The Relief From War
So how long do soldiers have to wait before they get a little R and R? To me, it seems like it would help moral so much more if they would let the soldiers get out and live a little.
Now I know some of the barracks are basically like a gated community, with workout facilities and video games and Internet cafes, but really, they are still stuck in the middle of a war with physical, psychological, and emotional strains at all times, even when they sleep.
I was reading Since You Went Away, a book of World War II letters from American women to their husbands/lovers/fiancées, and I took me a couple hours to figure out that they only got to see their significant other twice or three times in the matter of two or three years, sometimes more. Wouldn’t that make things very very difficult?
Hell, I’ve been in relationships where I only got to see the girl once a week, and that was stressful enough. So I wondered, is it the same thing today? Do they only exchange letters and e-mails, have a couple videoconferences, and maybe one weekend to go somewhere not filled with war and stress?
I go to my trustworthy, typical American soldier, the Usual Suspect. (Suspect, in case you are reading this, I am being sarcastic. You are the shit, and far from ordinary.) But seriously, I truly wonder how many times they can escape the world they live in, and not only in dealing with relationships.
In all of the letters in Since You Went Away the letters all have a reoccurring theme of struggling with the fact that the soldier is actually gone, and will not be coming home anytime soon. It’s a shame we don’t have the soldiers letters to read, because then I could understand if they get more of a break.
Suspect just recently went to Tokyo, and from what I can tell by this entries, had a damn good time. This paragraph in an entry called “Insomnia”, really grabbed my attention when glazing over his articles:
The realization that this is all temporary, it haunts me once in a while. I want to hold on to this as long as I can. We’ve got a clean slate, even if it’s a different color than everyone else’s proverbial slate. We’re finding something out, but we don’t know what. This isn’t just R&R from Iraq, its R&R from my entire life. Just picking up and leaving for somewhere where I don’t know anyone, I’ve probably needed this for years.*
How can a soldier truly enjoy themselves when they know they are not going to have something like this for a couple of years again? The way the mind toys with you would be almost too much to handle.
Suspect later talks about how he wanted to not get back on the plane to return to Iraq, how he would find a job and settle down and just blend in. He says the only thing that held him back was knowing all of his friends were still doing their duty, and he will be damned if he didn’t finish it out with them.
So what is the connection I am trying to make? Even though our technology has progressed SO MUCH, can we still not even allow our men and women overseas to at least get a little break from the world they live in? I think that it may boost moral on the end of the troops, and it may make the people on the home front rest a little easier if they get to see their husbands/mothers/children/significant others more frequently.
I know, it will cost a hella amount of money, and we can’t afford to let the troops go from Iraq very frequently, but I’m just saying. I know the women who wrote the letters back in World War II would have appreciated it. I KNOW people now would appreciate it.
Maybe it’s time to give something back to troops, and let them come home to visit family, if maybe just for a little while. Do it in increments or something, I don’t know. It just seems like the right thing to do. But maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about and am crazy. It seems like a good plan to me…
April 13th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Hay John I agree with a lot of what you have said the troops the do need time to be well being just everyday people, but they are in a profession that does not lend itself well to vacations! I have recently been part of a write the troops campaign partly do to the letters we read and the positive outcome they had and the other half because my cousin and a friends both have said the letter from home is worth more the two weeks R&R no need to set up any plans other then your rack and a few hours of well home!
April 16th, 2008 at 10:59 am
John, you know how I feel about war. I agree with what you have to say about needing a break from the war and stuff. When you enter into the Army it seems like a potential soldier knows what its going to take and knows the sacrifices involved. War is not going to be fun, and its not going to be easy. When you sign on the dotted line you sign away your freedom for the next couple of years. One counter argument to my argument: the Army commercials do put a “fun” spin on it… with the soldiers riding on seadoos and throwing the football around.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:30 am
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