I’m considering another book, this time about WW#2 entitled The Deserters. Soldiers deserted because of fear and battle fatitue, to engage in ciminal black market activities, and out of disgust for the moral depravity of war.
And then there are the many who stick it out and collapse mentally and physically after their return due to post traumatic stress, Gulf War Syndrome, Battle Fatigue, or any of the many other names given the inability to cope after exposure to the battle environment. Some become Adrenalin Junkies and sign up to go back rather than attempt to cope with their new civilian lifestyle. Some repress their feelings so deeply they come to feel like actors in their own lives. And some become violent and take it out on others. Those affected are not only the vets but also their wives, families and children for in a sense they too go to war.
Bryan A. Wood, there is also an Australian Rules footballer and a graphic artist by that name, looks in his press photo as if he belongs in Junior High School. As we meet him he is working in Florida as a police officer. He then takes us via his journal to his experience in Afghanistan. The notes reveal a caring empathetic human being caught in an inhuman situation. He reaches that point where every day seems repititious and nothing that he would want to remember happens so he stops writing. All he wants is to get out of it all alive and return home. An injury sends him home and horror of horrors the rehabilitation centre is worse than the war. But he makes friends and gets some help.
Home is so frighteningly normal and the same as he left it but inside he has irrevocably changed. Everyone wants to hear about an experience the vet is desperately trying to put behind him. There are the usual nightmares and panic attacks, a wife who feels distant and explosive feelings bottled inside a man too strong to admit he is hurting and needs help and unable to find it. He tries to build a wall around the hurt and pain and anger and in so doing blocks out those around him but in attempting to run cannot escape from what is bottled up inside.
The author describes how writing about it worked for him and admits this book came out of that process. He manages to take the reader along for the ride. We get to feel the catharsis along with him.
This book has been unavailable for purchase in any format for a while now. Hopefully that means someone is giving it a thorough edit as the version I downloaded last April has a homonym error, missing word, awkward sentence structure, bad grammar, or spelling error on almost every page.
And then there are the many who stick it out and collapse mentally and physically after their return due to post traumatic stress, Gulf War Syndrome, Battle Fatigue, or any of the many other names given the inability to cope after exposure to the battle environment. Some become Adrenalin Junkies and sign up to go back rather than attempt to cope with their new civilian lifestyle. Some repress their feelings so deeply they come to feel like actors in their own lives. And some become violent and take it out on others. Those affected are not only the vets but also their wives, families and children for in a sense they too go to war.
Bryan A. Wood, there is also an Australian Rules footballer and a graphic artist by that name, looks in his press photo as if he belongs in Junior High School. As we meet him he is working in Florida as a police officer. He then takes us via his journal to his experience in Afghanistan. The notes reveal a caring empathetic human being caught in an inhuman situation. He reaches that point where every day seems repititious and nothing that he would want to remember happens so he stops writing. All he wants is to get out of it all alive and return home. An injury sends him home and horror of horrors the rehabilitation centre is worse than the war. But he makes friends and gets some help.
Home is so frighteningly normal and the same as he left it but inside he has irrevocably changed. Everyone wants to hear about an experience the vet is desperately trying to put behind him. There are the usual nightmares and panic attacks, a wife who feels distant and explosive feelings bottled inside a man too strong to admit he is hurting and needs help and unable to find it. He tries to build a wall around the hurt and pain and anger and in so doing blocks out those around him but in attempting to run cannot escape from what is bottled up inside.
The author describes how writing about it worked for him and admits this book came out of that process. He manages to take the reader along for the ride. We get to feel the catharsis along with him.
This book has been unavailable for purchase in any format for a while now. Hopefully that means someone is giving it a thorough edit as the version I downloaded last April has a homonym error, missing word, awkward sentence structure, bad grammar, or spelling error on almost every page.
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