shipped off to war. Marlantes implies that boot camp should not be accessible at the age of 18 and rather, soldiers should be more experienced and older in order to enlist.
The minds of the young kids, at the beginning of their deployment, were convinced by demonizing used in propaganda that the North Vietnamese were evil and worth killing. (Shah). However, the posters never taught the young men how to deal with the guilt of killing. Therefore, as they returned home, many soldiers had similar experiences to Marlantes: “[T]hat body was shut down against pain as far as I could get it shut. Shut down to where it would not feel a thing, while my mind was still seven thousand miles away, unattached, floating, watching” (Marlantes 185). The perplexity …show more content…
According to one soldier who fought in Vietnam, it was “a trip through the Twilight Zone, a Freddy Cruggar (Friday the 13th) movie and Disneyland all rolled into one” (Hochgesang and Lawyer and Stevenson). The variety of emotions and experiences a young soldier must go through in the process of a war is similar to that seen at a religious retreat. They are inspired with a passion to kill and destroy, however, unlike a religious retreat, they are not supposed to bring these characteristics home with them. Marlantes comments, “[I] do know that at age fifteen I had a mystical experience that scared the hell out of me and both it and combat put me into a different relationship with ordinary life and eternity” (Marlantes 8). This changed view of reality is why many veterans are never completely understood in returning home. Their complicated experiences put them in places and situations where killing and death never has time to process. In recollecting the war, Marlantes furthers, “[W]e should have had time to talk with our buddies about what we all had shared. We joined our units alone, and we came home alone” (Marlantes 182). This idea is one ahead of Marlantes’ time. The sense of community building that he suggests was not seen in the mandatory fashion until during the Iraq and Afghanistan …show more content…
The reincorporation of the warrior is a relatively difficult process due to the complexity of emotions experienced on the frontlines. However, the process should begin, according to Marlantes, in a relatively simple manner. In describing a budding relationship started after returning to the United States, he recounts, “[H]e pumped blood back into me, weekend by weekend, by the simple act of being with me” (Marlantes 188). The homeland culture must be prepared to accept veterans back into their communities, while ignoring their personal opinions of the war. One of the biggest issues resulting from the Vietnam War was that the soldiers had left while public opinion for the war was high, but they had returned when the war was being protested and heavily criticized (Support for Vietnam War). Marlantes, other than calling for more time for decompression, makes the case that it is up to the citizens of a country to bring back the sometimes lost souls of a war. This idea modifies the traditional perception of the military that PTSD is solely a problem between the veterans and their
The minds of the young kids, at the beginning of their deployment, were convinced by demonizing used in propaganda that the North Vietnamese were evil and worth killing. (Shah). However, the posters never taught the young men how to deal with the guilt of killing. Therefore, as they returned home, many soldiers had similar experiences to Marlantes: “[T]hat body was shut down against pain as far as I could get it shut. Shut down to where it would not feel a thing, while my mind was still seven thousand miles away, unattached, floating, watching” (Marlantes 185). The perplexity …show more content…
According to one soldier who fought in Vietnam, it was “a trip through the Twilight Zone, a Freddy Cruggar (Friday the 13th) movie and Disneyland all rolled into one” (Hochgesang and Lawyer and Stevenson). The variety of emotions and experiences a young soldier must go through in the process of a war is similar to that seen at a religious retreat. They are inspired with a passion to kill and destroy, however, unlike a religious retreat, they are not supposed to bring these characteristics home with them. Marlantes comments, “[I] do know that at age fifteen I had a mystical experience that scared the hell out of me and both it and combat put me into a different relationship with ordinary life and eternity” (Marlantes 8). This changed view of reality is why many veterans are never completely understood in returning home. Their complicated experiences put them in places and situations where killing and death never has time to process. In recollecting the war, Marlantes furthers, “[W]e should have had time to talk with our buddies about what we all had shared. We joined our units alone, and we came home alone” (Marlantes 182). This idea is one ahead of Marlantes’ time. The sense of community building that he suggests was not seen in the mandatory fashion until during the Iraq and Afghanistan …show more content…
The reincorporation of the warrior is a relatively difficult process due to the complexity of emotions experienced on the frontlines. However, the process should begin, according to Marlantes, in a relatively simple manner. In describing a budding relationship started after returning to the United States, he recounts, “[H]e pumped blood back into me, weekend by weekend, by the simple act of being with me” (Marlantes 188). The homeland culture must be prepared to accept veterans back into their communities, while ignoring their personal opinions of the war. One of the biggest issues resulting from the Vietnam War was that the soldiers had left while public opinion for the war was high, but they had returned when the war was being protested and heavily criticized (Support for Vietnam War). Marlantes, other than calling for more time for decompression, makes the case that it is up to the citizens of a country to bring back the sometimes lost souls of a war. This idea modifies the traditional perception of the military that PTSD is solely a problem between the veterans and their