What is a soldier? What makes a good soldier? Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines a soldier as one who “engages in military service”, a “skilled warrior”, and a “militant leader or follower”. The characteristics of a soldier vary in the different military branches but ultimately a soldier is loyal to his or her country, willing to fight and die. In an article by B.R. Burg, the author states “The complete officer must be the complete man, they believed, and to measure up each had to possess an amalgam of qualities that included patriotism, courage, honor, loyalty, absolute honesty, and elevated standards of morality” (439). The epitomes of a good soldier are characters such as Sergeant Elias (Platoon), Captain John Miller (Saving Private Ryan), and any number of the main characters from war novels such as With the Old Breed, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and Black Hawk Down. These good soldiers fight for their country and brotherhood. Those that are the levelheaded father figures are praised while characters such as Sergeant Barnes (Platoon) are criticized for their aggressive and sometimes violent behavior. Is this type of character much different than the “good soldier”? When does this type of change come over a soldier? The movie Platoon offers a good insight into the making of a man into a soldier during the Vietnam War.
“Military service is one of out rites of manhood; it makes men men”(Ehrenreich).
The war for Chris Taylor begins the same as it does for the characters in most war novels and films. Taylor leaves college and enters the Vietnam War by his own choice. Unlike many of the other soldiers he is with, he is the typical middle-class Caucasian. As with many new soldiers he has an idealized picture o...
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Palais de l’Europe, Strasbourg France. 8 Oct. 1999.
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Platoon. Dir. Oliver Stone. Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 1986.
Schott, Robin May. “Gender and Postmodern War.” Hypatia. 11.4 (1996):19-29
Sledge, E.B. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. California: Presidio Press, 1990.
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
What it means to be a professional soldier The first things you think about when you hear about a soldier is that we are clean brave dependable have a lot of respect and disciplined but that is only a look at the cover of the book they are fathers mothers sisters brothers and friends we are the ones that want to make sure that our land is safe for our brothers in arms and everyone at home that we love being a soldier is more than just a name to most to the professional it's a way of life from there house being the standard of living to their attitude being spot on so that people want to learn and be just like them not only are we an example to the world but also the person who thinks about joining the ranks of the United States Army because
In Is Google Making Us Stupid, Carr concerns about spending too much time on web, making people lose the patient and ability to read and think and changing people’s thinking behaviors. He gives so many points: he can not read lengthy article used to be easy; many author begin to feel that too much reading online let them hard to read and absorb a longish article; we put efficiency and immediacy above understanding when we read; The circuits in brain has been altered by reading habit.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
He left a rich Jazz heritage for people around the world. People can appreciate the excellence of a grand master from the following classic singles, West End Blues, Savoy Blues, Potato Head Blues, Weather Bird, I 'm Not Rough and Heebie Jeebies and so on. Not a jazz musician could be known to and win support from every family like him. His works has been reprinted several times in the past thirty years (Gourse and Louis 342). He had a large collection of his own and other recordings. He enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically.
Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.
Louis Armstrong was a very successful jazz artist, trumpet, and cornet player. Although he didn't get a lot of recognition until later and after his musical career he still led the way for many other artists. He influenced many artists including Ella Fitzgerald. Throughout his career Louis Armstrong called himself an entertainer regardless of what others thought of his music and continued to do what he loved most up until his death.
...y and war still abound; however, these analogies cannot capture the full masculinity of the modern man as they do not allow for the formation of intimate personal relationships, such as that between husband and wife, which lie at the heart of ordinary civilian life.
The male-dominated institution that is the U.S. military, through daily practice, has shown its implementing of hegemonic masculinity among ranks. As this institution relies on rigid masculine qualities, it feeds from the history of hyper-masculinity. Warfare and hegemonic masculinity go hand in hand, “for ages throughout countless societies the final initiation rite from boyhood to manhood has been an inclusion in the practice of war” (Morgan 125). Through this idea, “boys who aspire to manhood, and men seeking to express theirs, follow masculine scripts generated in and for particular milieus, but they must also negotiate their course in relation to the hegemonic forms of contemporary masculinity and femininity” (Nye 1940). This ideal of a strong and aggressive leader is emphasized through American war politics as well “where our major response to the indirect tactics of guerrilla warfare has been to rely upon more and bigger ‘strikes’ and ‘assaults’, despite all the evidence of their long-run ineffectiveness” (Mansfield 351). Essentially this idea that to prove oneself through the strength and refusal to retreat, regardless of the effectiveness of the strategy “seems to reflect a psychological reality” within the military: “to lose will be to unman us all” (Mansfield
In June 2013 Army Doctrine Reference Publication 1 (ADRP1) “The Army Profession” was released and the website http://cape.army.mil was created. In (ADRP1), it states there are five essential characteristics of the Army Profession, trust, military expertise, honorable service, Esprit de Corps, and stewardship (ADRP1, 2013). Those characteristics is what I think separates a Soldier from a civilian. No one should think that their job or occupation is harder or more important than someone else’s. It takes all kinds of professions to make this country work but the Army could not be as successful as it is today without our professionals teaching, coaching, mentoring and preserving these five characteristics.
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
Born on the Fourth of July in 1900, Armstrong was delivered in a cabin in a ddilapidated black slum in the Back o' Town section of New Orleans. Armstrong's father was a laborer named Willie Armstrong, and his mother a domestic and most likely a part-time prostitute named Mayann. Just after his birth, his father abandoned his family, and his mother decided to move into an area of town that was reserved for black prostitutes. Armstrong had no choice but to live with his grandma, Josephine, until he moved back with his mom, after she had moved to Storyville a few years later. At the time, Storyville was a tawdry, rundown, neighborhood or "brothels, cribs, seedy dance halls, and honky-tonks frequented by black laborers and some whites" (Kernfield 27). At such an early age, Armstrong was poorly cared for by his mother and spent much of his early years deprived physically, mentally, and emotionally to an extensive degree. Although his early life may have seemed rough and difficult, he grew up listening in the dance halls and clubs to what was then the blues and the new hot music emerging from the musical period of ragtime (Kernfi...
These two articles are similar in the sense that they agree that the internet and computational objects are reshaping our brain’s structure by changing our neural circuit. By using examples from their personal experiences to identify a trend in technology use, the authors illustrate that the more we bury ourselves in technology the more we are unable to understand material which leads to loss of concentration and the ability to think for ourselves. As an author, Carr finds the internet a beneficial tool, but it’s having a bad effect on his concentration span. Carr points this out by stating “Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy, now I get fidgety, lose the thread and begin looking for something else to do” (39). He is no
Louis Armstrong over all was a great trumpet player in jazz. Besides trumpet Louis was an amazing vocalist. He also wrote two autobiographies, ten magazines articles, hundreds of pages of memories, and thousands of letters. He had composed lots of songs. He also performed an average of 300 concerts each year; he earned the nick name “Ambassador Satch” and was one of the best famous people of the 20th century. The public loved Louis Armstrong to the point where every single person in the united sates knew him and everyone was devastated when he died.
...you are still able to pick out certain instruments. In fact, the first sound that I noticed was the piano, then the trombone and the clarinet. Their harmonized sound is very distinct. Just as the lyrics, I am sure if you were to hear just the instrumental portion you would recognize it right away.