Holiday Warfare
Brave men of war have faced adversities both physical and mental and risen above them as butter from cream. Chivalry and conquest have carried soldiers from pole to pole and across the seven seas. Hardships of campaign life are legendary, and the iron men these trials created go down in history as examples to all mankind.
I have faced battle under duress and have learned I am not a brave man. Shell-shock is partially defined as a "psycho neurotic condition akin to hysteria." To this day I am saddled with the memories of the day I was sent to battle in my Grandmother's kitchen. No man should have to endure these conditions. Women can, with impunity, set foot in the estrogenically charged atmosphere of Grandmother's kitchen on Thanksgiving Day; greater men than I, however, have been broken this way. Men of the world take heed, only the insanely brave or exceedingly foolish would choose to accept this near-suicide mission. Counting myself as the latter, I offer my tale as counsel.
The day was overcast, cold and thoroughly November. I answered the call to arms with the eager sincerity of a private fresh from basic training. My Grandfather wept openly, fearing for my life as I bade him farewell. I entered a young soldier brimming with bravado; I returned a troubled man with bruised ego, clutching hard-won wisdom to my breast.
The fact that women are vastly better equipped for a culinary tete-a-tete with Grandmother should have been apparent to me after the opening salvo, but I was too green, too new and shiny, to heed.
"Have you seen your cousin George's new haircut yet, Denny?" asked Granny. Shot number one had been fired, and I did not even hear the air-raid sirens.
"Yeah, I like it," I answered with none of the suspicion that has dogged me at holidays since my tour of duty.
"It makes him look like a porcupine," chimed in my Aunt Molly, correctly answering the subtle part of the question and putting any doubts about the spike haircut and its social value to rest.
"Uncle Dwight's been smoking again," Granny mentioned tersely.
The early lives of John Adams and John Quincy Adams are different. John Adams?s father, who also named John, sent his son ? young Adams to Harvard College at age fifteen, and he expected him to become a minister. His father was working hard to make young Adams?s life different than his own which was to become an educated person. However, John Adams did not want to become a minister. After he graduated in 1755, he taught school for few years in Worcester, and that allowed him to think about his career choice. After much reflection, he decided to become a lawyer, and studied law in the office of James Putnam, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. In 1758, he was admitted to the bar. He put the skill to good use as a lawyer, often recording cases he observed so that he could study and reflect upon them. His report of the 1761 argument of James Otis in the superior court of Massachusetts as to the legality of Writs of Assistance is a good example. On the other hand, John Quincy?s father which is John Adams did not push him to become a minister. Moreover, John Adams brought young Adams to France (1778 ? 1779) and to the Netherlands (1780 ? 1782) to acquire his early education at institutions at the University of Leiden. John Adams let his son explored the world more than his own father did. At age fourteen, young Adams accompanied Francis Dana on a mission to St. Petersburg, Russia, to gain recognition to the new republic. He also spent time in Finland, Sweden, Den...
When people think of the military, they often think about the time they spend over in another country, hoping they make it back alive. No one has ever considered the possibility that they may have died inside. Soldiers are reborn through war, often seeing through the eyes of someone else. In “Soldier’s home” by Ernest Hemingway, the author illustrates how a person who has been through war can change dramatically if enough time has passed. This story tells of a man named Harold (nick name: Krebs) who joined the marines and has finally come back after two years. Krebs is a lost man who feels it’s too complicated to adjust to the normal way of living and is pressured by his parents.
Every baseball fan knows of the term spitball. A spitball is when the pitcher spits his tobacco juices onto the b...
Throwing is a fairly natural activity for a person. Everyone at some point in time has thrown some object at a person. In baseball throwing becomes an art. Throwing a baseball is a relatively easy task, but throwing it accurately and with a high speed is difficult. People who play this sport spend a very long time perfecting their throw.
The first thing that you have to do in your wind up is to step back with your right foot behind the rubber. Second you have to swing you right foot up and balance on your left foot. Finally you have to push your left foot off of the mound while balancing and throw the ball towards the plate. After you throw the ball you have to be in a fielder’s position in case the ball is thrown hit back at you.
The pitch must start with the pitchers foot on the plate, the foot may only be taken off the plate when the ball is released. The pitch must come in slowly, between 1.8m-3.6m from the ground, the wrist must not be snapped quickly in order to achieve a consistent motion and perceptible arc. The ball must be pitched within the strike zone, which is between the batters back shoulder and knees.
A team of players usually ranges from ten to forty players depending on how many people join the squad. The field consists of nine players on defense, as well as one batter at the plate playing offense. Of those nine players on the field, three play deep in the outfield (right, left, and center) who look to catch a ball hit in the air and get it back to the infield as quickly and efficiently as possible; if the ball drops then their goal is to hurry to the ball and get it back to the infield as quickly and efficiently as possible before the runner (after the ball is hit and the player gets on base because the ball wasn’t caught in the air, his title changes from a batter/hitter into a runner) advances to the next base.
It is apparent that the topic of war is difficult to discuss among active duty soldiers and civilians. Often times, citizens are unable to understand the mental, physical, and physiological burden service members experience. In Phil Klay’s Ten Kliks South, the narrator struggles to cope with the idea that his artillery team has killed enemy forces. In the early stages of the story, the narrator is clearly confused. He understands that he did his part in firing off the artillery rounds, yet he cannot admit to killing the opposition. In order to suppress his guilt and uncertainty, our narrator searches for guidance and reassurance of his actions. He meets with an old gunnery sergeant and during their conversation, our narrator’s innocence
Being forced into a war he has no interest in, Tim O’brien recounts his time fighting in the vietnam war. Many of the soldiers there carried things deep to their hearts. Others carried fear, guilt, and despair of what they had done and what was to come. These physical things were a way these soldiers could cope with their feelings and try and stay sane during these times. “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey.”(1) These letters were coping mechanisms for Jimmy and he read them when he needed comforting or just to read them to help him forget.
Norman Schwarzkof once said, “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of the men to go into battle”. As young adults, many of us have a preconceived notion that being a hero is in some way the same as being a leader. In times of war, being a leader defines ones as a superior that others look to for guidance and direction in predicaments; not necessarily a hero. The true heroes are not always the ones calling the shots, but the soldiers who courageously leave their comforts behind to fight on the fronts for their country, even if it results in their death. In All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, describes the journey of a young man named Paul and the struggles he endures as an effect of the declaration of World War One by his elders. Remarque develops the theme of how older men’s decisions of declaring war effects the younger generation by elaborating on how this declaration effects the younger soldiers’ physical physique and their mental wellbeing.
An outcome of World War I was a new medical disorder classified as Shell Shock. Shell Shock is a medical disorder developed to describe the symptoms that soldiers developed without a probable or obvious lesion as the cause after serving time on the war front. Shell Shock is one of the most prominent injuries of World War I; the symptoms varied among each soldier, treatments were still being developed, and doctors were still trying to understand the severity of the disorder. The symptoms soldiers described are due to the stress they encountered while they served on the front line. Shell Shock is a condition that soldiers have begun to develop after serving in the war.
Baseball is America’s past time. No two fields are exactly identical. The only identical portion of a baseball field, depending on the league you are in, is the infield. Every Major League Baseball park has the exact same dimensions for the infield, which is a four sided square laid like a diamond with each side being equal to ninety feet. The game of baseball is played between two teams using wood or metal bats, depending on league rules, league regulated sized ball, and baseball gloves. The game is started with the home team taking the field first. The home team will pitch to the visiting team trying to get three outs. Out can be made by a batter swinging and missing on strike three or fielder catching the ball in the air, or off of a bounce and proceed to throw the runner out at the base. After three outs are made the teams swap places and do the same thing over again. When the next team gets three outs, that makes up an inning. Most games are played with nine innings; however there are some younger leagues that just play with six innings. This is the basic structure of a baseball game, but the game of baseball ball is made up of so much more detail.
Understanding the rules and regulations determine how successful players will be in sports. Softball and baseball have many rules that are similar and different. For example, to execute a stolen base, the player must wait until the ball has left the pitchers hand. In baseball, he is given a leadoff and can steal the base before the pitcher releases the ball. A baseball player must run ninety feet verses a softball player which only has too run sixty feet. Obviously, when it comes to rules and base running, both softball and baseball players can steal bases. A baseball game results in nine innings where a
an infielder or outfielder had to throw the ball at the runners. If the ball hit a runner who was off base, he was out. This formula
Today, baseball is known as a game composed of two teams of nine players each who play in an enclosed field. Both teams rotate between the position of offense and defense, where one team is batting and one is on the field. When playing defense, there are positions in both the infield and outfield in order to prevent runs from the offense. In the offensive realm, the batter’s goal is to outsmart the pitcher and move the players around the bases to score a maximum amount of runs. The primary objective of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team by the end of the nine innings. However, the early forms of this sport were played much different.