Blog 2

Rites of spring is about what is going when the soldiers are at war, it talks about where the soldiers originally hide out in during the war (dugouts). It goes over how the men feel before the war begins how some are nervous and some are scared which cause them to become clumsy during the war. It explains all the gear the soldiers have to have vs. what the officers have to have. The men come out in different sections for battle they are called waves, there is first second and third listed in rites of spring. Talks about the conditions these men live in while in these dugout hide outs the encounters they have with certain bugs and things. Because they were at war the smell of decomposition took over. It goes on to explain that some men that go to battle never even experience these horrible conditions. They leave without a scratch on them or without seeing the enemy some are not that lucky however. It explains to you how these soldiers can be doing something as simple as eating, see another solider die next to them and then continue on with what they are doing. You kind of see how the war changes these men and why they have such a hard time when they return here, because anyone in their right mind would not be able to see someone die and then continue with what they are doing. Soldiers Home is about the opposite but it goes with rites of spring because rites of spring is about the soldiers and while they are in war. Solders home talks about one solider in particular and his return. In rites of spring you picture the things those soldiers went through and put it with what he might of went through and kind of understand why everything seems so different to him. He says that when he returns home no one really acknowledges him because all the other soldiers have already been home. He also says how he doesn’t tell his story because one people are no longer really interested since they have most likely already asked a solider that came home before him and two those details are so hard to take in a person probably only wants hear them once. Then he also says that he doesn’t really want to tell the story again. He talks about how much things changed with in the time that he was gone. Women were wearing their hair in one style before left and then when he came back everything had completely changed. Another thing soldiers home cleared up is when you think about war you automatically think man and then how their lady must feel at home without them but in the story he tells us that the army teaches them that they do not really need girls it is nice to have them but they don’t really need them. I felt like both stories gave two different views one on how it is to be in battle and the other how hard it is to return after the battle they both help you understand the other a little more.

 

Blog 1

In the first article they had what they thought was a simple mission to go to Isis in Iraq and capture the people who were taking the citizens against their will as prisoners. Most of the time these people eventually ended up getting killed. Anyone who wasn’t a Muslim is not safe. This article made front page news because an American solider ended up getting killed. This relates to black hawk down because they also went into a mission they thought was going to be simple and fast to go capture two men who were working for Aidid and also capture Aidid himself if possible and put them in prison. Abidid and his people were taking all the food from the citizens and leaving them starving. The situation turned out not to be so simple however. In the article nor black hawk down were the soldiers prepared for what they were about to endure. They didn’t have the correct weapons so people, our own people started dying, and soldiers started questioning if this mission was worth it. Both of these missions were supposed to be so simple and not take a long time but they ended up being hours longer than expected. In the second article the main focus there was communication in both black hawk down and this article they used flags as one of the ways to communicate and in both case communication was not very good because when you use a flag, that both sides are using then the other side can read your signals, as expressed in the article. Also if the communication person is shot or hurt then the other side has an automatic advantage over the enemy. If no one is on the ground giving direction then things don’t end up happening the way they are supposed to. In black hawk down they did use flags but they had other forms of communication like the people who sat in the big black hawk watching over from above trying to give communication signals in different ways to the people below and the people below were trying to give communication back to them. This was a problem because communication wasn’t reaching them nearly fast enough and when things are this way the message is not always re-laid the way it should. In the article they talked about the hot air balloons which is kind of like the big black hawk it just sits at the top over the whole seen and waits to receive messages and try to telegraph them right then and there so things worked faster. However this didn’t always work because the balloons were not fast enough and didn’t reach the locations in time always. Of course the black hawk moved a lot faster than the hot air balloons and had a lot more technology in it. Both these articles and black hawk prove that even though there is a big time difference things in war still haven’t changed. The army is still sending our soldiers into situation and blind siding them by lack of supplies and not providing effective ways to communicate.