MartyrMade

[GloryofGreece]

You know, when I first joined the infantry in the 1980s, our platoon was pretty much exactly like the platoon in Platoon, we had our Sgt. Barne's, we had our Sgt. Elias', half the platoon was pot smoking beatnik Heads, the other half was whiskey swilling western Cowboys, and we had the same sort of conflicts between them, it's eerie how much Platoon imitated real life, even in the Canadian Army.

And just like Tailor in Platoon, I was ever torn between the Heads and Cowboys, I loved them all, even if they couldn't get along with each other.

That's cool to know, thanks. Platoon is my mother's favorite "war movie" and I watched it at a early age and many time after. I know Stone's politics are disliked by many and are generally viewed as leftist or downright socialist, but the man has made some good films and he was a veteran as well.

[Smitty-48]

Indeed, Stone is lefty wefty, none the less; earned his spurs in the jungle, can never take that away from him.

[GloryofGreece]

Indeed, Stone is lefty wefty, none the less; earned his spurs in the jungle, can never take that away from him.

So your eyes Elias was more a beatnik more than just the better man? Other Sergeant was downright malevolent.

[Smitty-48]

Mind you, my personal favourite sage from the American Gurus of Vietnam, is Karl Marlantes, the perfect fusion of intellectual and hardcore of the hardcore infantryman.

[Smitty-48]

Indeed, Stone is lefty wefty, none the less; earned his spurs in the jungle, can never take that away from him.

So your eyes Elias was more a beatnik more than just the better man? Other Sergeant was downright malevolent.

Barnes is the better man, Elias was a Water Walker, just as Barnes said, Barnes is reality, and reality is the truth, and truth is the best.

[GloryofGreece]

Even taking that stance, I wouldn't think you'd say Elias is incompetent or weak. He was a brave and competent.

[Smitty-48]

See, this is why I like Karl Marlantes, because Karl Marlantes says, in effect; "I was Barnes too, and that's OK, because that's how it is, might as well just get comfortable with it, if you're not a pacifist", which I am not.

[Smitty-48]

Even taking that stance, I wouldn't think you'd say Elias is incompetent or weak. He was a brave and competent.

Sure, but he ratted a brother out to the Man, can't abide that, not in a war zone, you don't rat a brother out to the Man, period, end of story.

Settle it amongst yourselves if you have to, out behind the woodshed as necessary, but never to the chain of command.

[GloryofGreece]

Even taking that stance, I wouldn't think you'd say Elias is incompetent or weak. He was a brave and competent.

Sure, but he ratted a brother out to the Man, can't abide that, not in a war zone, you don't rat a brother out to the Man, period, end of story.

Settle it amongst yourselves if you have to, out behind the woodshed as necessary, but never to the chain of command.

I can understand that. I know enough to know its never a good idea to go behind someone or to the higher ups to complain or tattle tell. I think I just hope I'd be more like Elias, but the reality is I don't know what the hell I'd be like in anything like war and probably at best Id be like Chris.

[Smitty-48]

Even taking that stance, I wouldn't think you'd say Elias is incompetent or weak. He was a brave and competent.

Sure, but he ratted a brother out to the Man, can't abide that, not in a war zone, you don't rat a brother out to the Man, period, end of story.

Settle it amongst yourselves if you have to, out behind the woodshed as necessary, but never to the chain of command.

I can understand that. I know enough to know its never a good idea to go behind someone or to the higher ups to complain or tattle tell. I think I just hope I'd be more like Elias, but the reality is I don't know what the hell I'd be like in anything like war and probably at best Id be like Chris.

You wouldn't be able to control who you were, c'est le guerre would be upon you, you woudn't be able to apply bourgeois standards of morality to such a morally ambiguous paradigm, which is why ratting you out to the Man, for slotting a potentially innocent gook who was probably actually VC, when the chain of command killed 2.2 million of them without a second thought, would be wrong, any way you slice it, or rather, any way I slice it, knowing that c'est le guerre is the truth of it, whether the feckless and hypocritical civilian authorities will acknowledge that or not.

I wouldn't hope for anything other than victory and survival, which would mean I would be Barnes, Elias is a Hollywood Liberal Panty Waist fantasy, everybody is Barnes when the rubber meets the road, to hell with Hollywood, of course they would rat me out to the man, so a pox on them and the horse they rode in on.