There were quite a few moments in How to Tell a True War Story that I could really relate with. One being the story Mitchell Sanders was telling about the six men who had a mission to set up an LP. How he said how spooky the mountains were especially at night. These type of missions would always put me on a higher level of alertness, which on one hand is exactly what you would want on this kind of mission (being aware of your surroundings), but on the other hand this heightened sense of awareness definitely opens you up to having your mind play tricks on you. This is especially true on recon missions because you’re usually quite sleep deprived too. Once you have finally got to your LP set it up, after trekking through the mountains all night (because almost all recon missions starts at night in order not to be seen by anybody at all) like Sanders said you would just sit there and listen. In complete silence. Every snap of a twig, gust of wind, chirping bird is just amplified in your mind by 100. You just lie there and wait not even able to joke with your buddy about how creepy everything is, it’s just you and your thoughts for however long you are out there for. Just getting more and more tired, and more and more on edge. I would here something at night and because you can’t talk I would look at the guy next to me and see if he reacted at all to the sound and if he didn’t I wouldn’t know if I was actually hearing what I heard or if I was just going crazy. Another part that really got me was when Kiley lost his best buddy and then tortured the baby buffalo. At the beginning of the deployment I saw guys shooting at the wild dogs (which in Afghanistan are everywhere), and being absolutely disgusted with them. So towards my ninth month there I saw one of my guys doing the same thing but this time it didn’t bother me at all.
Although I have a lot of friends who served in the Marine Corps and the Navy, I have rarely heard them say anything about what happened to them when they were deployed. I'm always afraid to ask. I'm afraid that by asking them those questions will remind them of the memories they'd rather forget. Your story helps me understand it a little bit better.
ReplyDeleteMany go to war when they were just teenagers and I cannot imagine how the war affect them at that critical time of becoming an adult. One of my friends said being stationed in Afghanistan for months forever changed the way he sees the world around him and it made him so much more appreciative of what he has. He never did elaborate on what exactly changed but I don't have the courage to ask.