Follow Me.
Feb. 22nd, 2008 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreI've tried, on occasion, to explain how someone can be proud of their military service even when they may disagree with the mission, the current government or even the existence of the state they are fighting for. These arguments, usually at cons, tend to met with blank looks. I've been having more of them over the past few years as I try to explain the concept of "oppose the war, support the troops" to my more rabid liberal friends who equate serving with making national policy.
David Drake is a SF writer probably best known for the Hammer's Slammers series. Mr. Drake is a Vietnam Veteran, having spent most of 1970 in-country with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment - The Blackhorse one of the more storied units of the US Army.
I just finished The Tank Lords, the collection of Hammer's stories that Drake has suggested be read first, and in the back he has placed an afterword seeking to clarify his position on several issues. Being a veteran who writes what some would see as fiction that glorifies combat (these people have never read a word of his work) he explains his views of Vietnam, a soldier's role, and the growing tendency among those of a certain age to bemoan "missing out" on Vietnam. I really urge everyone to get this book if only for this essay (the stories a freaking excellent, and yeah, I knew those guys in my Army)
But he sums up what pride means to a soldier in the last paragraph:
UU-fucking-raahhh!!
David Drake is a SF writer probably best known for the Hammer's Slammers series. Mr. Drake is a Vietnam Veteran, having spent most of 1970 in-country with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment - The Blackhorse one of the more storied units of the US Army.
I just finished The Tank Lords, the collection of Hammer's stories that Drake has suggested be read first, and in the back he has placed an afterword seeking to clarify his position on several issues. Being a veteran who writes what some would see as fiction that glorifies combat (these people have never read a word of his work) he explains his views of Vietnam, a soldier's role, and the growing tendency among those of a certain age to bemoan "missing out" on Vietnam. I really urge everyone to get this book if only for this essay (the stories a freaking excellent, and yeah, I knew those guys in my Army)
But he sums up what pride means to a soldier in the last paragraph:
Nobody who missed the Viet-Nam War should regret the fact. It was a waste of blood and time and treasure. It did no good of which I'm aware, and did a great deal of evil of which I'm far too aware. But having said that. . .
I rode with the Blackhorse
UU-fucking-raahhh!!
