Preview

Serving in the Army

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1195 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Serving in the Army
Serving in the army

In America, serving in the army is often associated with respect and honour. From an outsider’s view, America has always been a very patriotic country based on a strong passion for freedom and democracy. So is that the driving power that makes so many young American men and women to enlist themselves in the Army? Yet it seems that not everyone looks upon the army with the same amount of respect, and maybe America today isn’t as patriotic as it used to be.

In the text “A soldier’s story: War affects whole family” the parents of Army Sergeant Ryan Kahlor express their recent opposition to the army, after their son’s traumatizing experience. Ryan Kahlor’s father explains he had felt a patriotic surge after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and had therefore been proud of his son joining the army. But his thoughts about the war already changed during Ryan’s first tour where he complained about ineffective body armour and poorly armoured vehicles. The war has left Ryan with a series of complications, both physical and psychological. He says that in combat there is no time to grieve, and when you see a friend die you just go back to work. And he explains that without the help from the National Center for PTSD, he’d probably be dead. But Ryan still suffers from survivor’s guilt and still has a lot to work on. Yet it seems that he doesn’t regret his time in the army because it has matured him and made him stronger and more confident. The only thing he has to say about the war, is that they are fighting for peoples’ right to speak out. His parents, however, wish that he had never gone in.

The text “The Making of a Marine Officer” illustrates a different look upon warfare. Lieutenant Fick, a former marine officer explains that the marines made him become a man. He says he joined the marines in search of a transformative adventure that could make him stronger and more capable. In the marines you develop a powerful group and a strong bond

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Brad Kasal

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The book is full of Marine jargon, acronyms, and history, and it provides insight into Marine training and combat preparation. This book shows not only the endurance, courage, unselfishness, and loyalty of Brad Kasal, but also the heroism, valor, and honor of the United States Marine Corps.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Co. K Chapter Summary

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He makes his argument by explaining that war is not the heroic, friendly battle it is commonly believed to be. Many soldiers lost their innocence and values during wartime. They found themselves killing twenty-two helpless prisoners, committing suicide, and just killing at random. A type of animalistic instinct kicked in when sent off to fight; the heroic aspect of war quickly vanished and was replaced with the fear of survival. He relays the account of an injured German trying to reach out for help after being wounded. The American soldiers automatically thought he was trying to get a grenade and shot him to death. The German was only reaching in his pocket to get a picture of his daughter. This is an example of a changed soldier who, after serving for so long, thinks of only one thing--killing. Evidence supporting March’s thought on WWI’s violent battles opens the eyes of uninformed readers to what wartime was truly like. Thus, Co. K gives its audience a different perspective on wartime…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joker One Sparknotes

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book opens with Campbell on his first day as a platoon leader. His group of men was small for a platoon at first, but Campbell soon got word that he and his platoon would be sent to Iraq in a matter of months. Due to this, tens of men were sent to him fresh out of school. The youthful Marines were newly-enlisted and inexperienced. Here, Campbell faced his first challenge: transforming these brand-new soldiers into an effective combat unit.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cries of war come in different shapes and sizes. While Anthony Swofford cried most of his tears through his memoir, others who served in the Marine Corps during his time had found other ways to cry. In the Swofford’s memoir, Jarhead, he illustrates how one of his former comrades at war had handled the aftermath of service in the Marines during the Gulf War. “I asked him if maybe he should talk to someone at the Veterans Administration hospital, and he declined, insisting that they could not tell him anything he didn’t already know. Before we hung up, he said, “We fired the same rifle. You have the same problems as me.”” While Swofford seemed to be in good functioning condition, his old comrade Fergus seemed to have been struggling psychologically with the aftermath effects of the war. Fergus’ psychological issues seemed to be his own cry into the world outside of the Marine Corps. Swofford and all of his crew mates experienced the horrors…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soldiers looked for ways to communicate their experience to those who were not soldiers. O”Brien, Komunyakka, and Owen are soldiers who each wrote a text describing soldiers at war from their personal point of view. O”Brien writes to get others to understand the physical, mental, and emotional things soldiers carried during war. Komunyakka writes to get others to understand how the soldiers must face death and reality at the same time while also having emotions as any other human does. Owen writes and exhibits his frustration with the condition that the soldiers were in and the point of view of people who haven’t experienced war first hand. All three soldiers wrote to better communicate with the world the conditions and reality to those…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This book embodies all of the facets that go along with love and death, during a volatile time of war. O 'Brien captures the theme of emotional conflict and how strongly it affects soldiers in a brilliant way. By correlating mundane goods with intangibles like feelings and emotion, he successfully points out all of the angles of war that the lay person generally cannot comprehend. He compels the reader to understand not just the daily grind of war, but how the little things can bring important things in life into perspective. He digs under the surface of the tangible items to demonstrate a much greater meaning to these mens lives. In essence, the soldiers are defined by the things they…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tim O Brien Themes

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the beginning of the story he finds out that he has made a mistake in joining the army he’s scared out of his mind. He kept dreaming about times where he was safe or at home with his parents. He envisions the future of him being alive and having war buddies and talking about his war experiences with them. He wasn’t just scared of dying, he’s also scared of fear itself, ha, that’s ironic isn’t it. He wants to share with his parents all the details of his experiences but he doesn’t want to tell them how scared he was so they would be proud of him.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When one thinks of war, the general thought is that it inspires acts of patriotism and heroism. No one really looks deeper into the topic to find that along with patriotism and heroism there are often feelings of shame and loneliness. In The Things They Carried it is clear that most of the soldiers in the war do not come back with a sense of pride or honor. Most come back wishing they had never gone at all. Tim O'Brien reveals that because Vietnam precipitated such traumatic experiences, his storytelling is a great way to cope with his shame and loneliness, emphasizing that the war experience is not one of patriotism and heroism, but one of loneliness and guilt.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fatalities are part of every person’s life. To a normal citizen, death is often followed by sadness and grief. As portrayed in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, a soldier has to deal with the situation much differently. Death is portrayed in a negative light due to the fact that soldiers are greatly fearful of it and that they are forced to be unaffected by death. In order to cope with all the deaths he witnessed, O’Brien uses the retelling of war stories to heal from these traumatic events.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people are not war veterans, and will never truly understand how soldiers felt when serving. But emotions are a common concept among people, and as people experience life they endure different emotions through different situations. When reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, you are shown through storytelling how the soldier felt when they were in Vietnam. Each story has different connections with different emotions to show how the soldier felt. When the reader can make emotional connections to a story by understanding the feelings associated with fear, guilt, and loneliness, O’Brien then has broken his rule of how to write a true war story.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mike Clark Narrative

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” War creates many experiences that continues to play an evident role in many soldiers lives. One particular soldier, Mike Clark, globally shares his story of being a Vietnam veteran, and the difficult times that he underwent during the Vietnam War. Clark’s personal story is unique because of the difficult decisions he makes and the factors that cause him to make them. Clark explains the reality behind joining the military and witnessing the tragedies that are experienced during the war. While exploring Mike Clark’s Vietnam War story and remembering the war veterans, it is important to consider…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First To Fight

    • 447 Words
    • 1 Page

    When reading this book, I truley learned the history and truth behind the United States Marine Corps. As a whole, the Marine Corps had a very long journey in the beginning. We have overcame so many obstacles and struggles along the way, and it has only made us stronger as a whole "team". As we began to learn to work together as a team, we started to prove ourselves. General Krulak shared secret behind-the-scenes information on new assult vehicles that were needed to attack on enemy beaches. These vehicles provided new technology for our Marine Corps. General Krulak convinced an admiral to board one of the demonstration vehicles. Krulak ended up attacking a coral reef and knocking the vehicle off track. The admiral was already enraged by taking up time to try and give this demonstration veicle a chance to prove his thoughts wrong. Admiral ended up jumping into the knee deep water and was sent back out to his ship shortly after. Later after reading, I came to find out the obstacles we had to overcome with making and carrying out actions with our bombs in specific weather conditions. The Marine Corps are not always given many materials to make "weapons" with. We were taught and coached on how to make do with what was given to us. We learned to innovate and try new things. We had to learn and abide by the term of being "frugal" with our belongings. We had to experiment and never give up. We had to never lose hope or give in. After a while of learning to use our stock wisely, we were able to invent new weapons. Towards the end of my reading, I started to relate to the book, thinking of my actions in my everyday lifestyle. It talks about the Marine Corps relationship with the public and how people kind of "percieve" the Marine Corps. As a Marine, I know that we uphold one of the highest images and are always know to be ready for anything, and because we have been molded and shaped into that type of team, it has withheld that image for the…

    • 447 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rifleman Dodd

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I believe that the mission of the author, Victor H. Krulak, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.), in writing this book was to describe how vital the United States Marine Corps is to our nation and that through the extensive preparation and training we receive, we have become the leading fighting force on and off the battle field. The purpose of this book was to inspire readers about the Marine Corps and to explain stories about how different equipment came into the Corps and how we perfected them. The author’s goal was the educate readers based on his personal experiences and opinions about the Marine Corps livelihood, duty and history.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Annotated Biography

    • 671 Words
    • 2 Pages

    James Broomall provides readers information about being together of group of soldiers. War links all soldiers together as a family where they can share their emotions and encouragements to each other. James Broomall shows that army life forms a temporary community of men and brings them closer. These soldiers learn how to protect each other from the war. He says that every soldier sees the military camp as his home and their fellows as his brothers. James Broomall goes to the stage that all soldiers see their partners as intimate and whom they can share everything they have.…

    • 671 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I Was Only 19 Essay

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The theme explores the horrifying and devastating effects that war has on the young soldiers involved. It shows the horrors and experiences; mental and physical problems that the young men had to deal with during and after the war. Some of these horrors included seeing their best mates killed in…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays