TIC by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen McAllister

"We watch intently as the body, entirely covered, is removed on a stretcher and put in the waiting ambulance. The general salutes as the ambulance passes. Some follow suit. Others, lost in prayer, deep thoughts, tears, salute in their own private way."

The story that I read about was from a Lieutenant Colonel in combat. He tells about his vivid memories while in combat and all of the injuries and deaths taking place around him. He uses all of the battle terms that are used in the war to describe how terrible the war was. He also talked about how lucky you were if you came out of the war alive or unharmed. He would see his crew members and close friends die during the war and he was very appreciative that he was never killed. The deaths of his fellow soldiers really impacted him and everyone around them. They had great respect for those who died in the war.

I thought that Lieutenant Colonel Stephen McAllister's journal entry was very sad but it was so honest and true. It was a real veteran's memory of the war. It opened my eyes to how real the war is and how scary it can be. The story also made me think about how scary it would be not knowing how much longer you would live while in the war. You really can not take any moment for granted while in the war because you could die at any moment. It was nice to see how much the soldiers cared about those who died in combat. I wasn't sure if they would just move on quickly because they had to be strong for the war, but they didn't. They were respectful to the deceased and paid their respect in their own way.

I think this entry has to do with the book, Fallen Angels because the soldiers, like Perry and Peewee, are very sensitive to deaths in the crew. They really grow to love and care about their crewmates and it really hits them hard when they die. In this entry, he talks about how respectful everyone is when someone dies in combat. The soldiers in these two stories are both loved and respected by everyone.

CAMP MUCKAMUNGUS by Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres

"In average exchange I'll be speaking with an arabic translator who is speaking pidgin Turkish who is trying to tell me he needs to get in touch with a person who's name he doesn't know, but who I still need to contact, while some Parkistanis, Bangladeshis, and Filipinos are trying to steal back the knives I confiscated from them as the Koreans bring fifteen kids into their hospital for medical attention. Meanwhile, the guy in the corner is making threats against my control team because he is sick of waiting for somebody on the base and the screaming kid just stopped screaming because he puked on my weapons/contraband searcher who now wants to shoot the Korean escort for letting that sick kid loose" (Gyokeres 135).

In his journal entry, Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres explains everything he thinks people should know about the conditions the soldiers are living in. He goes on to talk about the privacy issues, size of their tents, the bathrooms, everyday activities, and so on with lots of detail. The way he describes everything makes it seem like the worst job ever, but in just the last line he expresses that he loves what he does.

Some of the things that were said in the journal enrty seemed too bad to be true, but I doubt that what he was saying was too far from the truth. It made me feel really bad for the soldiers who had to put up with this everyday, and made me realize how bad they had it. I was glad that at the end, despite all the negative comments about the war, he assured the reader that he enjoyed what he did.

The part of the entry that I quoted above reminded me a lot of a certain part of Sunrise Over Fallujah where Robin and his team were at a house were they suspected illegal weapons were hidden. It wasn't quite as hectic as the situation Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres explained, but it was pretty overwhelming for Robin to listen to the translator try to talk to the adults while they were yelling and being uncooperative, while him and his team were searching the house. This was the first time Robin had been in such a hectic situation, and he was confused at what he should be doing. After Marla found the bomb, and he had been no help he wondered if he was cut out for the job. Although Gyokeres didn't express the same kind of doubt, they were both able to recognize the chaos that came along with their job.

Hearts and Minds

"Hearts and Minds" is an email sent by: Andrew Simkewicz to his family back in the U.S.. Andrew Simkewics was a U.S. Army Seargent who had been sent to Kabul. The quote i choose is: "It is so sad what kind of world these kids are born into." Andrew's email is telling his family about his experience in Kabul. It is mostly about all of the children he saw there. He also said the scenery was beautiful and the temperatures were very high. The poverty level is very high in Kabul, so he saw many kids alone some as young as 4 or 5 years old. But they would still smile and wave as they past by. Since they had little resources for portable water they were told not to give anything to the natives but Andrew says her gave about half of his waters to the kids they past by. One time that he threw one the boy started jumping up and down waving at his vehicle, he was no older than 7 or 8. Andrew writes to his family:"It is so sad what kind of world these kids are born into."
My response to this story is that it is very sad how some people, especially children have to live in some parts of the world compared to the United States. It was also very sad that some children would be getting so excited about something as simple as a bottle of water.
In Fallen Angels, Perry also sees many children by themselves with poor clothes and little resources. Also the things that some children would have to do during the war. Some would even die and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. they weren't involved with the war at all.

The Hurt Locker

"The Hurt Locker" is a poem written by Sergent Brian Turner. It's hard for me to pick a quote, because altogether, the poem works as a great quote. However, I will choose the quote, "Believe it when you see it. Believe it when a 12-year-old rolls a grenade into the room." Brian Turner's poem is all about the hurt and pain that soldier's go through during their time in a country fighting for their lives. For most people, these situations would be impossible to believe, and that is exactly what Brian is trying to explain in his poem. "The Hurt Locker" is a poem filled with unbelievable and unimaginable real-life situations that are seen every day by both men and woman fighting. At the end of the poem, Brian closes the poem with a single and very strong-worded sentence. " Open the hurt locker and learn how rough men come hunting for souls." In my point of view, I see this as a way for Brian to show how innocent and frightened men who come into the war are. Unfortunately, as the war moves on, these men learn how they really need to act and they become mentally prepared for what's ahead of them. In the course of the war, men become rowdy and reckless, all to hunt for others' souls.

This poem connects to Fallen Angels because the poem talks about the pain, the hurt, and the unimaginable. In Fallen Angels, Perry and his squad are clearly affected by the war. Examples are when they are wounded, when friends die, and overall, being in the war zone and being surrounded by shots and explosions. Also, "The Hurt Locker" mentions a 12-year-old rolling a grenade into a room. This connects to Fallen Angels because there a baby in the book, handed to someone innocent, and the baby's body was used as a bomb. The 12-year-old also connects to our unit because we talked about how kids were used as bait and told to stand in the road. A car driving down the road would either have to stop and be shot at or hit the kid. Unfortunately, the kid had no choice because they were most likely threatened to do what they were told.

My reaction to the poem is that war situations really are unimaginable. The war and these occurrences are not something I like to think about, but when I read things like this, I cannot imagine having to go through these times.

Get Some

Short Story
      In the short story Get Some, It follows a day in the life of a marine in Iraq.  In the beginning of the book the soldier and his whole squad are complaining about not being in the action.  They are getting excited to be in a firefight.  I thought this was strange because in Fallen Angels it was the opposite,  no one wanted to fight.  When the fighting started the marine killed his first couple enemies and he was not phased at all.  The fact that he just killed someone did not bother him.  After the firefight the marines were convoying out of the city when suddenly a car bomb blew up in the middle of the road.  It had killed a child and severely injured a man.  The marines instinctively went to help the man.  it did not matter to them that he was not American, they just wanted to help him.  It made the marine think about how happy he was that the war was not in America.  The marine also felt bad that civilians had to get caught in the middle of the war.
       My reaction to this story was when the marines went to help the civilian, i thought it was very noble of them to help the injured man even thou he was not American.  I think it shows who the real good guys are.  It shows that just because two countries are at war, does not mean that you cant still help them.

Friendly Fire by Captain Michael S. Daftarian

"Nothing can compare to the feeling that you've just bombed your own troops, the very guys you came to support." (Daftarian 22)

In August 2002, thirty two year old Captain Michael S. Daftarian, was in the U.S Air force. He was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan for six months. This short story is written in his perspective about his experience during the war. He explains the challenges of flying an A10 Warthog in the extreme conditions of the war. He talks about what it's like to bomb large masses of land and people, and how hard it is to aim on point. He talks about what he has to go through while on a mission, and how he has to be exact with everything he does.

My reaction to the story is that it's really difficult to be in the Air Force. First of all, you have to be extremely dedicated to even join the army, but then to fly around bombing large masses of people and trying to hit the enemies without hitting any of your own men would be nearly impossible. The men and women that dedicate their lives for our country are very noble and heroic. Many people look up to the soldiers. Michael's story was very informative and educated. He was very good at what he did, and he had a great story to tell.

The connection between Friendly Fire and Fallen Angels was similar because of the way that Michael described what he was going through. Michael and Perry both told their story in their own way, but they talked about a lot of the same things. Also, in Friendly Fire Michael fears that he accidentally fires on his own people, but in the end he found out that he didn't. In Fallen Angels, there is a similar situation where Perry and his squad open fire on their own troops by accident, but unfortunately they actually ended up killing some of their own people.

PVT. Murphy

Author: Master Sergeant Mark Baker

Type of Literature: Cartoons

Quote: "Yo? AGHA, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THAT PHRASE YOU TAUGHT ME FOR 'GOOD AFTERNOON'."

I read a set of four comics by Master Sergent Mark Baker. These cartoons follow a PVT. while he writes home, is speaking with the people of the country he is in and in Washington. The last comic is about a 1SG who gets a call that ends abruptly because of a comment he says. My quote is from the second comic and is Murphy's reaction to being slaps on multiple occasions because of a phrase that someone from the country he is in had taught him.

My reaction was that it was funny how he could make a joke out of everyday things that they had to go through.

My connection to our unit is that you don't know who you can trust and who you can't in war which is deminstrated in the book as that they aren't sure who the enemy is and in the comic where he was being slapped because of what the man had told him to say.

Over the Years

"Over the Years" is a personal narrative by Christine Gordon. It is about Christine's and her daughter-in-law Diana's anxiety as they wait for Christine's son, Robert, to come home from the war in Iraq in 2005. Diana is so anxious that she cannot sleep the night before. Very early the next morning at the airport, Christine watches children play and anxious wives bite their nails as they wait for their soldiers to arrive. She realizes that these people around her all have the common goal of seeing their men and women, and for that reason, they are strangers no longer. She recognizes that today belongs to Diana, and so she gives up the first hug, the first picture, the first kiss for the couple. Christine's own reunion with her son also reveals the permanent love that a mother has for her son. Afterwards, she soaks up his every word and watches over his needs with bliss, relieved that his fighting days are over.

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul's mother sacrifices her health and dignity for her son's needs. She begs on the streets with loving purpose, completely intending on providing as well as the circumstances will allow. Christine, as a soldier's mother, sacrifices when she let her daughter-in-law have the first embrace.

I hope I will never know what war is like. It is incredible how a soldier's family could be brave enough to let a dear man or woman go. If my husband or son was a soldier, I would be anxious every day to have him back. There is a connection which only a united man and woman or a mother and child can share. A woman's empathy hurts, but it soothes the reciever in an indescribable way. Christine says it well, "Some women are Marines, carry a weapon, are trained to kill; other women survive the best they can and wait for their men to come home" (Carroll 330). Women with family soldiers have a duty to survive where it is safe for those who survive where it is not.

Timeless

I read one of the short stories Timeless by Christy De'on Miller. Pg. 239-249. Timeless is about a mother who's son had gone into the Marines and was in the war of Iraq. She didn't ever want to think that her son could die, or have a man confront her from the military and tell her the news at her front doorstep, or even imagine all the pain that would come with the loss; but it happened. Her son Aaron had died while in a firefight.

In her story she talked about the things Aaron and her had done together, and told some stories about how close their relationship was with each other. They would constantly say how they felt about each other. On one of the pages she said"...'No, I love you the mostest of the most.' 'I love you more than all the eyelashes in the world.' On and on we'd go." Pg. 244 They had wonderful memories together and now he was gone.

One of the connections I thought that was related to the book Fallen Angels was when some of the young men in Perry's squad had died, mainly when Jenkins died. Jenkins was very young and so was Aaron. He was only 21 when he had died. In Fallen Angels you never got to read about the families back in the world and how it affected them (which was mainly what this story was about) so the connection to me between the book and this short story would be the death and youthfulness.

The quote I picked was "By the grace of God I will join you some day. I'll meet the mystery of it all, too, and we will be together. How good it will be to see you again." Pg. 249

De'on didn't have much stuff that used to belong to him, but she did get his watch that he had on when he died. It lasted a couple of months and for some reason it had kept her going and it was something that was his. She would wear it on her wrist everyday in Baghdad time. Once the battery died she put it away in his box forever.

I think Timeless symbolizes that even though his time had died or run out their relationship was everlasting and that after death they would be together again.

Operation Homecoming

The passage in the book i chose is called Brotherhood by Sergeant Dena Price Van den Bosch on page 188-189. It's a poem that was written about how you can be friends with people around you that are complete strangers. One of the really good quotes is,"These same faces... may someday crawl one hundred meters under fire to reach their brother with no guarantee they'll return." I related this to Fallen Angels in the general sense. That although these people are complete strangers they look towards each other for guidance. For example, Perry looks for guidance in Peewee when they hold hands, sleep together, and are in the hole at the end of the book. When it comes down to it, the people to your left and right are the only people you have.

I also related this to when Peewee gets the "Dear John letter". In the poem it says,"These same faces... who share their smokes out of collective boredom while offering their own version of sympathy to stories of unfaithful wives..."It just goes to show that once again, in the face of things like this you really have to open up your heart to your fellow fighters. It truly amazes me how a complete stranger can be the person you rely on most in the most grueling part of your life.

Jag in The Sandbox

Author: Lieutenant Colonel Terry F. Moorer

Type of Literature: Short Story

Quote: "You know who your enemies are if twenty-two of your close family members are killed somehow."

Summary: I read in Operation Homecoming about a young man named Moorer who worked in a prison that was located in Iraq. His job was to try and see which prisoner was guilty or innocent. This was no easy job because many of the prisoners would lie or try to trick him, but he was very good at what he did. Some of the prisoners were nice and respectful and were only in there because of a mistake. While others were murderers who killed many American troops. One of the prisoners killed two American troops and cut off their body parts. Moorer had a very hard job and sometimes it was hard for him to deal with all of this. Many of the prisoners knew English and were smart. Moorer felt a lot of respect towards these men especially the Iraq officers who were prisoners of war. While Moorer worked at the prison he questioned over a hundred of those prisoners. Some were released and others were kept POW. It was very challenging for Moorer, but it taught him that not all prisoners are bad and that some are just at the wrong place in the wrong time. Moorer did enjoy his days at the prison and he worked there for quite a long time.

Response: I thought it was a good interesting story and it taught me that many prisoners are innocent and not all bad. I also think that Moorer was a pretty special person and that it takes a lot of talent to do what he did.

Connection: The connection in this story to fallen angles is when Perry walked in on a Marine Colonel questioning a VC. The VC was very scared and a lot of the prisoners that Moorer questioned were like that. Perry was shaken up by it and in this story Moorer has to deal with this everyday.

What advise would you give Ishmael? When and why?

I would have given Ishmael the advise in the begging of the book. The information that i would have given Ishmael would be to get out of the country with his family. The reason that i would give him the information in the begging is so that he would have more time to act and make a plan to work it out. The other reason that i would have given him this information is because He would have been able to stay one step ahead of the rebel army that kept attacking and destroying all of the villagers.

Do you think what Ishmael did was right. Why or Why not?

I Believe that some of the things that Ishmael did was right because he was protecting him self and all of his friends by killing the rebels that were trying to kill them. I also believe that Ishmael was right because he was trying not to let the rebels hurt anymore innocent villagers. The reason that i think he was wrong with what he did was because he was killing prisoners that he captured in cruel ways. The other reason i think that Ishmael was wrong was because when him and the rest of the kids ran out of food they would go and attack an innocent village just so that they could have all of there food and ammunition. I also believe that Ishmael was wrong because some of the kids that were rebels were his old friends and he was killing them without regret. Even when the kids weren't people he knew it was still wrong to kill kids that are still young. I believe that Ishmael was half wrong and half right with the things that he did during all of the fighting that went on in Sierra Leone.

Advice to Ishmael

Ishmael needed a lot of advice. If I had to tell Ishmael just one piece of advice to help him I would say it to him at the beginning of the book. When Ishmael was going to Mattru Jong and he found out about the attack, he should have ran away. He needed to keep moving and stay away. He could have avoided this whole ordeal.


I would have told Ishmael to run because if he could have stayed out of reach of the soldiers he would never have been forcefully recruited. If Ishmael avoided everything his life would have been 10 times better.

Where would Ishmael be now in his life if his family was with him in the military?

I feel like if Ishmael had some family to help him through his travels, he could have handled the ordeal better. Even if Ishmael only had his older brother Junior, Junior could have protected him and tried to keep the bad thoughts out of his head. Ishmael had to deal with everything himself, if he had someone to help him along, he would have been better off.