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Basing things on soldiers sending letters home doesn't seem generally likely to show a very unbiased view, either. Almost everyone I knew in Iraq/Afghanistan w

by rdl 7y ago

Basing things on soldiers sending letters home doesn't seem generally likely to show a very unbiased view, either. Almost everyone I knew in Iraq/Afghanistan would send only very sanitized letters (well, emails, generally) home, except for a small minority who would send over the top insanity with little basis in reality. The only exception I saw was people sending letters to friends/relatives who had already been deployed in this specific conflict (not usually even Gulf War I or Vietnam or whatever era parents). The most accurate reporting seemed to be people who kept journals and then reported on it after they left. Without the journal fallible memory would be a serious problem, but in the moment it also seemed to be difficult. There were also a lot of efforts at 1) opsec 2) consequences if you DID share something, like "my 1SG is a dick..." etc. The VAST majority of everything is family life related stuff, mundane basics of life, interpersonal issues, etc. (Especially among units where families knew each other, like various NG units in smaller towns.) There was probably a bias in what I saw (I often got asked by people working around me to help proofread or phrase things, as I was often the one providing the Internet connection and there), but I mean my own experience was to not tell parents/etc. that I was anywhere but "Germany" for 5 years as a contractor, etc. (The biggest truth of modern war, at least from the US side, seems to be that there are massive differences in what the experience is like based on your job, where you're based, luck, etc. This was probably true in previous wars, but with different balance in different roles -- less risk of spontaneous death from indirect fire or green on blue on a US support base in WW2, but inferior logistics, risk of medical problems, etc. From what I saw there were a small number of SOF-types and some smaller combat units, especially in Afghanistan, where there was essentially maximum personal "agency" combined with daily violence, which seemed to be fine, a bunch of people with low agency as far as their own safety but also low risk (people who spent the entire war on one of the biggest bases working in admin/medical/etc. probably were even safer than I was), who were also usually fine, and then some people who had moderate control over their risk but also had moderate risk (truck drivers for most of the Iraq war, etc.) which actually seemed to be the hardest.)

bilbo0s 7y ago
I can't vouch for what other people are trying to put out, but this guy is spittin truth. Think about all the psychological issues that come with low agency/moderate risk jobs. Truck driver was a really good example. Then there are the really whacked out situations you could end up being witness to if you were working something like Civil Affairs. List goes on and on. I think one of the biggest needs of our latest generation of veterans is mental health support. Just because of the nature of a lot of what "war" has become.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
ryanmarsh 7y ago
The biggest truth of modern war, at least from the US side, seems to be that there are massive differences in what the experience is like based on your job, where you're based, luck, etc. I think people don't realize how extreme the two ends are. It can be surreal when the two experiences are in close proximity. I recall returning from a particularly nasty patrol where we were hit pretty hard and almost lost some guys. When trying to enter a dining facility on a big base some POG officer chewed us out for our messy uniforms. His uniform was neatly starched. I have no idea how he managed to do that, we were grateful for electricity and running water. I recall tanks/APCs pulled up in front of a convenience store on one camp, like taking the car up to CVS for some snacks. I recall showing up to one large base to drop of a prisoner. We were particularly dirty and smelly. It had been a messy week out in our sector and there were perfumed young girls in PT uniform (shorts and t-shirt) wearing makeup and giggling and frolicking amongst the fast food joints. I could smell their perfume. They looked at us like Sasquatch had wandered in from the woods. I knew guys that had our AO before us, and described a World War Z type battle with bad guys crawling over the walls. I remember our battles there, not seeming as bad, right after we left I heard how that same camp received a nasty VBIED attack. Years later I met some younger guys who'd been on that camp and they complained how boring it was. Some people were mortared every night, some people spent their deployment missing family and bored to tears. Some people passed out candy, some put parts of their buddies into body bags. All within 20 or 30 miles from each other.
- rdl 7y ago
  An extra weird thing for me (as a contractor and pretty "free range", since it was in-theater awarded, and multiple parallel contracts) was I could be at a party in the IZ, then sitting in the back of an old BMW with just a Hi Power between bases, working on some weird UNIX network driver issue or RF interference problem, video conferencing with an O-7 and his staff, riding on a medevac helicopter sitting in someone else's blood (always look first), shopping at a huge PX and stocking up on discounted thorlo socks, knives, etc., on a super sketchy Uzbek cargo An-12, and then driving 200kph to a 4.5 star hotel, all in a few days, with basically no one telling me what to do or particularly responsible for me. Plenty of other contractors basically stayed on one base, lived under close control, and had basically one job for 12 months (or on some contracts, especially guys from Asia, they were there for years in the same place). And other contractors were doing convoy security, or vehicle recovery, or other close-to-military jobs.
fit2rule 7y ago
>accurate reporting War letters are not "reporting". They're human interaction - there is no right or 'wrong' way to report what is happening during war time, censors and military commanders notwithstanding. >family life related stuff, IMHO, this is the only real value of commentary about war letters. Nothing belies the futility of war more than the same letter written, in a different language, from both sides of the front line, lamenting the war. We must never allow ourselves to consider that there is a 'right soldier', writing his letters ...

by rdl 7y ago

bilbo0s 7y ago

I can't vouch for what other people are trying to put out, but this guy is spittin truth. Think about all the psychological issues that come with low agency/moderate risk jobs. Truck driver was a really good example. Then there are the really whacked out situations you could end up being witness to if you were working something like Civil Affairs. List goes on and on. I think one of the biggest needs of our latest generation of veterans is mental health support. Just because of the nature of a lot of what "war" has become.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ryanmarsh 7y ago

The biggest truth of modern war, at least from the US side, seems to be that there are massive differences in what the experience is like based on your job, where you're based, luck, etc. I think people don't realize how extreme the two ends are. It can be surreal when the two experiences are in close proximity. I recall returning from a particularly nasty patrol where we were hit pretty hard and almost lost some guys. When trying to enter a dining facility on a big base some POG officer chewed us out for our messy uniforms. His uniform was neatly starched. I have no idea how he managed to do that, we were grateful for electricity and running water. I recall tanks/APCs pulled up in front of a convenience store on one camp, like taking the car up to CVS for some snacks. I recall showing up to one large base to drop of a prisoner. We were particularly dirty and smelly. It had been a messy week out in our sector and there were perfumed young girls in PT uniform (shorts and t-shirt) wearing makeup and giggling and frolicking amongst the fast food joints. I could smell their perfume. They looked at us like Sasquatch had wandered in from the woods. I knew guys that had our AO before us, and described a World War Z type battle with bad guys crawling over the walls. I remember our battles there, not seeming as bad, right after we left I heard how that same camp received a nasty VBIED attack. Years later I met some younger guys who'd been on that camp and they complained how boring it was. Some people were mortared every night, some people spent their deployment missing family and bored to tears. Some people passed out candy, some put parts of their buddies into body bags. All within 20 or 30 miles from each other.

rdl 7y ago
An extra weird thing for me (as a contractor and pretty "free range", since it was in-theater awarded, and multiple parallel contracts) was I could be at a party in the IZ, then sitting in the back of an old BMW with just a Hi Power between bases, working on some weird UNIX network driver issue or RF interference problem, video conferencing with an O-7 and his staff, riding on a medevac helicopter sitting in someone else's blood (always look first), shopping at a huge PX and stocking up on discounted thorlo socks, knives, etc., on a super sketchy Uzbek cargo An-12, and then driving 200kph to a 4.5 star hotel, all in a few days, with basically no one telling me what to do or particularly responsible for me. Plenty of other contractors basically stayed on one base, lived under close control, and had basically one job for 12 months (or on some contracts, especially guys from Asia, they were there for years in the same place). And other contractors were doing convoy security, or vehicle recovery, or other close-to-military jobs.

fit2rule 7y ago

>accurate reporting War letters are not "reporting". They're human interaction - there is no right or 'wrong' way to report what is happening during war time, censors and military commanders notwithstanding. >family life related stuff, IMHO, this is the only real value of commentary about war letters. Nothing belies the futility of war more than the same letter written, in a different language, from both sides of the front line, lamenting the war. We must never allow ourselves to consider that there is a 'right soldier', writing his letters ...