Shawn, there are two sides to war. There is the horrible side a few experience, and there is the boredom most encounter. Even my Marine brother, an infantry squad leader (now platoon sergeant) who spent his Iraq tour in the streetfighting of Fallujah during the height of the conflict there and is really fucked up in the head because of it, said: "War is one year of boredom for 10 minutes of excitement."
Vietnam vets (and Korea vets, for that matter) can say what they will, but if you get them alone and in an honest mood, you find out that the majority of them had tours very much like the typical tour in Iraq too. I've only met a few Vietnam vest who were truly "in the shit" (like Foster was). What really blows me away is the number of guys wearing Vietnam Vet hats who never even got sent overseas, much less stepped foot on Vietnam soil. I imagine in thirty years we'll see old, crotchety men wearing Iraq War hats who never stepped foot in the sandbox, too.
In my experience, the ones who actually saw the shit don't talk about it.
"Nonstopdrivel" wrote: