With the Old Breed

During boot camp, we were taught about the Battle of Fallujah, but after reading this book, I was able to understand so much better. I was able to picture their tactics, strategies, their emotions, and why the Marines were called the “Greatest Generation.”

The Marine Corps Experience, pp. 12 – 31 The Corps today, pp 318 – 335

Although perceived by the author as a terrible thing, the Pacific Campaign showed Eugene Sledge several things a normal man usually wouldn’t notice. Throughout the book marines are seen on litter duty; volunteering to run into the midst battle with a stretcher to carry out dead or wounded Marines. This mindset of never leaving someone behind is still taught today. What it comes down to at its basic level is the love and loyalty that brothers in arms share with one another. Examples of such selflessness can be seen today still, with the

He concludes the essay with a brief, yet illustrative remark on the nature of men and wartime. "The fact is," Manchester writes, "some wounds never heal" (506). That thought all this seeing the real face of war, has made it impossible for his to face them. Describing how lost he left at seeing how big of an impact war had on him, he relates his message with a callousness and terseness that is often seen among those who have survived armed conflict. Manchester uses this tone effectively to relate his message that war leaves some scars on those who partake in it that can never be healed. It can be derived that Manchester is writing this because he wishes to inform the public of the true nature of war. He writes during the third portion of the essay how he and his friends could scarcely stand the projections of false bravado and machoism that they witnessed in pop culture after returning from the war. It is clear to me that Manchester writes Okinawa so as to help others avoid falling victim to the same trap that he occupied prior to being a soldier; that the machismo and heroism put forth by popular culture is indeed false, and that the reality of war is far grimmer. It is clear to me that he succeeds, by connecting his argument to the audience and the effects it can have on people by opening their eyes to the

Some of the soldiers were such cowards that they injured themselves just to be taken away in a helicopter and extracted from the war scene. The soldiers “spoke bitterly about guys who had found release by shooting off their own toes or fingers. Pussies, they’d say. Candy-asses” (22). However, deep down inside, the soldiers who did all the mocking “imagined the quick, sweet pain, then the evacuation to Japan, then a hospital with warm beds and cute geisha nurses” (22). The soldiers even dreamt at night about freedom birds. The men were flying on a “real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons and high screeching… The weights fell off; there was nothing to bear” (22). The soldiers did not want to be at war, they imagined to themselves “It’s (the war) over, I’m gone!—they were naked, they were light and free” (22).

“Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir” is a memoir written by Joseph R. Owen, a lieutenant of Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment. Lt. Owen narrates his experience as an officer in the Korean War, in an attempt to show the public what war is from a soldier's point of view. Readers are shown what sacrifices soldiers have to make during times of war, they are shown the experience of war through a different pair of eyes. The Chosin action is justly called majestic; and in this memoir, Lieutenant Owen tells the tale of the common men who made it so. Joseph informs the public about the experiences of the 7th Marine Regiment and the tragic end of the Chosin Reservoir where many Marines lost their lives. He shows us what sacrifices a soldier must make for his country, and he helps readers understand the impact of war on a man. The memoir was an extraordinarily detailed and realistic account of war, allowing the public to read the tale and enjoy not only a thrilling retelling of Chosin Reservoir, but also a memoir

“There are only two kinds of people who understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else just has a second-hand opinion.” (Gen William Thornson, U.S. Army) For decades, the United States Marine Corps has established an identity as a unique and fearless war fighting machine.

Corporal Thomas Searles underwent a drastic change from a nerdy, bookish man, to one of the most bravest soldiers in the regiment. The minute he found out about the 54th Massachusetts regiment, he didn’t think twice in enlisting and was very eager about it. The minute he got in his

Firstly, With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, was a very interesting book. I am an individual that is not a fan of reading, but this book was interesting to say the lease. I would recommend anyone who is interested in knowing about the reality of going into the combat. In this book, I was very impressed that the author of the book, who goes by the name of Eugene B. Sledge, did an amazing job telling the readers in details what he experienced during his enlistment. Eugene Sledge, who was also a Marine and proud to be with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine regiment, 1st Marine Division, made sure to take his memoir to an entire different level than other memoirs, that gave an account of what they may have experienced during the war. E.B. Sledge, made

Mr. John Eisenhower is a retired Army General from Westchester, Pennsylvania. He is also the son of retired General and later President, Dwight D. Eisehower. He is an author as well as a military historian. Mr. Eisenhower’s other works include, The Bitter Woods, published in 1987 and critically acclaimed by Life magazine author, S. L. A. Marshall as being “written with power by a true military historian.” Reviews of his work from The New Yorker and New York Times Book Review describe his accounts as “Exceptionally interesting” and “Written with enthusiasm that is hard to resist.” Using his military background, Mr.

The soldiers face loneliness, isolation, the heavy burden of fear, and the weight of their reputations. The soldiers carry such a heavy weight from the past, in the present, and for the future. Even after the war, the psychological burdens the men carried during the war continues to define them. Those who survive the war carry guilt, grief, and confusion.

This disassociation allows for the whole sale slaughter of people with moral justification. The unforeseen byproduct of this disassociation, as Cameron points out, can be seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when many veterans consigned their wives to the kitchen. The intended product of this disassociation, however, was to kill Japanese soldiers. The Marines would reap the benefits of this first in the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. With the U.S. Marines of First Division engaged in a life or death struggle against their Japanese opponents, the cartoonish portraits of four-eyed, slow Japanese soldiers burned into the American Marine’s mind kept them from thinking about the enemy as men who are carrying pictures of their families eerily similar to the pictures that were carried by Americans. Using the invasion of Peleliu as a backdrop for his analysis, Cameron expands upon his analysis of the individual Marine to the collective thought of the organization. The U.S. Marine self-image caused Marine units on Peleliu to charge head-first into the waiting Japanese defense with foolhardy, head on assaults which they stubbornly pressed. The Marine Corps, even through their hyper-masculine indoctrination, had not prepared their Marines any better than their U.S. Army counterparts on the island. Before Peleliu, the perception of combat had been that of a clean affair due to the romanticized images of World War I. After, due to Tom Lea’s reporting of events, the

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

The horrors of war were depicted by the constant threats to the characters lives, the brutal conditions of the bad weather, hunger and combat. Soldiers had to battle the enemy along with nature. Soldiers would become stressed, paranoid and start losing their personalities. As Captain Miller says, “I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.” This quote shows the mental toll on these soldiers.

“ A juniper log exploded, and the two men jumped,” (Pg 136) One simple everyday thing fire the crackling of wood, this can show that war takes simple things and makes them worse. A gunshot something that they here a couple of times a week wouldn't scare them, but a simple crack from the fireplace can scare them shows how much tole war takes on a brain. A simple man who works to feed his family taken to fight for his country come back changed or not come back at all but changed completely because of the horrors that he has seen.