War Experiences
Name
Institutional Affiliation
War Experiences
Introduction
The majority of the people lack the knowledge of what it looks like to participate in the war. The majority of the people have a war experience that obtained from watching movies. The movie experience has encouraged most people to participate in the war to attain the heroism that comes with war victory. However, according to Philip Caputo and Eugene Sledge’s memoir, the war experience is not an experience that people should want to experience. War is one of the most destructive and brutal human activities in the world and should be avoided. War experiences have an intense and strangely compelling effect on the lives of those who participate in the fights. Some people end up attain permanent disabilities from these fights, others are affected psychologically, and in other cases, people end up losing their lives and that of their loved ones. However, despite these adverse effects of the war experiences, the experience also helps to reveal the power of a selfless sense of purpose and brotherhood in achieving the intended objectives. The paper will discuss war experiences. It will also address the importance of brotherhood in winning wars by drawing examples from Caputo and Sledge memoirs.
The majority of the people who admire to military and to participate in wars are the young people. Such was the case with Sledge and Caputo. Both Sledge and Caputo were young and naïve when they joined to join the marine and fight for their country. As such, they lacked the necessary experience of war, death, and the constant killings. As a result, when these young individuals finally participate in the real battle, the end up developing a mix of emotions by realizing that the experience is not exactly what they had anticipated. The emotions acquired during the fight shape their experience of war and how they relate with others when they return home. Marines, such as Sledge, found it challenging to interact with civilians at the end of his service since they could not understand the challenges he and his comrades encountered on the battlefield (Sledge, 200).
Constant killings are major experiences on the battlefield. These killings occur to both the soldiers and the enemy. As seen in the memoirs, soldiers on the battlefield inevitably confront murder. These soldiers acknowledge that they have to take the life of their enemies without hesitation, failure to which the enemy will kill them. In so doing, the soldiers breach one of the essential moral values of the society, which in most cases, have long-term consequences. For example, most of the soldiers experience haunting memories for such actions. Caputo explains how he suffered reporting soldiers who had lost their lives in their line of duty, where he even declared himself “the Officer in Charge of the Dead.” One of the most sensitive cases that he had to report was that of First Lieutenant Walter Neville Levy, one of the people that he admired and looked up to (Caputo, 2017). Levy was killed trying to save a colleague who had already been killed. Caputo was also moved by the killing of other officers, including Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan, and Adam Simpson, one of his former classmates at Quantico (Caputo, 2017).
The impacts of the killings are evident in Caputo’s actions due to his comrades’ deaths. Caputo was full of rage and was a thirst to kill. The anger led to the formation of a patrol that went to two Japanese who were active guerillas and who played an active role in the setting of land mines that would kill the American soldiers. Due to the rage of seeing their comrades killed, the soldiers killed the two individuals instead of taking them as prisoners as required by the law. Sledge also expresses the agony of having comrades murdered on the battlefield (Caputo, 2017). Sled began to suffer the experience of killings when he saw some of his companions being killed as they run from Amtrak to the beach. Sled expresses how he became overwhelmed by the realization of how war destroys so many young lives. Sled is also terrified by the sight of an enemy corpse. However, he notices the relaxed attitude of the veteran comrade and consoles himself that he will soon become desensitized to such visions with time (Sledge, 2007). However, he later encounters another horrifying scene when he comes across a badly mutilated American corpse with his private parts cut and put in his mouth. These experiences stick in his mind and create a lot of fear (Sledge, 2007).
The harsh environment is yet another war experience. Fighting in harsh conditions is one of the tactics that enable people to win the war. The enemies drive their opponents in harsh conditions that drain their energy, allowing them to overpower their opponents. Many soldiers have complained of fighting in unfavorable weather conditions, such as fighting under the scorching sun, feeding on terrible food, cramped sanitary, and the lack of rest, among others. All these factors add to the most grueling conditions for the soldiers to pursue their enemies. Such conditions discourage soldiers. Without appropriate motivation, the solders are likely to give up, rendering the mission unsuccessful. Sled and Caputo also acknowledge fighting in such environmental conditions and how they were tortured. According to Sledge, the fighting in Okinawa was one of the worst missions he conducted. Sledge argues the marines had to deal with the severe environmental condition in addition to the usual combat stress. The marines had to fight in knee-deep mud and with constant rain.
Fighting in such conditions proved challenging and would drive them to states of uncontrollable anger. There was also noise, the smell of rotting bodies, and human excrement (Sledge, 2007). Working in such harrowing conditions results in significant mental collapse. Since Sledge had not survived in such an environment, the experience affected his mind, and when life would become unbearable, he would convince himself that his in the middle of a nightmare (Sledge, 2007). Caputo also expresses the experience in Okinawa. Caputo claims to have experienced more conflict with snakes, mosquitos, and centipedes as compared to their target (Caputo, 2017). In other instances, a colleague would step on a land mine, leaving the soldier with severe injuries and, in most cases, killing them.
Despite the horrifying experiences encountered on the battlefield, the experience of wars helps to reveal the importance of brotherhood and purpose in achieving a given objective. The ability of self-sacrifice among human beings is best revealed among soldiers during a war. Soldiers in a war demonstrate their love for one another by their willingness to die for another person. The majority of the veteran soldiers feel that their lives only matter when they are in combat. These veterans feel that their comrades are the only real families that they can trust for having their back in the battle, making it challenging for them to develop good relationships with the outside world. This is because; fellow soldiers understand their experiences and therefore have an idea of what they are going through compared to other civilians. The act of brotherhood is evident in both memoirs. In Caputo’s memoir, he explains how Lieutenant Levy lost his life trying to rescue his colleague, who had already been killed by the Japanese (Caputo, 2017). It was the greatest act of selflessness sacrificing one’s life for the sake of a colleague. The killing of their colleagues angered other officers, and they had to revenge. The soldiers also care for each other mental conditions to ensure that everyone is in the right state to fight the enemy (Caputo, 2017). In Sledge’s memoir, he expresses how Captain Andrew “Ack Ack” Haldane as a leader, was concerned with his team welfare. Haldane had deep interests to ensure that the team members were responding well to the war experiences, especially the young soldiers who had no prior war experience.
Some of the soldiers, as seen in Sledge’s memoir, were harsh in protecting their comrades. For example, Sledge claims that he hated Corporal Doherty, the instructor, for his icy personality and severe discipline, which Sledge interpreted as harassment on the recruits. Sled later realized that the Doherty was concerned with their safety and had to instill disciple among the soldiers for them to survive and persevere the harsh war experiences. The brotherhood war experience makes Sledge open up to Lt. Edward Jones, alias “Hillbilly,” expressing his deep, debilitating fear of combat. Hillbilly assures him that fear is a normal feeling during the war, and everyone, including himself, struggles with it from time to time. Hillbilly motivated him to focus on his duty and give less thought of fear. The advice was a help to Sledge as it made him feel understood and valued and extended the information to comrades who with the same feeling.
In conclusion, war experience is one of the worst experiences in the world. Most people have been deceived by films to think of war experience as a good experience that almost everyone can persevere. Young people have joined the marine and the army to gain the fame and recognition of a successful war without comprehension of the challenges. Wars are associated with killings. Killings many of one’s opponent in a battle is considered as victory, and every side will kill to protect their colleagues. War experience also includes fighting in some unbearable environmental conditions. Most of the wars are fought in environments with poor sanitation, lack of adequate food, and rainfall. Soldiers can also fight in life-threatening conditions, such as those with landmines. The experience during the war also helps to create a sense of purpose and brotherhood. The experience in the war makes soldiers willing to die for another soldier. Many soldiers have been killed trying to rescue their colleagues. Before one can decide on whether to join the marine and the army, one needs to assess these war experiences to make an informed decision.
References
Caputo, P. (2017). A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir. Picador USA.
Sledge E.B. (2007). With the Old Breed. At Peleliu and Okinawa. The Random House Publishing Group.