magazine, two of my friends Kevin and Kim were seriously injured and flown out, and I had my first kill. I have never forgotten that moment….18 years old and I took another human beings life. Raised as a Catholic this had a severe impact on me. The worst was to come. At the end of the day we had to retrace our movements and collect all the bodies and drag them to a pick up point. The sight of the fatal injuries were horrific, limbs shattered, huge holes everywhere, exposed internal organs and brains oozing and falling adrift from the bodies. The yellow fat, the flies and the stench of death was gut retching. No training could have prepared me for this... "

To him it was the aftermath that got to him. What he probably misses is that his training prepared him to kill - which he did without hesitation - and while the first significant exposure to combat is traumatic to many this kid found himself as one of two FNGs in my troop where the older troopies probably told him/the two of them ... 'that was f***-all, just you wait'. There are a lot of head games played at that level the effect of which officers and NCOs need to monitor.

Of course the junior troopies get to move the dead around ... the older troopies just go through the pockets to see if there is any cash