BODY: Karl Marlantes, a First Lieutenant or a “louie” is what they called a Lieutenant back in the vietnam war, was dropped in the highlands of Vietnam in 1969 at the age of twenty three. There he served as a platoon commander with the unit 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. The book begins in February 1969, in Quang Tri Province under monsoon clouds (clouds that are full of moisture so they can produce heavy rainfall for long periods of time) on Mutters’ Ridge which parallel Vietnam’s Demilitarized Zone.
His friend Zoomer was shot in the chest and in that moment, Marlantes watched his friend battling death until the medevac bird could come get them. In the book, Marlantes said that “The marine corps taught me how to kill, but it didn’t tell me how to deal with it” Chapter 1, Page 3. I think this relates to everyone in the infantry field because we were always taught to kill our enemies without remorse. In the book, Marlantes talks about dissociation from one’s enemy humanity, and that applies to us today because we think of our enemies as the bad guy and we’re always the good guy doing God’s work. Everyone talks about killing but they do not know the marks and scars it leaves …show more content…
In his case, he was a well trained Marine but he soon discovered nothing prepared him for what he saw in combat. He had wished he mentally prepared himself so that it would cause less pain for him in the future. He says that in order to do that one must know what they’re fighting for and truly believe in it. In Vietnam, it was a different case for Marlantes. Vietnam was a different because the lines were blurred there. No one really knew what they were fighting for so the actions that happened there were questionable. They were battling their ethics and morals constantly, questioning whether what they did was right or wrong. Never knowing the answer, it scarred them for