I didn’t like this blog assignment at first, but after learning more about what is going on in the world, I grew to like it and it made me start to say how I actually felt then just get an assignment done for class. This helped me understand more about others opinions. I think this assignment was very positive besides the technical difficulties.
COMMENTS
What’s life like after a war- Abby
Stories- Guadalupe
I have been reading the book “Fallen Angels” and one line that stuck out to me for some reason was when Perry went out on a loan patrol with Charlie Company. They just got picked up at the LZ and Perry leaned out the chopper and saw a few muzzle blasts coming from the “thick green carpet below” him. He flinched every time he saw the muzzle blasts. And the men on the chopper started to kid around with him about flinching. The guys said “if you see the muzzle blast, it means that the bullet missed”. This obviously means that he would have been dead. It so weird to me because the men seemed to calm about that. It seemed as if was almost comfort for them, like they don’t have to worry about see the muzzle blast because they would be dead. Its crazy how adapted men can get to war. Even how the men just joke about that is a way to cope with the situation. I believe this helps men cope with the possibility of death. It is not that they don’t take death seriously, because they do. But instead of worrying about it so much they turn it in ways to be less negative about and maybe build some moral. There is a blog entry in the sandbox called “Semper Gumby” and its written by a soldier in Afghanistan. He talks about flexibility a soldier must maintain when things are constantly changing, the soldier stated “When things are constantly changing, as they have been during so much of this deployment, there is a simple motto to keep us going: “Semper Gumpy”. Semper Gumby is Latin for “Always Flexible”.” The soldier talks about being flexible and he uses the Cartoon Character Gumby when describing this. The soldiers took pictures of Gumby on weapons and vehicles and such. And this another way of just joking around and being yourself when you in such a situation. I think this is a good thing for soldiers to do when they are put in a situation like these. They just try to make the best of their situation, even when it comes to joking about many serious things like war.
When I read The Things They Carried, and discussed the book in class, I have thought about the topic of guilt. I found this video blog of Soldiers that come back from Iraq which is on the spike TV website, its called “Back From Iraq”. It is video blogs of soldiers that return from Iraq and they talk about their experiences, and there feelings, it seems that most of these soldiers in these blogs carry some sort of guilt with them.
This video blog is about a Deuce Four soldier who recalls a tramautic experience in Iraq he’ll carry with him the rest of his life. The soldier talked about his guilt of one of his friends almost being killed who took shrapnel through the head in a car bombing incident. His friend will never be the same because there was so much damage done to the brain, and he blames himself. This soldier talks about another incident about a drive by that was supposed to be aimed at the American troops but this young boy was caught in the cross fire and was killed. It seemed that the soldier felt guilty for that also. This video blog reminds me so much Tim O’Brien and the The Things They carried. O’Brien carries so much guilt with him in this book. He carries the death of his friend Kiowa and the death of the little girl Linda. This is considered survivors guilt which we discussed in class. The same soldier that carries the guilt about his friend almost being killed in Iraq talks about in another video blog entry, about how he had wondered how they hell did he get into this situation of being in Iraq. The soldier found himself in a building, by himself at 2am, pitch black with a dead body in the room. Just like how Obrien felt about going to Vietnam. Tim O’Brien did not want to go to Nam in the first place.
Another soldier talked about change. After being part of a body recovery in Iraq after a major attack. The soldier described the incident as ice skating in blood. He remembered walking over body parts and such. He also seemed to feel guilt because there was nothing he could really do for the men. This soldier stated in his blog that he can’t stop thinking about Iraq even though hes not there. It is the first thing he thinks about when he gets up and it is the last thing he thinks about before he goes to bed. He stated that the war in Iraq has changed him. He looks at everything different, even the stupid things like paying your bills on the internet, going to an appointment. He stated after living with something like that he realized how much he changed.
http://www.spike.com/video/survivor-guilt-back/2782110
I found this statement in a article called United States Military Weapons of War. “There is no argument that the United States Military is the most powerful military in the World. We have achieved a level of technology in military weapons and equipment that no other nation on earth comes to”. This Statement made me think of the poem “Arms and the Boy” by Wilfred Owen.
Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.
Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads
Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads,
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.
For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.
After reading this I ask myself can man handle these weapons that we have created? When talking about Arms in Owens poem I believe he is saying that human are given these weapons but humans don’t understand them. The boy represents the youth of war. And we give these weapons to young boys who are not ready to use these weapons. The boys teeth is not for biting but for laughing, the boy has no claws, he is not a mean creature. In a way I believe Owen states God also doesn’t want us using these weapons he did not create. Even though Owen wrote this in WWI, it shows his insight of events and technology that is occurring today. Technology is growing and Owen knew this and he believes that soldiers which is the “Boy” are not ready to use these weapons.
Posted March 24th, 2008
Source: Gidget Fuentes – Staff writer
SAN DIEGO — Holed up on the rooftop of a Ramadi house, Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor and three fellow SEAL snipers were pulling overwatch duty for a ground security element Sept. 29, 2006, when an enemy grenade landed nearby. Monsoor, a 25-year-old member of SEAL Team 3 from Garden Grove, Calif., instantly smothered the grenade with his body. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop. Now, Monsoor is set to become the first SEAL to receive the Medal of Honor for valor in the Iraq war. He will be only the fifth SEAL to be honored with the nation’s highest award for combat heroism. A Defense Department official confirmed the pending award, which will be presented to his family. “We understand the decision has been made to give that award,” the official, who asked not to be named, told Navy Times on March 17. “But that would be an announcement made by the White House.” However, it wasn’t clear when the medal would be presented by President Bush, as is the tradition. As of March 20, no official announcement had been made by the White House. A Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon referred queries to the White House, which has not commented on the award. Blogger and author Michael Fumento, who has written about Monsoor and combat operations in Ramadi, reported on his Web site March 15 that Monsoor’s family would receive the posthumous Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony April 8. Two military officials with knowledge of the award dismissed that date, saying it was pending the official announcement. Monsoor, a platoon machine gunner who graduated with Class 250 at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training in Coronado, Calif., already had received the Silver Star, the third-highest award for combat valor, for pulling a wounded SEAL to safety during a May 9, 2006, firefight in Ramadi. According to a 2006 Associated Press report on the Sept. 29 incident, Monsoor didn’t hesitate to act when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor. “He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it,” a lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day told the AP. “He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs’ lives, and we owe him.” The AP reported that two SEALs near Monsoor were injured by shrapnel, and another who was 10 to 15 feet away from the blast was unhurt. A petty officer who went through SEAL training with Monsoor said “Mikey” was a “fun-loving guy.” “Always got something funny to say, always got a little mischievous look on his face,” the SEAL told the AP. This will mark the second Medal of Honor for a member of the Navy — and the fourth overall — since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. The other two went to a soldier and a Marine. All have been posthumous. Other Medal of Honor nominations reportedly are pending. The first Navy Medal of Honor for the two wars was given last year to the family of the late Lt. Michael Murphy, a SEAL from Long Island, N.Y., during an Oct. 22, 2007, White House ceremony. Murphy was killed June 28, 2005, along with two other teammates, in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains when their four-man team battled a larger force of Taliban fighters. Among other things, Murphy braved enemy gunfire to radio for air support. The other two Medals of Honor have been awarded for combat heroics in Iraq. The first went to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith, who died during an April 4, 2003, firefight with insurgent fighters near Baghdad International Airport. Smith was noted for his bravery and quick actions to organize a hasty defense and counterattack during which he fired anti-tank weapons, tossed hand grenades and mounted an armored personnel carrier to fire its .50-caliber machine gun before he was felled by enemy fire. Officials credited him with killing as many as 50 enemy combatants and saving several soldiers. Monsoor is one of at least three service members whose similar actions in Iraq have prompted nominations and calls from fellow service members, veterans and bloggers for them to be awarded the Medal of Honor. His actions closely parallel those of Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, a machine-gunner from Scio, N.Y., who received the medal posthumously. Dunham, 22, used his Kevlar helmet to muffle a grenade dropped by an insurgent fighting with him and his fire team near Husaybah on April 14, 2004. He died a week later at National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md., and his family received the medal during a Jan. 11, 2007, ceremony at the White House. A similar grenade incident that took the life of a Marine in Iraq also has led to his nomination — reportedly still pending final approval — for the Medal of Honor. Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a native of Mexico and infantryman from San Diego assigned to a Hawaii-based battalion, was deep in the fight as he and his men battled through the then-insurgent-held city of Fallujah in 2004. Inside one house, Peralta was struck in the face by enemy rifle fire as his squad entered a room. Several Marines nearby have said Peralta grabbed an enemy grenade that had been tossed at them and held it to his chest. The blast killed the popular sergeant, but saved the men.” He saved half my fire team,” Cpl. Brannon Dyer, of Blairsville, Ga., told Military Times after the incident. Peralta, like Monsoor, was 25.
This man was an unselfish soldier. Even during the horrors of war, something good can always come out of it. The soldiers in this article proved just that. This story makes me think of the book “The Slaughter House Five”, because of how negative Kurt Vonnegut is in his stories. Vonnegut and Owen feel that war is just so horrible and that no good can come from it. But when I hear a story like this I think of “If I should die think only this of me”. A soldier gave his own life to save others, i don’t understand how people can support our troops when there are men like this defending our country. Also this makes me think out our discussion a few weeks ago about what signifies a hero. A question that was asked was what makes a hero and hero? And when I read this article it made me start to think of the book Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, and Roland came to mind. Roland was killed in WWI in a non heroic act. But in a way he saved many lives because he died, and I think that changes a view on what makes a hero. This soldier that threw his own body on a grenade to save others from being killed is one of the most heroic acts I have ever heard of. He sacraficed himself to save others, but isn’t that also what Roland did in a way. Every soldier sacrifices something when going to war, but some more than others like Monsoor. So this makes every soldier a hero in a way.
THE FOG OF LIFE
Name: MSGT Ken Mahoy
Posting date: 3/14/08
Stationed in: Afghanistan
Milblog: Third Time’s A Charm!
I struggle. I struggle with what to even write sometimes. We have all reached the stage of this deployment where we can officially declare, “The honeymoon is over.” No more silent anxiety from the rookies worried about traveling to a war-torn country, no more pumped up bravado from men wanting to kick the enemy’s tail, no more patriotic propaganda and pep rallies urging us to “Be all we can be!” Just hard, cold reality setting in. Those realities that finally catch up to you when you just can’t push past the pain of how much you miss your kids, or how much you miss your girlfriend or wife. And other realities, such as realizing how frustrating even some of your fellow comrades are, and how damaging they can be to everyone’s morale.
This post makes me realize how hard it must be for a soldier to be in a different country for so long missing family and friends. This is just part of the post but the soldier kind of wraps it all up here. This is just one of the everyday struggles that soldiers in Iraq deal with. It must be so hard to have to leave everything and everyone you love behind for war, and thats what makes these soldiers and inspiration to me. Just like in my last post when I talked about the founding fathers and how they gave up so much for this country.
Ken Mahoy understands the sacrifices that have to be made to support ones country. How can people not support the troops in Iraq when there are soldiers like Ken Mahoy, who gave up everything to support his country. This soldier as do many soldiers need moral to keep doing what they are doing in Iraq, and that is fighting for a reason that is right and justified. So why not give a U.S soldiers that appreciation he or she deserves?
“… God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…. And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
War is a touchy subject and can spark an argument in a heart beat. I believe as Thomas Jefferson believed that war is necessary from time to time. Don’t get me wrong I don’t believe war is a great thing, but I do support it and I would fight for this country. America was been granted freedom by death and war. People in this country can so easily say that they would not fight for this country and won’t support our troops. What would the founding fathers think of us today? Many of our founding fathers gave up there lives to make this country what it is today.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
These men gave up everything so that the United Sates would have a future, and I believe that a lot of Americans have lost site of that. Thomas Jefferson also once said, that “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”. This idea comes from the old testament, when the Hebrews overthrew tyrants and also when Christians were over powered by the Roman Empire. I believe God wants man to be active and free not passive and enslaved.
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.This poem by Rupert Brooke really meant something to me. I believe that being a soldier is an honor and I believe if you are a soldier there is no reason to disgrace that. When you are a soldier your defending your country and other countries in need of help. Wilfred Owens poem I believe is one of the most negative poems I have ever read, it is the reality of war, but he seems to be way to negative. I believe Brooke understood why he fought and why he was at war. War is ugly and always will be but its how you approach it. This will always be an issue. My father is retired from the army, and when I read this poem I think of him. He used to tell me there is nothing more honorable than a U.S. Soldier. I look at what the United States of America has given me, and then I look at other places in the world, and I believe everyone should serve their country in some way. That doesn’t mean fighting, not everyone is made to fight. But it some way service should be paid. This is my opinion, my beliefs, my life on which I was raised.
HOPE IS NOT A METHOD
Name: 1SG Troy Steward
Posting date: 1/25/08
Returned from: Afghanistan
Milblog url: bouhammer.com
HATE….ANGER….PRIDE….SADNESS….PRIDE…..SORROW…..FEAR…..PRIDE… These are the emotions that have been swirling through me like a f***ing tornado as my family took my oldest son to the airport and put him on a plane to start the journey that will take him into war. With every bad feeling came pride. How could I not be proud of this awesome young man? I watched him grow up, from playing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to GI-Joes, to now being a GI Joe himself. I am the rock for my family, just as I am the rock for my soldiers that work for me. Being the “rock” is an honorable thing, but it also means not being able to waiver or always show the emotion that I have inside.
I have been on multiple sides of the deployment fence. I have been on the one where I am deploying, of course. I have watched my soldiers deploy without me. And now I am bidding my son goodbye as he gets ready to deploy into the horrors of war. It would be different if he was just deploying to a war that I had no knowledge of, and I could only relate the common things that are seen in all wars, but instead I am seeing him walk into the very place I just left. I know the good, bad and ugly of that place. Not just from when I was there, but from very recent experiences of a few weeks ago, as I am in constant communication with guys that are there fighting right now.
This blog entry reminds me of Wilfred Owen poem Dulce et Decorum. This blog reminded me of this poem because of how negative own is in his poem. Owen fought in WWI and at first thought he was there for a reason, then after experiencing the things he did he his view changed. “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie” – Owen. As Owen didn’t agree neither does the father in this blog. Troy was in the military himself and now he had to watch his son be shipped off over seas. He was not very happy about it.
In the beginning of this blog, the first sentence can be considered a climax
HATE….ANGER….PRIDE….SADNESS….PRIDE…..SORROW…..FEAR…..PRIDE
Also there is a Anaphora
“I am the rock for my family, just as I am the rock for my soldiers that work for me. Being the “rock” is an honorable thing, but it also means not being able to waiver or always show the emotion that I have inside.”
The three major news sources I have chosen are New York times, BBC News and Al Jazeera. I decided to chose the New York times because I believe it has a variety of articles about the Iraq war and the U.S. soldier in it. I chose the BBC news because I believe it provides trusted world news as well as local news, so maybe I will be able to find out about soldiers returning home from Iraq and there experience overseas. A favorite news source of mine is Al Jazeera, and the reason I decided to use this as a source is because it is a source from overseas.
Stars and Stripes is another source I want to use because it is only deals with the military and its issues. I will be focusing on all middle east coverage from these sources. My topic from Google news is “U.S. Soldiers in Iraq”. The miliblog I’m using is the Sandbox, because you get a variety of soldiers speaking their minds about life in war and there opinions about the war. I want to know what war is like because eventually I will join the military and I would like read about what the soldiers already overseas feel about being in the middle east.
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