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.

“Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you.” ( Saidu 70)

I think this is a very important quote from A Long Way Gone. This quote is so important because it leaves a huge impact on Ishmael, when he heard Saidu say it. He realized that being a boy soldier impacted him greatly, because it changed the way he looked at war when people tried to kill each other. When Saidu made the remark about slowly dying on the inside, this was one of the reasons it impacted Ishmael.


I felt like Ishmael was starting to realize that he would lose all his friends. The little boys he got to know were slowly being turned into soulless soldiers. Ishmael knew that his life was slowly degrading, all the violence was slowly killing him from the inside.

I feel terrible for Ishmael. He went through so much and he knew he wouldn’t be the same. He was such a normal child until he was forced to join the military. It ruined his life. The military forced him to take lives, and taking lives changes people. They become harsh and become lifeless soldiers that just do what they are commanded. Ishmael was better than that.

"there is no time to be troublesome these days"(Ishmael 92)

When Ishmael Beah says," There is no time to be troublesome these days ", he is talking about all the kids that don't get time to be kids. I think that the quote is saying that because of the war going on in Sierra Leone the kids are no longer able to go out and enjoy there youth by playing sports or hanging with there friends. Ishmael Beah is saying that because of all the fighting going on kids are not able to have peace and quiet. The kids are all to busy trying to escape the war and fighting by running away to different towns. When the kids decide to stop running they are either enlisted into the army or into the rebels army. When the kids said no to these to factions they were shot. What this quote says to me is that i am lucky to live in America and not a country filled with civil wars. This quote tells me that i am lucky to grow up where i do not have to witness massacres every day and i also don't have to risk being shot will running from the shooting.

The Meaning of "The Bean Trees" Title

The meaning of the title of the book "The Bean Trees" is not fully revealed and explained until the very end of the book. However the explanation of the title is dependent on events that occur in the middle of the book. There is a park near Taylor and Lou Ann's house called Roosevelt Park. It is quite a barren wasteland as parks go, almost all the grass is dead, and few trees grow there. However, there is one corner of the park where a trellis stands, and crawling all over this trellis are vines. At first these vines appear as dead as the rest of the park, but, later on, they blossom into beautiful flowers that create a shady purple oasis. Even later in the book, the trees grow beans, which surprised Taylor. At the end of the book, when Taylor and Turtle are in the Oklahoma City Library, they look through a horticultural encyclopedia. As they flip through the pages, young Turtle points out a picture of the vine that they had both seen growing on the park trellis. As they read about the plant, a few particular facts stuck out at them. They discovered that the vines (called wisteria) thrive in harsh, arid climates due to separate creatures known as rhizobia. This is how Taylor explained this fact to her newly adopted daughter Turtle: "it's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie...and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everybody has Mattie." So the connection between these wisteria bean "trees" and the overall story is that during the story Taylor sees and experiences people helping other people in difficult situations, so they can survive, just like the wisteria and the rhizobia. That is the meaning of "The Bean Trees" title.

-Cory Partridge

Advice to Perry

Perry's biggest struggle during the war was not having many people he could turn open up to. I think that when you are going through something so tragic, you should always be able to turn to someone who will give you advice or will help you out a little with kind words. He could have explained everything in his letters home, but he didn't want his family to worry. Perry wasn't alone with this problem though. During the Vietnam War, soldiers usually weren't very honest in their letters they wrote home.
As for talking to the other soldiers, Perry didn't want to seem scared or weak. He thought acting like everything was okay no matter what would make him seem brave. My advice to Perry would be to open up to his family. His mother must know that everything is not as easy as he is making seem anyway, so why not just tell hewr the truth? Just by writing it down, it could have made a huge difference, and made him feel a lot more comfortable. Perry also could have talked to his comrades. He should have had more trust that they would not judge him for showing a little bit of fear.