“S*** rolls downward” an old army phrase is what exactly happened to 1st platoon of the 101st Airborne Division. Black Hearts is a fictional book on soldiers in the 101st Airborne division in the 502 Infantry Regiment during deployment to Iraq in 2005. Black Hearts is a book which gives the reader the point of views the different types of stress a soldier goes through during a deployment both physically and especially mentally. The book goes in depth and paints realistic events throughout the deployment and the impact it had one specific company. In 2005, the Iraqi war was one of the worst times to be in Iraq for the United States Military. The number of IEDS have increased and become more dangerous as the Iraqi insurgents started to perfect them as the war went on. The majority of the book took place Baghdad Iraq also known as the Triangle of Death. During this time the IED’s, indirect, and direct fire were common and resulted in a high number of casualties and injuries of US soldiers. This placed a lot of stress on the soldier and showed the different types reactions caused by stress. Many images and sites a soldier sees during deployment disturb the soldier and shown differently from each. The toll of the destructive and disturbing scenery would change soldiers’ lives forever. The description a soldiers described when going out on a patrol was that he was always tense. He knew there was going to be an IED but he didn’t know if was going to get him. An example a soldier gave out was if a person who routinely checked the mail box every day, had his routine changed up with an explosive having a one in four chance to be in the mail. The person knows it is there but has to open the mail box. The example describes the anticipation ... ... middle of paper ... ... Lt Britt’s body flew into the canal and Lopez’s body was obliterated. CPT Goodwin was then devastated. The event traumatized him in words you I cannot describe. LTC Kunk heard of the news and gave CPT Goodwin a couple days off in the green zone. The CPT took the time to recuperate from the loss of soldiers and the decision that ultimately killed them. Ultimately I chose CPT Goodwin because the obstacles he had to overcome. Even though his decision making was spot on most of the time, he did have the one mistake which ended up costing his soldiers life. CPT Goodwin was able to overcome the decision and continue on with his military career. He then found out about the murders and reported them to LTC Kunk. No decision lingered with him and affected other decision he had later on. He knew that deaths were in the job description and did not let that affect him at all.
COL Freeman’s ability to assess the situation and devotion to his Soldiers set the conditions for the 23rd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to be successful in the Battle of Chipyong-Ni. Though outnumbered, the RCT overcame obstacles to defeat the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF). The RCT wrestled with the same issues like most of the Army. They were understrength, and their equipment was non-mission capable (NMC). In order to bring them to full strength, the Army recruited Soldiers from various units, including reserves, but these Soldiers lacked infantry skills and were out of shape. COL Paul Freeman arrived to assume command days before the RCT was to depart Fort Lewis to the Korean Peninsula. Days before the RCT marched to Chipyong-Ni, they were involved in the battle at Twin Towers and received many casualties. COL Freeman’s ability to drive the operations process was vital to the RCT’s mission success.
I would recommend this book to a friend because the reader is able to comprehend different aspects of the war. This novel is written in an upfront style, which makes it easy for the reader to follow along. I am thinking about including something about how war gives soldiers mental disorders for my thesis argument. I would like to write about the mental health of our troops for my research paper. I intend to focus on psychological disorders and mental illness.
War has been a constant part of human history. It has greatly affected the lives of people around the world. These effects, however, are extremely detrimental. Soldiers must shoulder extreme stress on the battlefield. Those that cannot mentally overcome these challenges may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sadly, some resort to suicide to escape their insecurities. Soldiers, however, are not the only ones affected by wars; family members also experience mental hardships when their loved ones are sent to war. Timothy Findley accurately portrays the detrimental effects wars have on individuals in his masterpiece The Wars.
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
The main theory behind such writing is awakening the people back at home, and showing them the seriousness of the situation. Instead of sugar-coating details, or giving just positive accounts of war, it is essential to tell the peopl...
This whole battalion was at a disadvantage before they left the states, given the mission of replacing the 48th Infantry brigade in south Baghdad. Unlike the usual five to six months that a unit would typically get to conduct recons and gather intel on the AO that they would be occupying, 1st battalion was to gather all they could in 6 weeks. LTC Kunk was chosen by Col Ebel to head the fight in the population centers for the reason that he thought he would be engaging and capable of communicating others. This proved to be the first major problem in the chain of command that would hinder the efficiency of operations. While at JRTC preparing for the deployment 1st platoon, Bravo company made a tactical error resulting in the capture of 9 soldiers. Even with this information Kunk had developed a plan with no input from any of his company commanders, and he wouldn't accept any kind of input or use the assets that he had at his disposal. LTC had little to no bearing communicating with his subordinates, destroying the confidence in his commanders and ruining his communication lines. If th...
...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.
This novel is a story about a group of soldiers apart of the 101st airborne division, 502nd infantry regiment, who became known as the “Black Hearts Brigade.” Deployed to an area known as the “Triangle of Death”, just south of Baghdad, this area was known for being the most dangerous throughout the country of Iraq. Struck with indirect fire, constant insurgent attacks, IED’s, a heavy death toll, and the constant rage and distraught of the war turned some members of the first platoon, Bravo Company, first battalion into a group of poorly disciplined, brutal soldiers who would take their frustration out onto the civilians of Iraq. Ultimately, this incident, which was caused by four members of first platoon, would be considered one of the most
As a first hand observer of the Civil War, the great American Poet, Walt Whitman once said,"The real war [of the mind] will never get in the books."Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a horrible mental ailment that afflicts thousands of soldiers every year. Besides the fact that it is emotionally draining for the soldier, it also deeply alters their family and their family dynamics. Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home” illustrates how this happens. Harold Krebs returns home from World War I. He has to deal with becoming reaccustomed to civilian life along with relearning social norms. He must also learn about his family and their habits. The ramifications of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have a ripple effect on the lives of not only the victim, but also the friends and family they relate to.
The reality of war changed many soldiers' lives because of nightmares from firefights and small skirmishes to bombings and atrocities. Many places from Saigon to Khe Sanh are filled with stories from many veterans. A letter from a marine fighting in Khe Sanh said to his Parents "Since we began, we have lost 14 KIA and 44 men WIA. Our company is cut down to half strength, and I think we will be going to Okinawa to regroup. I hope so anyway because I have seen enough of war and its destruction." From the death of close friends any person's emotions would crumble. A normal everyday business person in the shoes of this soldier wouldn't last a day. The experience a soldier goes through will change his view on life forever. This is just showing how it affects people. Seeing death and killing on a daily basis. The random occurrence of death would truly disturb any person. Seeing the death of friends and mangled bodies of South Vietnamese villagers left by Vietcong guerillas, the soldiers were left with the vivid visions of the bodies.
Tim O’Brien’s use of torment and uncertainty does engage me as a reader. The torment was such an awful experience. The soldiers survived off of the substance of weed and intoxicating liquid called beer. They deadened their senses doing drugs so they would not feel the overwhelming fear. The descriptions are engaging and well thought out. The descriptions used are severely depressing, I came to realize that although they had a war they were fighting in, they lost friends, they lost limbs, and they went beyond the call of war and kill innocent babies. Even in killing innocent babies and young children you cannot fully blame them for their actions as they were acting out of complete loss of security, fearing every step they took wondering when they would take their last step on Earth. Many times the soldiers were out in unknown territory with people shouting at them in a language they did not understand which caused a defensive reaction to take over the body of the soldiers. I found that within this paper the argument presented was that soldiers go to war to protect the country they love
War. When the word is said, what immediately comes to one’s mind is a battlefield; blaring guns, generals screaming orders as planes roar overhead, with soldiers watching as their comrades have unimaginably gruesome deaths. The same is expected for a novel about war. The main character is enlisted and goes through all of the aforementioned things and then some. However, one book does not fit under this stereotype. Even though a huge theme in this novel is war, not a single gun is fired throughout the entire story. Not only that, but the main character does not share his time in the war until the last few pages of the book. This is because the novel accurately depicts the effects of an actual war instead of a romanticized version of one. By showing the impact of war on
In this novel you gain a new perception of war, and the soldiers who fight in the wars. Modern war stories describe war as a place where you go to become a hero, soldiers fight, soldiers are brave and full of pride, they don’t back down from anything. In
The book summarizes the struggles that Bravo Company faced from the start even before deployment. The unit was initially sent to JRTC at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and made many tactical errors during their rotation. 1st platoon had many individuals captured from the start, and the leadership automatically decided that Captain Goodwin would be incompetent for the following deployment while LTC Kunk would be difficult to work with for the upcoming year. Once they came out from JRTC, Bravo Company and Charlie Company were both given the toughest missions. Bravo Company was assigned to the most dangerous AO in the so-called triangle o...
War has been a consistent piece of mankind 's history. It has significantly influenced the lives of individuals around the globe. The impacts are amazingly adverse. In the novel, “The Wars,” by Timothy Findley, Soldiers must shoulder compelling weight on the warzone. Such weight is both family and the country weight. Many individuals look at soldiers for hop and therefore, adding load to them. Those that cannot rationally beat these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley