At the beginning, in officer's club, he said: "I am actually excited to go, a competitive excitement!" I keep wondering how on earth could he say that and feel that when most assuredly he's seen soooo many men and (underlings, too) come back all *beep* up? I know he wasn't screwed on too tightly anyway, but he could not have been THAT naive.
Can someone explain anything else about this?
Did you not get the point that they kept the badly wounded far away and out of sight? It's wasn't until anti-war reached frenzied levels that photos (see Life Magazine) of horribly wounded started appearing in mass media
shareYes, I saw the point they were making. But Dern was in the Marines his whole life, and he MUST have had friends, comrades, acquaintances, PEOPLE that he knew that did NOT come back. I.E ("Hey, Sally (his wife) did ya hear about so and so, he can't walk? And so and so is MIA etc. etc." He wasn't 18 yrs old, right out of high school like say, Ron Kovic, and had NO idea, no friends in the military, no nothing.
Understand what I'm asking?
It is difficult to articulate to you on this type of forum, the powerful pull a professional soldier feels to deploy and prove himself in war. Dern was a Marine officer, a professional and a volunteer - not a draftee. Professional soldiers "march to the sound of the guns..." because that is ultimately what soldiers are expected to do.
Yes, war is crappy and people die, become mutilated and are psychlogically damaged. This happens in all wars and is not specific to Vietnam. The thing is that we convince ourselves (soldiers, that is) that it won't happen to us - despite the casualties. I just returned from Afghanistan and I was eager to get over there and fulfil my duty. It is a test of what we'd been training to do. Also, one can't stay at home while his buddies are all in harm's way. We need to go together and look after each other.
No matter how well read you are, civilians will never fully grasp this.
Wow. Really well put. I never thought of it in those terms: not only does one feel he HAS to go, but he feels invincible; all the bad sh!t will happen to someone else.
Thanks for that perspective: I am glad you are back safely and hope you are adjusting well:)