Wars are like car accidents. The outcome can be tragic, yet there is this creepy fixation, like you cannot look away. Everyone has experienced this phenomenon as they pound frustratingly on his/her steering wheel, hoping someone finally starts moving, but knowing exactly why no was is. I had this same odd, tragic, and frustrating attraction to the Bataan Death March. The Death March was completely comprised of death and despair yet, the very inhumanity of it was seducing.
Unfortunately for me, the Bataan Death March is not a person. Thankfully, General Jonathan Wainwright is. General Wainwright is the humanity masked by the mass cruelty of the Death March; the shining star overshadowed by the blackness and despair. He is the person that makes me stop morbidly staring at the disaster, but stop and contemplate what is actually happening. He had to face challenges and obstacles that no one else in the military could, or had to; challenges that I cannot even begin to fathom.
It was the juxtaposition between the evil of the Bataan Death March and the inhuman heroism of General Wainwright that drew me to the general. I wanted to study something so unlike my daily life, my daily normalcy, the boring monotony that greets me everyday, something that didn’t fit into my schedule of waking up, going to school, doing homework, eating, breathing, and sleeping, and this definitely didn’t fit in any of those categories.
Again, a slight disadvantage of mine in this project, was that I knew as much about General Wainwright as I know about the mating habits of the beluga whale; almost nothing. This must inevitably confuse people. Why would I choose a person I know nearly nothing about? I merely knew enough to realize why he inspires me; he ris...
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... serious/comic, stead-fastness/panic. He shows how the native people sometimes fled in panic, sometimes calmly continued with business as usual amidst full-blown battle, and occasionally looted the dead and the living, all the while remembering that their ancient land had seen many battles and occupations; this was just another. He shows us the evolution and maturation of the American Army, with Captain Bruce Pirnie on the morning of February 14, 1943 during the Battle of Sidi bou Zid saying, "We were scared and green" (340) and then with the victory on May 13 of that same year.
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Throughout the battle, you see numerous Army Values and Warrior Ethos being used. “I will never leave a fallen comrade”, was the etho used the most, to reach the separated platoon. The battle also shows that not all tactical orders are effective, but as a leader you must never second guess yourself.
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'The Permanent Campaign'; was written by Norman J. Ornstein and Amy S. Mitchell. This article appeared first in The World & I, in January 1997.
What is war really like all together? What makes war so horrifying? The horror of war is throughout All Quiet on the Western Front. For example Albert says the war has ruined them as young people and Paul agrees. “Albert expresses it: "The war has ruined us for everything." He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.” (Remarque, Chapter 5). The way the war has affected each soldier has changed them forever. The boys who were once school boys will never be the same.
“Lee, Harper 1926-.” Concise Major 21 Century Writers. Ed. Tracey L. Matthews. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 2136-2140. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.
The battle fought between the Soviet Red Army and the Nazi Wehrmacht over the “city of Stalin” for four long months in the fall and winter of 1942-3 stands as not only the most important battle of the Eastern front during World War II, but as the greatest battle ever fought. Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad ended three years of almost uninterrupted victory and signaled the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. In this way, Stalingrad’s significance was projected beyond the two main combatants, extending to all corners of the world.
Once you see how much the war cost, no one can imagine going through the war themselves. The novel The Killer Angels opened the eyes of all readers on how the war affected a human personally. War was not always about the wounds on the outside of the body. Wounds from the war during the novel seemed to happen on the inside. Men that have known each other for so long are having to be pinned against each other. Men were hoping that the war would be over soon. Everyone, even those not fighting, wanted this madness to end. The Atlanta History Center showed display after display of how men got through the war, whether it was finding activities to keep their spirits up or finding ways to cope with the anxiety war brought. The Atlanta History Center
Bullets flying through the air right over me, my knees are shaking, and my feet are numb. I see familiar faces all around me dodging the explosives illuminating the air like lightning. Unfortunately, numerous familiar faces seem to disappear into the trenches. I try to run from the noise, but my mind keeps causing me to re-illustrate the painful memories left behind.