The Uncertainty of War
While at times this blog may have seemed to have no direction I believe that in the end the overall message is fairly clear. At first my writing started out a little rough as I struggled to find my footing when relating our class readings to the world today. My most difficult obstacle was narrowing my topic and defining my goals for the blog. I felt that making connections between the real world and the texts would be enough but clearly a goal had to be reached through this project. My main goal was to present conditions faced by soldiers during war or because of war. At times this was difficult because I had to draw on the pain of people in the texts who did not have experience fighting during the war specifically. The most difficult subject to relate to soldiers specifically was the Holocaust. Our readings of World War II literature mainly centered around the Holocaust and those people who survived the concentration camps. At times certain blog entries may seem like a bit of a stretch but I feel that it would be impossible to find clear connections in all of the literature. Some topics had to be intensely dissected in order to make them fit into a narrow topic. Throughout the duration of this blog I have explored connections between the characters or narrators in the class literature to the life of soldiers during the War on Iraq. These connections include conditions that the soldiers are subject to, rules and regulations that are meant to be followed, treatment of prisoners of war, expectations and fear before going into battle, communication between soldiers and their families, and the way that war affects the family of soldiers returning from war. There are so many aspects of war and the life of a soldier is extremely complex but connections can be made to soldiers who fought in past wars, civilians, concentration camp survivors, and people who volunteer to aid in the war effort. Soldiers are not entirely in a category all their own, they have many attributes that can be related to other people.
In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien discusses his feelings after being drafted into the United State Military. He did not support the war that was being fought in Vietnam and he felt the he could not fight for his country if he did not believe. He entertained the idea of leaving the country and standing up for his own moral beliefs. Eventually he returned home in preparation to go to war because he was afraid of disappointing his family and his community.
“Even in my imagination, the shore just twenty yards away, I couldn’t make myself be brave. It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that’s all it was. And right then I submitted. I would go to the war- I would kill and maybe die- because I was embarrassed not to.” -Tim O’Brien
Thousands of men likely held the same opinion as O’Brien when they were required to register for the draft during the Vietnam War. The draft was enacted in The Selective Training and Services Act of 1940 by Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to support the military when volunteer numbers were too low. After the attack on Pearl Harbor men and women rushed to volunteer to aid in the war effort because they felt that the fighting was justified. The Vietnam War did not instill pride in Americans and there was not a rush to volunteer in the war effort as there was in WWII. The draft was vital during the Vietnam War because it was the only way to provide enough troops to fight.
If the draft were to be reinstated there would likely be many people opposed to fighting. Today many people support the war effort but just as many people (if not more) are completely opposed to any sort of conflict between countries. If a draft occurred today many people would likely flee the country as O’Brien so faithfully considered just before leaving to fight in Vietnam. Despite all of this a draft is completely possible if our country has difficulty raising the numbers necessary to fight in a war.
Though the United States halted conscription in 1973, the Selective Service remains as a means to register American males upon reaching the age of 18 as a contingency should the measure be reintroduced. -Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
Though a draft has not occurred in over three decades the United States Government is fully prepared to hold another lottery if it becomes necessary. The uncertainty of war has remained constant throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and across our span of literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Training_and_Service_Act_of_1940
Information about the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
Thinking of the Veterans
For some reason it just seems appropriate that we are reading a novel like Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut on Veterans Day. Kurt himself was a Veteran of World War II and he tells the story of Billy Pilgrim who fights in the war and comes home emotionally and mentally scarred. This book not only includes elements of war in Europe but the central theme of the novel is the state of mental health that a soldier must endure after returning from war. The story of Billy Pilgrim is Kurt Vonnegut’s tool in intimately telling his own story of war in a detached way. Billy Pilgrim hallucinations are a way of escaping this world that has faced the destruction of war. Perhaps Vonnegut’s way of escaping the same world is to write through the eyes of someone other than himself.
Many veterans of World War II did not show signs of Post Traumatic Stress immediately following their return home to the Unites States. It was a widely accepted fact that men did not often speak about war to their families, or to anyone for that matter. After the war it was extremely important that men went back to work, in many cases relieving their wives from difficult labor that they had endured for years during the war. In the years following World War II perhaps most of the men simply did not have time to think of what happened to them during the battles, they were too busy getting back to their real lives and families. These ideas may apply to Billy Pilgrim, and Kurt Vonnegut himself. Pilgrim checks himself into a veteran’s hospital three years after the war because he finally begins to feel the effects;
“He woke up with his head under a blanket in a ward for nonviolent mental patients in a veterans’ hospital near Lake Placid, New York. It was springtime in 1948, three years after the end of the war.” (p.99).
After this brief stay in the veterans’ hospital much of Billy Pilgrim’s life is omitted from the text until he is kidnapped by a flying saucer in 1967. He time travels back to his wedding night briefly but other than this almost twenty years of his life is not even mentioned. Perhaps these were the happiest times of his life, the times that helped him to forget about what happened during the war; his wedding, the birth of his children, and the growth of a young family in the 1950s and 1960s. (Of course these are my observations after reading only 2/3 of the novel, maybe this will eventually change). Billy is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians for the first time only a year before the death of his wife in 1968.
It is quite possible that Billy’s experience with time travel occurs because his wife has passed away, he has basically stopped working, and he has more time to think about the events of the war. According to the American Psychological Association it is very common for World War II Veterans not to think about the events of war in a devastating way until something traumatic has happened later in life such as the death of a spouse. World War II veterans commonly feel that what they fought for was respectable and that they should be proud and this often gives way to the feelings of Post Traumatic Stress.
“When age forced their retirement, the traumatic memories seemed to resurface in distressing ways, the researchers add. Their minds seem to have had more time to recall traumatic events. Others may have felt older traumas resurface after they become widowers and find themselves spending more time alone.
‘I do think there’s an increasing vulnerability to memories of traumatic experiences that is associated with age,’ Elder says, ‘because things in our lives become less controllable. We have to retire for health reasons, or our spouse dies.’” -American Psychological Association
Perhaps these ideas contribute to Kurt Vonnegut’s inability to write about World War II and Dresden until later in his life. Billy Pilgrim’s hallucinations occur later on in his life and therefore he may have been unable to face the events of war until that time. Age, retirement, and the loss of loved ones can contribute to the resurfacing of wartime memories for many veterans of World War II.
The American Psychological Association
Communication with Troops Overseas
Our class reading of “Since You Went Away”, letters from women on the home front written to men and women overseas during World War II, compiled by Judy Barrett Litoff and David E. Smith leaves a great deal to be desired. The book provides great examples of the struggle that women faced as their husbands, brothers, fathers, and friends struggled in fighting for their country overseas but we receive very little accounts from the soldier’s perspective. We are limited to the knowledge that the women have as they write from their homes. Letter writing in the World War II era was definitely not limited to husbands and wives, or family members. Many men wrote home to the families of their fallen comrades in order to extend their sympathy and gratitude. In many cases the fallen men acted as heros in order to save other men in uniform, the survivors had a strong desire to make sure that the family of the fallen knew all that their son had accomplished.
I was hit and dropped to the ground… . With Russ’s assistance, I could move a bit. Moving along a narrow trail, we ran into a [Japanese] patrol. Instead of getting away. … Russ stood [over me] with a knife in hand while three [guys] charged him with bayonets. With the cool art of a true Marine he [managed] to kill the first two, but the third one stabbed him in the back…. [He] lay down beside me [and] said, “Well, Shep, I guess this is where we came in,” and smiled. … Then he just went to sleep…. Marine Pfc. (Private First Class) Edgar Shepard
Marine Pfc. Shepard wrote home to the family of Russell Whittlesey, who saved his life while fighting the Japanese in Guadalcanal. His letter re-enacts the events surrounding Whittlesey’s death and hopefully provides a form of comfort to his family. While the letters written from women at home to their men overseas are extremely insightful and interesting it would be very beneficial to study letters written by soldiers to their families at home and to the families of their fallen comrades.
During World War II V-mail was the quickest, most efficient way to send a letter to loved ones overseas. The letters left a limited amount of space but this was a way for family at home to help in the war effort by reducing the weight of mail sent to the troops.
“V-Mail film was flown overseas where it was developed and the letter was delivered to the recipient in the form of a 4 by 5 1/2 photograph. Letters with a bulk weight of 2,575 pounds could be reduced to a mere 45 pounds when processed in this manner.” -“Since You Went Away”.
A common worry among women during the 1940′s was whether or not their loved ones overseas were receiving the letters that they sent. There are numerous letters included in the book in which women are asking if their letters were received. Florence E. Webb received her husband’s letters in a strange order, if she ever got them at all.
Jim, I received letter #16 today. It was written June 6, 1944. So far I have received letters #1,2,4,9, and 16. I wonder where the rest of them are. I should start numbering my letters so you may be able to keep them straight…”
Men and women in the Armed Services do not share the same worries over lost mail as people did during World War II. Sure mail is lost on occasion, but this happens much more infrequently than in the 1940s. Advances in technology have also made corresponding with loved ones back home much easier on our troops overseas. Cell Phones for Soldiers is an organization started by two teenagers with a desire to help soldiers communicate with their families back home. Millions of Americans discard their cell phones each year in order to purchase new, more high-tech phones. Donating these unused phones is the best option because it will help soldiers in need. The donated phones are traded for calling cards that can be used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The calling cards are passed out for free among the soldiers who greatly appreciate this cause;
Today, I received the pre-paid calling cards from you. I handed out the cards myself, and they all disappeared in less than a minute! We would ALL like to thank you very much for the cards and the support you provide to those of us in the military. I am currently deployed to Iraq for a year (been here for a month), just got married in June, and it’s so great to be able to call my wife.
Thanks again for your support!
TSgt Jason
Coalition Air Force Training Team (CAFTT)
Hurriya Base/Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq- Cell Phones for Soldiers
There are also causes that accept laptop donations and then rebuild the computers for soldiers who need them overseas. While communication between Armed Forces and their families has become much easier than it was during World War II, there are some restrictions places on correspondence for security purposes. Correspondence can not be lost if it is sent via e-mail to a soldier’s AKO e-mail (Army Knowledge Online). If family wishes to send instant messages to a soldier overseas they must also have one of these AKO e-mail addresses (issued at the request of a soldier) because instant messaging through sources such as AIM, MSN, and Yahoo is becoming restricted in certain areas. Private video chats are also being restricted for security purposes except through Video Teleconference at Family Readiness Centers on US Army bases, but you must live near a base in order to take advantage of this communication. The morale of soldiers must be much higher with this frequent correspondence to loved ones via telephone, e-mail, video conferencing, Skype, and in some cases good old fashion snail mail.
