"We The Few, The Happy Few, We Band Of Brothers" - William Shakespeare, Henry V

Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, conservative or liberal, capitalist or socialist - today it matters not.   It is the men and women, our true patriots, who rightfully deserve to be honored today for serving America and allowing us to have these sometimes meaningless debates and arguments. 

Earlier today, I had a brief conversation with spunkybean's Don about putting this column together and on his Facebook page he eloquently stated the following on his status:

"Sweet is war to those who have never experienced it." -Latin Proverb

My intention in this piece is list off some books, movies, and games (yeah, there are a few) that truly do portray war for what it really is and can give the recipient a brief taste of what serving our country in times of war can be like.   This will mostly focus on movies

FILMS:

Paths of Glory:  This is one of Stanley Kubrick's earlier works and still one of his greatest masterpieces.   Released in 1957, the film is set during World War I and doesn't really deal with actual combat as it does one of the darker traditions of military orders -defining and resolving cowardice and desertion.   The plot, briefly, involves high-ranking officers sending a squad on a suicide mission to take a hill held by Germans.  Even though this mission was considered a fool's-errand because of the unimportance of the hill strategically and potential loss of life it might entail, the ranking officers are offered promotions to carry out the orders.   They acquiesce, and the first two raids end up in total annihilation.  When the soldiers are ordered on a third run, they cannot advance due to the heavy artillery fire and are forced to retreat back to the trenches.   Rather than admit failure and poor planning, the high command decide to charge the squad with cowardice and randomly choose 3 of them to face the firing squad.  The reason was to teach a lesson the rest of the squad that they must follow orders no matter what the costs.   This is an old tradition that was practiced by the Roman Empire that is called Decimation.   To force the centurions and legionnaires to fight, the generals would kill every 10th solder in the squad to "motivate' the rest of them.   I chose this film, as grim as it is, to remind everyone, that even though many wars in our history have been unpopular, poorly planned, and poorly executed, we should never let that diminish the efforts made by our fighting men and women.   We can, and should, be critical of our leaders, but we shouldn't blame our soldiers for the failure of those leaders.   A lesson we all learned the hard way after Viet Nam and the shabby way we treated those who made it home.

Full Metal Jacket:  Another classic Stanley Kubrick war film that to me, is one of the best war films ever made (and one of my all time favorites).  I've written about this movie before.  Suffice it to say, Full Metal Jacket doesn't focus on the politics of war, but more portrays war through the eyes of the soldier.   There are two settings:  Boot Camp and Viet Nam (specifically Hue City and the Perfume River).   The Boot Camp focuses on the breaking down the mental, physical, and emotional state of man and rebuilding them into the quintessential Marine infantryman.   It is here where you see all the pomp, bluster, and jingoistic rhetoric of the military.   To quote Gunnery Sergeant, "If you do not follow my orders, you will be dead Marines.  You are then in a world of shit because Marines are not allowed to die without permission."  When the film shifts to the theater of war at Que Sanh, you begin to see all the tough talk become just that...talk.   When the Viet Cong attack the base at the beginning of the Tet Offensive, Joker states that he hopes that enemy is just "fucking with us, man...I ain't ready for this shit!" and in the end he ends up making a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life.  Again, this is grim film that shows us that our veterans sometimes sacrifice more than their lives and their limbs.   For those of us who have not seen combat, this is an aspect that we cannot possibly comprehend.  It is because of this that owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans that we'll never be able to properly repay to them.  

Saving Private Ryan:  Unlike the many films the focused on D-Day, this one (especially the first 20 minutes of the Normandy invasion) showed the gruesome reality of war and what our soldiers faced during the day that changed course of global history.   Steven Spielberg adequately captured the fear, the carnage, and the bravery of all who served the Allies that day.  It is not a glorious combat scene that features Mel Gibson running around waving a sword or firing a flintlock.   In watching this scene, I almost experienced mental overload in that I was frozen in my seat, simply stunned in disbelief that this was what the soldiers faced.   I realized that this was only a simulation and and couldn't even come close to the real thing. What I do remember was seeing some WWII vets in the theater, and afterward I heard them comment..."That's how it was."   I went up to them and thanked them.  It was abrupt and clearly not enough to repay them in kind for their sacrifice in a time when my parents weren't even born yet.  Yet, this is the character of our soldiers..which leads us to:

Band Of Brothers:  Not really a film, but a 10 part mini-series that premiered on HBO in 2001.  I've written about this series and the book before, so I won't spend a lot of time on this.  You really should view this series at least once.   The characters in this series were real people and there are interludes where the actual veterans give the audience their perspective of what they went through during that time.  What made the book and series brilliant was the use of the veteran's perspective.   The story was told through their eyes, their experiences, their losses, their victories, and eventual return home.  

BOOKS:

The Wild Blue - Stephen E. Ambrose:  Ambrose is best known for Band Of Brothers, but this book is just as riveting in it's focus on the men who flew the B-24 flying fortresses over Germany from 1944 to 1945 on bombing raids.   The book is written basically through the eyes of pilot George McGovern (who made an unsuccessful run for President in 1972) and those who crewed the plane with him.   Like Band of Brothers, there is no pretense of glory or adventure.  And like most soldiers, most of them will just say in a taciturn manner, "We had a job to do...and we did it."   Most importantly, unlike Top Gun, of which I will personally punch anyone who calls this a war film, does not glamorize fighter pilots.   The B-24 was, for all intents and purposes, a clunky, hard-to-fly, poorly insulated tin can that was placed in more dangerous scenarios than any ground trooper.   The life of a flyboy in one of these things was definitely not captured by them singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" to unassuming chicks in a neon-lit bar.   Although, they did deal with the shortcomings of the plane the best way they could, with humor.   The cartoons circulated through the airfields were easily some of funniest jokes I've seen.  They griped, the complained, and they groused...but they also joked, repaired, and came up with ingenious ways to make their lives a little easier when flying on missions.   This is a facet of WWII that we don't hear or read enough about.  Well worth the read and will definitely cause you to truly appreciate what our fighting men and women have done for us.  

The Civil War - Shelby Foote:  This series, three volumes in all for a total of 2,900 pages, is the ultimate telling of the Civil War.   It took Foote over 20 years to complete and publish...and it will probably take me just as long to read!   Now I know that Veteran's Day was established originally as Armistice Day in 1918 to mark the end of the first world war, but a few years ago, I watched an old newsreel from the 30s that had the remaining Civil War veterans reunite for what appeared to be the last time.  It was amazing to see soldiers from both sides shaking hands and embracing each other so many years after the war.   The Civil War goes down as one of the bloodiest wars in U.S. History with a tremendous loss of life.   The life of a soldier on either side of the Mason-Dixon line was pretty hardscrabble and sadly not even today do we as Americans take into consideration what was truly at stake at that time on a domestic or global level.  

1776 - David McCullough:  The patriots in our first war as a nation should serve as an inspiration to those who serve in today's military.   They didn't know what they were doing at at all and it took the enlistment of France and Spain to come to our aid and actually train us on how to effectively fight in 18th Century warfare.   That did help, but it is also interesting to note that is was because of our own improvised tactics, particularly in the southern colonies, that truly change the protocols of modern combat tactics.   The original regular Continental infantryman, often ill-equipped, should serve as the benchmark of the modern soldier.   It 's McCullough's book that gives us an insight on how precarious that first year of our fight for independence and the birth of our great nation was.  1776 also shows us how we relied on the simultaneous inexperience and ingenuity of the American soldier.  This serves as a lesson that sometimes making something of nothing can lead to good things.   

VIDEOGAMES:

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six or Rogue Spear:  This is it folks...it's only these two series of games that come remotely close to capturing the realities of war.   Why?  Because unlike the other "war" games out there, you don't have a life meter that allows you to take about oh....I dunno....5 to 6 head shots and still be able to run and shoot.   Nope, in Rainbow Six or Rogue Spear - if your soldier takes a hit - game over.   So the strategy of these games is NOT to run into a field with all guns blazing... the actual trick is to not get shot.  It's nowhere near capturing the true reality of war, and the games are still fun to play, but don't go thinking that you're a battle-tested Specials Ops guy because you got to the last level of game. 

True Believers...today we honor the veterans and soldiers of our military forces.   I ask all of us, for one day, to put aside our ideological differences (which seem so trivial now), and take the time to express our gratitude to them.   They are the reason that we have the freedom to speak our minds, engage in political discourse, and debate our own perceived values with little or no true reprisal or repression.   Freedom is not free, they say...and while it doesn't seem to cost you, me, and many other American citizens anything...many others have paid the price on our behalf. 

To our fighting men and women from wars present and past, all I can truly say is....Thank You!

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Hits: 351

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form

This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.