With the Old Breed

Since today is the Marine Corps birthday and yesterday we were talking about must read books, I must recommend With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge.

In it Eugene Sledge, an officer candidate turned mortarman, tells of the battles waged at Peleliu and Okinawa. The thing I most enjoyed about reading his story is that it was told without judgement. He doesn't throw any political twist on it and glorify in his own self-importance. Nor does he vilify the war. Rather, he gives a matter of fact narration of his boots on the ground experience. There is no acrimony in his description of mud, blood and decaying bodies.

I am not a war buff in any manner. This was in fact the first, outside of high school, I'd read on the subject of WWII. It's extreme honesty really impressed me. As this is a memoir, E.B. Sledge could have injected his story with facts and stories he learned after the fact, yet he did not. Other than a few clarifying details, he refrained and instead told the story with the sparse information he had at the time he experienced it.

Reading it touched me deeply and I've considered what I read in it many times since. The atrocities that humans will inflict on other humans is very sad. At times I was horrified by what I read. At others, tears ran down my face. Mostly I was struck by the tragic loss of life, not only then, but in the battles that have ensued since then, and those that continue to rage today.

E.B. Sledge's story was used in part for the HBO mini-series, The Pacific. I encourage you to pick up the book and the follow up memoir, China Marine, which tells of E.B. Sledge's experience immediately following Okinawa.

To my friends (& their friends) who are presently deployed and will be deploying soon, stay safe, you're in our thoughts and prayers.

"Languages"

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? Maybe you signed up for Spanish 101 and thought you’d try out your new skills at the local Cantina. Your formal masculine conjugation is a dead giveaway to a native that you learned Spanish out of a book in the proper Castilian way. While there is often an appreciation of your efforts to learn their native tongue, they will still delight in using Spanglish and throwing slang around while you try not to look like a complete fool.

In the last year or so I’ve gained a new set of friends and have found myself in a similar predicament. I’m not even sure they realize they’re speaking a foreign tongue. You see, my new friends all belong to a very special group: the United States Military. My friends are mostly Marines and Sailors but I’ve run across a few Soldiers and Airmen, and as far as I can tell, the language varies across the branches.

Like a child raised in a dual language household, they insert acronyms and jargon without thought. Their Facebook posts are rife with rants, accomplishments and jokes only understood by an insider. Clarifications are often just as cryptic as the original statement and require several restatements to get the “big” picture.

Part of the problem may lie in trying to find some sort of common ground. A way to relate what they’re doing with things I’m familiar with. For example, in my world if I have a problem I take it to a supervisor. If I don’t like the answer, I can escalate the issue. If I can’t find sufficient resolution, I can find a new job. In their world, you can damage your career and make the rest of your service hell by even thinking about escalating your issue to your superior’s superior, even if theoretically that’s what the chain of command is there for. Having your life totally controlled by a guy who might not like you is a hard concept to grasp for this independent girl.

I love my new friends and have tons of respect for what they do. I just wish I had a better understanding of their world. Maybe somewhere I’ll find a For Dummies book on “How to be a Military Girlfriend.”