My War Experience and Take Aways

War should be the last resort when all political efforts fail.

The reason for going to war must have sound reasons, we'll planned, and have global coalitions to support it. War must have a beginning plan, contingency plans during, and an exit plan. (In my opinion World War II was the last war that was required) For example, the United States deciding to invade Iraq was the beginning of major destabilization of the Middle East region that was already in a state of instability. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were poorly planned throughout both campaigns. I fault our politicians and military leaders. This decision was not the only reason for disabilization but was the trigger point for starting the domino effect. Historical tribal and religious differences were already in place throughout the region. The current awful situation in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and other countries is the outcome of very poor decision making by politicians and their support staff. They were not educated or experienced enough to understand the geopolitical outcomes extending out over periods of years. My personal opinion is many should be tried for war crimes.

Once war is decided upon; the politicians need to let the military conduct the war. Political micromanagement effecting the war is very unwise.

War, for the most part, has no moral compass. It's ugly, primitive, frightening, life changing (mostly bad) for those involved. The killing of civilians is an expected outcome of war. Anyone who does not want nor expect to have civilians and friendly fire incidences to take place don't understand what takes place during war.

A military individual who is placed in a position to be killed or wounded is an emotional and physical experience beyond imagination. To decide to kill another human being is a gut rentioning mental decision that must be made prior to going into combat.

Once your in an active combat situation being fired upon and shooting back puts an individual into a mental situation that can take several avenues. It depends, in my opinion, on each individuals mental makeup prior going into combat. Some are calm, deliberate, and can make spot on decision making, then have an emotional experience after the fact. Some have difficulty staying calm having strong almost destabilizing ability to function. While others, like me, started out emotionally destabilized then got my act together during the fire fight. It also depends on how extreme, or not, the combat situation is. I and my fellow soldiers saw things and did things that we humans should not have to see or do. What we species do to one another is beyond comprehension.

When in war for period of time; I experienced the following:
Felt very alive, physically healthy and mentally alert. Became more primitive or less human. Began to feel or be aware of an additional sense that was probably dormant. Could communicate with my squad members and they communicate with me with almost no talking when we hit the sh...t. My life prior to war seemed almost like it never existed. When we were inserted into an area for search and destroy, I began to sense right away if we would make contact with the NVA or not.

I could go on, but my goal is to help those who never experienced being in war get somewhat of a small understanding of what it's like. Why? The next time when you think war is the answer you'll have just a little more information to help make your decision.

One last experience to share before I sign off. That high pitched screaming I was hearing turned out to be me when I was wounded in an ambush. I did not know at first it was me. Strange as hell.