A Soldier's State of Mind

Wars are often glamorize by the media and public. War heroes and stories are very popular because they show the triumphs of war but are not the only things that occur during war. The activities that happen can be very grim and depressing affecting soldiers deeply. It is important to look at the negative things that happen to soldiers because it often is what affects the most. Modris Eksteins’, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, and Ernest Hemingway’s, “The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway”, show how a war can affect soldiers in negative ways..

World War 1 was one of the first wars that involved many countries and millions of people were killed. Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age shows how the war was fought and the how it affected the soldiers. World War 1 was huge and the soldiers would witness horrors that many people haven’t come close to experiencing. Eksteins talks about how these horrors and boredom can be interchangeable depending on the person’s. The men fighting during the Great War became use to the horrors and eventually were able to experience them with little to no affect. This can be seen when Eksteins writes about a young soldier who is eating while there is a man who has been killed next to him. He writes that, “You look calmly at him for a moment, then you go back to eating your bread”, showing how he cannot only just deal with the situations, but also have no reaction to the man (Eksteins 154). Soldiers become impervious to the grave situation surrounding them as to help them remain in a decent state of mind.

When a soldier comes back home war, however, the damage inflicted doesn’t cease. In Hemingway’s story this can be seen, where the reader experiences a soldiers return through their eyes. While the soldier doesn’t see anything wrong about himself, his parents know that he has changed and want him to return to normal. The main problem affecting the soldier is his loss of interest in doing anything that requires him to exert himself. This can be seen in a variety ways the first being his interest in women. He finds the women around him attractive but doesn’t want to chase them due to fact that, “he did not want to spend a long time getting her” (Hemingway 113). Another area where the soldier his loss of interest for anything can be seen is him getting a job. His father has offered him a job and doesn’t care where he works yet he doesn’t want one. He gets into an argument with his mother over this until he finally breaks, eventually promising that he will talk to his dad but decides that he will not go. He has lost his drive to do things since his return from war.

The Psychological affects that war have on a person can be tremendous. Stories of war and the atrocities that occur can get lost in dedication towards the ones that died and their families but also affect the people that witness them. Hemingway and Eksteins show how soldiers deal with the horrors that they have seen and show how it changes from on and off the battlefield. During the battles the soldiers become impervious to the atrocities as to avoid from them having to deal with them; while back in the civilian world they become antisocial and lose their drive to pursue anything. There is no question on the fact that these soldiers were negatively affected by war and it is understandable. Wars are horrific and it is difficult to come out mentally unscathed.

Sources:

Eksteins, Modris. Rites Of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: n.p, 1987. Print.

When History Repeats Itself

There is no arguing that within the past couple of centuries there has been drastic changes in the United States. Even with these changes however, there are still many ways that the United States is still resembles things in their past. War has seen a makeover yet even though there have been many decades separating the past American wars there are many similarities between each one of them. This can be seen in the articles “War Communication Before Modern Technology” by Kate Kelly and “American Soldiers Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq” by Michael R. Gordon, in relation to the book, Black Hawk Down, written by Mark Bowden.

            During war communication is vital in ensuring that a mission gets completed with as little difficulties as possible. Since the Americans fought the Civil War and the Battle of the Black Sea there has been many changes but a flaw has remained, complex communication causing causalities. In Kate Kelly’s paper she brings up a key communication strategy during the Civil War called flag signals. While this may not be as technologically advance as some of their other communication strategies it is very complex, requiring the flag raiser to communicate by raising a flag in different positions. During flag raising, the raiser would sometimes be put at exposure for enemy fire while relaying a message to someone. This caused many causalities according to Kelly and sometimes could prove ineffective.

Fast forward over a century, the United States is using radio frequencies to direct troops in Mogadishu, Somalia. During the operation communication was establish with using multiple frequencies for different troops and command. This makes a game of telephone of sorts, with troops and command on different frequencies and a middle man that must transfer messages. This communication strategy can fail when information is not relayed quickly enough or is not accurate. This can be seen in Bowden’s book when helicopters are trying to relay information to the Humvees below. The ground troops are trying to reach a down black hawk but the information they receive is either inaccurate or too late. This causes the troops to spend unwanted time taking heavy enemy fire which prove to be fatal.

Even with causalities and wounded, the soldiers were still able to complete their main mission, to capture enemy militants and return to base. Gordon has recently written about a similar mission has taken place in Hawija, Iraq. Their mission was to capture militants, and just like in Mogadishu, a soldier was killed in action. This shows that operation missions are often similar to ones that have taken place in the past. This mission has taken twenty years later and shows that even though the United States has done similar missions over years there is still a chance of death. While this operation is not as gruesome as the battle in Mogadishu, it show shows that we still have room for improvement.

It is important when looking into the past to learn from previous mistakes and advance. It is foolish to expect perfection, as there are always variables that are uncontrollable, but it’s stupid to do nothing to improve. The United States military has come a long way since the Civil War and may new factors have risen with the evolution of war. There are many factors that remain the same, such as communication and the types of operations that are carried out, and it’s important that we improve on them. There is always room for improvement and with new technology and tactics rising the nature of war will change over the years, but key elements that remain must not be forgotten and expanded on. The United States does not want to get left in the dust.

Sources:

Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A Story Of Modern War. New York. Grove Press,1999. Print

Gordon, Michael. "American Soldier Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq". The New York Times. 22 October. 2015. Web. 27 October.2015

Kelly, Kate. "War Communication Before Modern Technology." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Mar. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.