How do soldiers handle the grisly sights that war creates?
RJ HollandPro drummer for 40 years studio/session and touring drummer
Some don’t and have a hard time for the rest of their lives. Others seem to be able to handle it. As an Armored Cavalry tanker, I have seen some bad things including watching the ACAV that my best friend was driving blown to bits. I had to keep operating my tank after seeing that. I have written about some of the things I have seen and some of those things, no man should see. They made the beginning of the movie Private Ryan look like a cake walk. I have watched as a grunt got the bottom half of his body blown away, then try to crawl forward on his elbows a few feet before falling dead. I have seen a trooper get cut cleanly in half, the top part of his body landing standing up looking like he was buried waist high in the dirt like at the beach. He wasn’t. I saw his head looking around before he died. I saw a tank commander’s head explode like a watermelon in the tank just in front of us from an RPG round that hit him squarely in the head. I saw body after body after body of young GIs torn apart and covered with ponchos.
I have seen new guys who just got up to the line cut down because when the enemy AKs opened up, and instead of getting down, they looked around to see where the fire was coming from.
I got immune to death.
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