Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Guts 'N Gunships

Like too many in the Vietnam Era this author had no desire for a military career but lacking sufficient funds to remain in University chose to become a combat helicopter pilot rather than wait for the draft to railroad him into the infantry. Again, like so many others he has chosen to write about the experience to record it for posterity and as a form of catharsis. When I entered university in 1967 in Canada I encountered so-called draft dodgers who chose to leave home to evade military service. A pacifist at heart I find the military's methods and expenditures loathsome and an abominable waste of human resources and materiel. On the other hand having exposed young men to this training, discipline, and trauma I also feel there is an obligation to provide the veterans of this war machine every therapy and healing opportunity necessary to return them to civilian life. Not all wounds are visible and not all injuries can be healed.

This author tells his story in concise matter of fact tones and has my admiration for not finding it necessary to quote the profanity that appears to be a standard part of military argot. I also commend him for not throwing bucket-loads of military and technical jargon at the reader and explaining that which he does use in terms a layman can understand—the mark of a true expert. This man is the real deal. [He does, however, tend to repeat the same explanations several times which can become tedious.]


So, given my attitude why am I reading this account? Because those who do not study history are fated to repeat it and I want no part of being guilty of repeating it through ignorance of the past.

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