Who on here has been

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Ok, so reading a detailed journal of a Vietnam veteran(My uncle, who died in that war)wouldn't give me at least a little more info than the average joe? I say nah, I say that it would. I don't know what type of effect it will have on me personally, I could freeze up like the one guy in Saving Private Ryan...I could be an exemplary soldier, like my uncle was. I don't know. But I do know that war is indeed hell. The conditions my uncle described were terrible.You see,PJ, it's not the movies I get my information from. It's directly from the horse's mouth. So don't tell me I don't know at least a little more than some guy off the street who's never been.
 
Reading about someone else's war can't tell you what yours will be like. I've talked to most of the guys who served together in a platoon in Vietnam. Do you know how many of them relate identical experiences and feelings about said experiences? None. They're all different. That's because people are different. You are a unique person and you will handle an experience in a way that is unique.
 
that's what I said... As shown here
C/1Lt Henderson said:
I don't know what type of effect it will have on me personally
but I do believe that it gives me just a tad more insight than any average joe who's never been to war but has seen every war movie ever made.
 
The true accounts that you are reading are great. I am a reenactor and read non-fiction books on war all the time. I don't rely on hollywood... but I definitely do not read a book like Beyond Valor (in this case it is a book filled with WWII vets detailed accounts of many different battles) and say I know more about what it is like being in a war than the average person. Reading these books teaches me that war is a terrible thing to be involved in instead of the glorified versions hollywood has... however, it does NOT teach me about what it is like to be in a firefight or put me any closer to a firefight.

I kind of understand where you are coming from C/1Lt. Henderson - but I'd choose your words more carefully, especially around people who have seen combat.
 
I tried...They think that my only ideas of combat are from Hollywood and other untrue sources...They aren't...I agree, the acccounts do not put me any closer to the war and won't tell me how they will affect me, they will however give me at least a little more insight as to the effects of war.My uncle's journal doesn't give me a first hand experience, but it does give me some more information. Which is basically what you are saying.
 
C/1Lt Henderson said:
I tried...They think that my only ideas of combat are from Hollywood and other untrue sources...They aren't...I agree, the acccounts do not put me any closer to the war and won't tell me how they will affect me, they will however give me at least a little more insight as to the effects of war.My uncle's journal doesn't give me a first hand experience, but it does give me some more information. Which is basically what you are saying.

If your favorite part of "Band Of Brothers" was the Veterans who gave their accounts at the end and through the movie, you are on the right path. I could listen to those guys all day long without a break. I'm still waiting for my copy of Dick Winter's book, "Beyond Band Of Brothers," I haven't read much about the reviews because I want to judge for myself.

I was one of the troops who got in and out before VietNam fired up, from 1962-1965, and, after talking to a lot of the Vets, I'm not ashamed to say I'm glad I didn't have to go even though I would have. Even through three boring, long years, I count myself fortunate and them American heroes.
 
Of course it is. Call me a history buff, but I love listening to them. I love listening to veterans of any war recall their stories. It's infinintly interesting. To study the wars and then to hear a first-hand account is fascinating.I haven't heard much about his book...I'd like to get it....
 
It's confusing listening to you guys say what you are saying (which I agree with). Then you turn on the military channel or whatever and you hear people saying that when they were in firefights in Iraq, it was "like a videogame". I really have no clue what I'm talking about here, see i have a problem where i just start typing for no reason. Anyway, I dont know...
 
Ah the powerful romantic notion of glorious battle. Even I suffered from those when I was a youngster. The longing for testing yourself under vary arduous circumstance is longing.... but some some reason you never take into account the possibility of being horribly maimed or becoming a POW. Who said again that only the people who have never seen war glorify it?
 
Henderson, I personally hope you never enter the military, we have enough loud mouthed I want to pretend to know it all dummies, we don't need anymore. :???:



It's directly from the horse's mouth. So don't tell me I don't know at least a little more than some guy off the street who's never been.

I'll say it slow since you don't seem smart enough to catch on.

You. Don't. Know. S.H.I.T.

Frankly, to me, you're no better than the "Billy" guy on myspace. A poser, different stripes perhaps, but a poser nonetheless.

 
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It's really hard to bite my tounge here...PJ, no where in my posts did I say I know it all. No where in any of my posts, EVER, have I said I know it all.I'm not a dummy, and I would appreciate it if I wasn't called one by a person online who doesn't know me.Even if that person has been in the military for however long. I simply said that I thought reading my uncle's journals gave me a tiny bit more insight than the average joe. If that is being a know-it-all, then forgive me, but if that is even in the ball park of being correct, then I would appreciate it if you stopped calling me names.
 
Henderson, having made the same error when I was younger, I can tell you that trying to imply to most guys who have been "on the sharp end" that you any clue what they've been through is going to provoke a firestorm. You may understand the words they use, but the actual human impact is something no words can convey. Maybe PJ can cut you a bit of slack, though, since we've all put our proverbial dangly bits in a bear trap when we were young and invincible.
 
moving0target said:
Henderson, having made the same error when I was younger, I can tell you that trying to imply to most guys who have been "on the sharp end" that you any clue what they've been through is going to provoke a firestorm. You may understand the words they use, but the actual human impact is something no words can convey. Maybe PJ can cut you a bit of slack, though, since we've all put our proverbial dangly bits in a bear trap when we were young and invincible.

Negative. I've cut him slack several times because I had thought he might make a good soldier some day. In several different threads and posts he's stepped on his crank and I've tried to guide him through easy comments and PMs. He's burned through any patience I once had with him. You can only step in the trap so many times before a guy gets tired of helping you get it out of it.
 
moving0target said:
Roger. As a relative newbie here, I'm unaware of past history. Fire away, sir.

Hey now, I didn't call you names!:mrgreen:

You made a good point, and I agree 100% with it. There just comes a time when "youth" can't be an excuse anymore.
 
Next thing he'll call you flyboy... :) By the way where is Marinerhodes??
Hehehehe... on topic no one ever kicks yer teeth in when you make a mistake, it happens when you REPEAT the mistake and it gets worse when you make excuses for the mistake... at least that's how I see it being done. Best thing, for those that have ears to hear, is to take it on the chin, learn from it, forget about your pride (as it is a worthless concept in the context of learning), learn from the mistake and drive on. In the military, pissing and moaning and making excuses will only piss off the instructor/NCO/Officer type who is correcting your deficiency.

In a thread about combat experience it is assinine to assume one might know anything about combat who hasn't been in it and if you presume to think you do and someone who has been there and done that tells you you know SFA you should STFU and reconsider your position. If this were a thread about nuclear physics and you figure you have read about the A-bomb so you "know" all about it, would you then proceed to argue with someone who has a PhD in physics when they tell you you are wrong? Hell no... and this ain't no different. When an expert tells you, you are wrong you shut up and listen... two ears, one mouth.

Combat is not something you can read about and "know" anymore than reading about giving birth equates to knowing what it is like, reading about cutting a man's throat to establish and airway is entirely different from actually taking a scalpel and CUTTING the throat of another living person to save their life. You abso:cen:inglutley do not know what these things are like until you actually doing it for real. Some months back young Cadet Seaman copped it on the chin from a mod for trying to argue his experiences playing paintball equated to combat and somehow validated his point of view and rendered him able to argue about it with a real life combat vet. WRONG.

Some of our younger members would be well served to take a step back and think about the fact that these are not just letters on a screen you are arguing with but real life honest to god men who are in uniform and have been in harm's way more than once and to argue something like this with them is the height of stupidity.

Thus endeth the rant.
 
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Can't add anything to what PJ & Bulldogg said except the following:
If it walks like a duck and squawks like duck, then it must be a duck. Just substitute "know-it-all" for duck.
my 2 cents.
 
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