LogFAQs > #893836796

"What it is Like to Go to War" by Karl Marlantes is a book I read in nearly one sitting. He goes into the psychology of being a warrior, and how PTSD didn't strike him until years and years later out of the war when he finally turned that part of himself off. (While trying to survive in combat, all they cared about was winning and keeping as many of "their team" alive. Killing the Vietcong was just a scoreboard for him in combat, because he wanted to survive. Many years later, he suddenly saw the scared and horrified face of a "Vietnamese boy" that he killed in place of the face of all of his coworkers and stuff. It just happened at random.) He talks about how he wishes the military had taught them not just how to kill someone effectively, but the spiritual side of understanding why you have to take a human life, and that that would help veterans better compartmentalize their experience. Really intense stuff.
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Hoppe hoppe Reiter, und kein Engel steigt herab
mein Herz schlagt nicht mehr weiter, NUR DER REGEN WEINT AM GRAB