War

War is not a topic I know much about. Not that it is a subject that I don’t find interesting; I just have never done much research on the aspects or the history it. I do not know what planning goes into preparing for war, nor do I understand the amount of time and effort that goes into concocting a plan for a mission or the way a war is started.

When I think of was I see horses running towards the enemy and brave young men falling to their death with a trickle of blood running down form their helmet and a fellow comrade falling to their knees to mourn the death of his beloved friend. Now that I have read books such as Band of Sisters and Black Hawk Down, I understand that this is not the case at all. Rather, men and women alike are riding in vehicles and holding automatic guns while carrying out missions with a group of likely trained soldiers.

I cannot really grasp the severity of war. I have read these books, and especially in Black Hawk Down, the amount of violence that occurred is evidence enough that war is not to be taken lightly. But how does someone understand what it is really like to be at war when all we see is what is given to us on the TV? The soldiers and the citizens of wherever the war is taking place are the people who are directly impacted and are the only people who know exactly what it feels like to be put into a life or death situation. What the soldiers go through obviously is carried home with them and can affect their family lives.

The amount of stress put on combat soldiers is unimaginable. I understand that they are trained for combat but when they are put into an actual life threatening situation, their training can only go so far especially when it comes to mental preparedness. When a soldier in training is being shot at they know that they are not being targeted to be killed. But when they are in a combat situation, the bullets that are aimed at them are aiming to find their target and kill whoever is on the other end of the barrel. Training cannot fully mentally prepare a soldier for that amount of emotion.

Soldiers are brave, no doubt about it. They put their lives on the line for whatever reason they decided to join the military and do their job if they want to or not. It doesn’t matter if the soldier is at a desk or in the field. Being able to be away from their loved ones or their chosen place of comfort is emotionally trying and something I do not think I could personally ever do.