Comments on: Thinking like a soldier

By: Mark Loegering

Mark Loegering — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:45:48 +0000

Bookworm,
Churchill wrote much the same way in his letters from the Boer War and, previously, in the Sudan. My military service spared me combat, but many of my contemporaries spoke similarly. I think of the King’s great soliloquy in King Henry V just before the battle of Agincourt every time I read of or speak to combat veterans and “think myself accursed I was not there”.
My wife tells me me I was in past lives and I assume I will be again. Time will tell.

By: DaSarge

DaSarge — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:41:24 +0000

Wilfred Owen — wow. I read the Telegraph piece about an hour before I saw your post. I stumbled on Owen about a year after I came home from Vietnam (A Co, 1/26 Marines). Until then, I had not thought there were words anywhere that could convey accurately the experience of war. Owen comes as close as any, Owen notwithstanding, however, the essence of the experience is “incommunicable.” Thus saith Oliver Wendell Holmes & he knew from whereof he spoke.

Aside from his insight in to soldiering, Owen was a first class poet. The sonnet is a very hard form to use & he seems a natural. May I commend to you “Anthem for Doomed Youth?”

My uncle walked across the beach at Tarawa. My grandfather fought at Belleau Wood. Their later years were also tormented by their memories. Yet, each told me that their war was a moral necessity and to refuse the duty would have been moral and social suicide. They knew evil must be confronted and were proud of their part. They knew the risks and both felt lucky that a few bad dreams were the only price they paid — as do I.

The sophistry of moral cretins have always been with use. Look at Holmes 1895 speech at Harvard & tell me if you do not see an all too familiar picture of a narcissistic and complacent society.

Keep up the good work. Your husband is a lucky man & your are a blessing to your children.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:14:29 +0000

Book, every now and then, you open a window to the remarkable lives of your parents. I hope that they wrote down their stories. If not, with your gift of prose, I would hope that you would write down their story…for your children and their children to come.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:07:41 +0000

They were the worst days, too, and came back to haunt him when he was dying, since the hallucinations always focused on key battles, but I don’t think he ever felt as alive, involved and engaged as he did surrounded by his brothers in arms.

One small slice I realized was that the price of being alive was eventual death. The more life you seek, the more likely death will embrace you. It even works vice a versa. The more death seeks you, the more you embrace life.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:04:56 +0000

I remember how TS was talking about Kipling getting kicked in the teeth for believing that there was any honor or progress to be had in warfare, war which caused the death of his only son.

Some people are never as happy as when they are kicking people in their weak spots. Such is the state of humanity; war can bring out the best or the worst. The same can be said for peace and prosperity.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:53:20 +0000

Purpose is what drives human excellence as well as human creativity.