Great photo essay from the Denver Post following one Ian Fisher from home, to Iraq and back again. (H/T to John from Op-For)
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The Making of a SojerBy lex, on November 4th, 2009
6 comments to The Making of a Sojer |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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What a great photo essay. His experiences are very typical of many young soldiers and sailors. Some of it you hate to see, even though you really hope he’ll learn from it all. Does the life ever really change?
Looks like the young man had a struggle with the “tear down the individual and build up the member of a team” aspect of Army Basic. It’s pretty disorienting. I went through it at Ft. Campbell, Ky. in 1968 at the age of 18. Having your ‘self-image’ shattered at the point in your young life where you have all the answers(Hah!)can be a real eye-opener. Looks like he made it, albeit with a stumble or two.
Great photo-essay!
Cheers!
ChrisP
Whoo-boy, the personal life choice stuff in that young’s man’s life…
Major flash back to all that counseling I got to do of airmen and 3rd Classes. Looking back it was some sort of prep for life now with teenage and young adult children.
The kids wonder how it is I seem to read their minds and anticipate their next excuse. The clairvoyant father I am. /heh. Yes indeed. Little do they know, it’s just a rerun of a past life as a 2nd and 1st Class PO sorting through the tales of woe of Airman So-and-So from Brainerd, MN and how he was mistreated and misunderstood by the Virginia Beach Police.
Blackeagle,
You betcha! I understand exactly what you are saying. My son remarked that I was quite accurate in what he was going to experience at Fort Benning.
But yeah, the uniforms and names change, but the faces and experiences never do.
The photographer from the DP, Craig Walker, won the Pulitzer for this story.
Ooops. Here is the linky. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14868562