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.
3 Comments