On Tuesday, November 11, we will again fly our flag high to honor and remember all our veterans and those who sacrificed their lives for us. In retrospect however, those of us who in one way or another have loved ones who either perished or survived due to war, have always wondered what it was really like to go to war.
In one of a series of panel discussions I have attended in our local library recently, we discussed the book of Karl Marlantes entitled “What It is Like to Go to War.” The library’s goal of featuring the program is to “spark a public conversation about how our community can best support the process of reincorporating veterans into the fabric of civilian life.”
Beterano Poster
The panel discussion presented visual images and quotations on the “Changing Nature of Warfare Technology and its Effect on the Soldiers.” Shown for example were World War I images of: General Patton’s Saber, the British Mark V Tank, B-29 Superfortress Bomber, Tomahawk Subsonic Cruise Missile, MQ-1 Predator (which looked like the current Drones), the Renault FT Tank, Messerschmidt BF 109 Fighter Jet, Bell UH-1 Iroquois and of course, the significance of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” painting.
In his book, Karl Marlantes describes war as: “this is just a platoon Commander, the lowest-ranking officer in an infantry unit, which itself has the lowest level of sophistication in weaponry. In today’s combat environment, this lowly lieutenant can call in bombs from B-52’s flying so high, they are unseen and Tomahawk missiles fired from some 500 miles at sea, with the accuracy of a rifle at 200 yards..”
Further, Marlantes described his Marine experience in Vietnam as “ try to get this frame of mind. Try, because the world needs you. If you can, you can’t. I will counter by saying you’re tragically cut off from a very deep part of yourself – tragic for all of us, not just you. I loved this power , I love it still. And it scares the hell out of me.”
RAF Pilot John Beard wrote: ““It was really a terrific sight and quite beautiful. First, they seemed just a cloud of lights, as the sun caught the many glistening chromium parts of their new engines, their windshields, and the spin of their airscrew discs. Then, as our squadron hurdled nearer, the details stood out, I could see the bright yellow noses of Messerschmidt fighters sandwiching the bombers, and could even pick out some of the types. The sky seemed full of them packed in layers thousands of feet deep. They came on steadily, wavering up and down along the horizon.”
Picasso Guernica
Finally, a significant observation was written by Generalieldmarshall Albert Kesserling and he said: “Patton had developed tank warfare into an art, and understood how to handle tanks brilliantly in the field. I feel compelled, therefore, to compare him with Generalfieldmarshall Rommel, who likewise had mastered the art of tank warfare. Both of them had a kind of second sight in regard to this type of warfare.”
What it was really like to go to war, was also poignantly described by Brian Castner’s powerful book called “The Long Walk.” He served as an officer with the US Air Force from 1999 to 2007 from Saudi Arabia, to Iraq to Kirkuk, serving three tours of duty as head of the explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit or wherever IED’s were discovered.” He and his men would lead the way to disarm the deadly devices or searching through the rubble and remains for clues to the bomb makers’ identities, And when robots and other remote means failed, one technician would suit up and take the long walk to disarm the bomb by hand.”
Veteran Exhibit
An analysis of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” or war painting in 1937, visibly depicted the “devastating and chaotic impact of the Spanish-German war on both men and women, using black as a background which symbolized death and agony, incorporating horses and animals in geometric form, reminiscent of the start of cubism, as an art form. The painting also delved on the meaning of victory and defeat with the infusion of the Spanish bullfight where the matador becomes victorious in the end.
Thus, on Veteran’s Day, the war experiences as chronicled by these brave men should always remind us of the “long cost of combat and the brotherhood of men at arms” as well as the “reality of the exhausted mind” describing each soldier’s poignant experience of “what they did, what they saw and ultimately, what they have become.”
Let us all celebrate and be reminded that on Veteran’s Day, we pray for all those who perished for our freedom, and salute the brave veterans who have likewise defended us and sacrificed their lives to set us free.