I don't pretend to know what it means to fight in a war, as I have never fought in a war, but sometimes I wonder. Every war is different, with different people, different enemies, different reasons, different backgrounds. But one thing is for sure, all war is ugly.
In books and movies about war the hero is usually someone that can't wait to fight and is fantastic at fighting and isn't scared and just someone you really want to be your chum. Wasn't there anyone who was scared? Wasn't there anyone who wanted to run away as soon as they got into their first fight or watched their first buddy die?
In World War II at Iwo Jima the fighting went on for over a month. The Japanese were hidden underneath the ground in these passages that they had been digging for months. The American boys were surrounded but couldn't see their enemy.
Korean War, known for the land mines that were absolutely everywhere. The boys had to walk far enough apart so if one person stepped on a mine they wouldn't all die together, but hopefully just him.
In most wars it was hard to get letters from loved ones, or to write. They made many extremely close friends that died, they had to fight hand to hand combat with the enemy, they sometimes killed their own men (on accident something known as friendly fire), they were taken prisoner, they were tortured.... war is always ugly.
War is terrible. War has always been terrible. not one of those people that hates war to the point where I'm gonna go stand in the middle of the capital and picket "Get us out of this war!" because sometimes war is necessary. But war is never as romantic as they make it out in many of those movies and shows and books.
War is war.
Iwo Jima
POW camp in Korea
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