Tim O’Brien’s memoir of his experience in Viet Nam begins with his dalliance with the idea of becoming a draft-dodger to Canada. So prevalent was this reaction to the draft that in the Initiation Week package I was given upon university registration in 1967 was a Guide to American Draft Dodgers To Canada. He utlimately served in Viet Nam and this series of loosely connected short stories details the experience of he and his fellow squad members.
The things they carried were not limited to the items on their persons and in their packs but extended to the psychological baggage they brought with them to Nam, the physical and mental scars they suffered in battle, and the trauma they brought back with them state-side. Call it post-traumatic stress disorder, battle-fatigue, Gulf-War Syndrome, shell shock.... the aftermath of war for the participants lingers long after the vets return. It is now posited that dealing with the needs of those vets wounded in body, mind, and spirit is likely to cost 3 times what it cost to wage the battle in the first place.
I read this book at least a month ago but it was still fresh in my mind when I read Junger’s War. The sense in which both books demonstrate how the experience of combat makes re-integration into normal society difficult if not almost impossible links these two books in my mind. Can we afford the price we pay for so injuring so many of our youth?
The things they carried were not limited to the items on their persons and in their packs but extended to the psychological baggage they brought with them to Nam, the physical and mental scars they suffered in battle, and the trauma they brought back with them state-side. Call it post-traumatic stress disorder, battle-fatigue, Gulf-War Syndrome, shell shock.... the aftermath of war for the participants lingers long after the vets return. It is now posited that dealing with the needs of those vets wounded in body, mind, and spirit is likely to cost 3 times what it cost to wage the battle in the first place.
I read this book at least a month ago but it was still fresh in my mind when I read Junger’s War. The sense in which both books demonstrate how the experience of combat makes re-integration into normal society difficult if not almost impossible links these two books in my mind. Can we afford the price we pay for so injuring so many of our youth?
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