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.