These Men are From Mars

Then Mr. Junger came home and set to work describing the surprisingly deadly environment that returning veterans face. In “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging,” he argues that contemporary culture has divorced man from his roots as a tribal creature. A lack of intimacy and low levels of trust, he writes, have created “a sprawling and anonymous” society in which “people can get away with incredible levels of dishonesty” and misbehavior. This causes big problems, ranging from citizens being alienated from their neighbors to high rates of suicide, mental illness, homelessness, gun violence and financial fraud. Post-traumatic stress disorder, as Mr. Junger sees it, is largely due to veterans missing the moral universe of their old warrior tribe. They want to join a civilian tribe but find that the right one no longer exists.

I did enjoy "The Perfect Storm", that said, some of his other work is nicely stated in this quote from the review.

PTSD is a complex condition with vexing moral and psychological aspects, but in Mr. Junger’s view it’s mostly about men being depressed because they can’t play war anymore. This odd, juvenile rendering of military life is a problem with much of Mr. Junger’s recent work. He presumes to speak for veterans, but he has never been inside the prison. This makes him, as an Iraq veteran friend of mine put it, “a war tourist.” Mr. Junger is never able to bridge this divide between himself and his subjects, and he ends up leaving his reader stranded.

He makes some very good points, but Sebastian Junger is not and never was a grunt, or anything close.

English strength: Modern estimates range from 6,000 to 9,000. About 5⁄6 longbow archers, 1⁄6 dismounted knights and men-at-arms in heavy armour.

French strength: Modern estimates range from 12,000 (outnumbering the English 4–3) to 36,000 (outnumbering the English 6–1. About 10,000 knights and men-at-arms (of which about 1,200 were mounted), unknown thousands of other infantry, crossbowmen and archers.

British Casualties and losses: At least 112 dead, unknown wounded.

French Casualties and losses: 7,000–10,000 (mostly killed) and about 1,500 noble prisoners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt

I reconnected with my Northern roots, first through research, then through an experiment in prayer that deviates from the Christian standard. Whattever the repercussions, I’ve experienced that prayer can be answered, and real evidence I have a “tribe” that wants to improve my life, my day-to-day affairs, and myself as a person.

Whatever it is, I asked, and I got. I have a feeling of “tribe” upstairs, I want true people to be my tribe downstairs.

I read a UN report on “the onset of tribalism” that prognosticated chaos, loss of control, a step backward for civilization. My personal experience is the polar opposite of chaos, the only loss of control is the globalists’ plans for dominating our politics and our culture, and if it’s a step backwards, it’s only to pick back up important things we’ve lost.

Here’s a funny thought, just my own twisted view: do you ever watch old science fiction movies? Sometimes I’m watching an old B&W scifi movie where they’re landing on Alpha Centauri or whatever. the date is 1987, and I’ll laugh. Boy, they got it wrong. But if you watch other old scifi movies, they ALL get it wrong. And the scientific journals of the day, THEY all get it wrong...they all assume by this century, our advancements have taken us to an entirely different level as a people, and our technology has carried our society far beyond this planet. They saw the rapid rate they were progressing in an ordered society, and applied it to the future.

Scientists and engineers will tell you our progress has taken our rate of progress quantum leaps beyond what their colleagues in the 50s and 60s imagined. We design better computers faster than we can implement them, and yet our standard of living decreases. We can no longer put a man on the moon. We can no longer fight a war on three fronts. For gods’ sake, our fliers are cruising garbage dumps to keep our planes in the air. Where does all our productivity go?

To overlords that believe no crisis must ever go to waste, and that taxes go to waste if they don’t help fuel the crises that create the need for more taxes. To overlords that see to it that 7 cents of corn plus eleven cents of packaging plus fifteen cents of profit equals a four dollar box of cornflakes...the insidious underground slavery of fees, licenses, permits, fines, environmental impact statements, quotas, and more and more and more taxes.

It would be different if we were making these sacrifices to win a world war. But instead it’s to enrich an artificial nobility in DC who is at war with the American people, even to the extent if hiring illegals to assault them for voting. And this is just the appetizer, folks.

You’d better find a tribe, because you’re one step away from being illegal and undesirable in the country you were born in, unless you start thanking the party of the KKK right now for your chains, and licking their boots.

Do not over the look the mud and more mud!
Armored units have issues deep mud, nothing new!
When your horse is stuck, you may be...

IIRC the English used a short knife, downward at the shoulder.
Not too often because someone with a horse and armor, is a meal ticket$$$; as was the custom at that time.

Had it not been for the pesky locals plundering Henry’s unguarded supplies; the numbers would be far different.

Lacking sufficient manpower, Henry chose the supplies, much to the dismay of his guys($$$) and especially, the prisoners.

For that order he has, unfortunately been named a war criminal.
Some also claim it was the last of the best and brightest of France.

You’d better find a tribe

I was fortunate, after two years+, RVN.
School was full of fellow vets!
Next working for an uncle, a WWII guy as were most of his employees...
Moving on in the world most of my male superiors were vets, and they sheltered me.

The CEO of the company I worked for was a WWII vet of some distinction, I had no idea until I read his obituary.
The old guys later said he had been behind me BIG TIME!
I mostly only saw him at meetings, or in passings, that was it!

Today my USMC Infantry son, three runs in the sandbox, out of school and out in the world, the connections are much farther apart. A top student, top trainee...at one job interview, they said all is good, but you are not our kind!!! My blood boils.

The band of brothers provides a cushion from the aholes.

Combat vets will never “fit in”. Their experiences make them different with an entirely different viewpoint on life. They have seen the elephant. The error is thinking that this makes the vet less than the non-vet. In fact he is more. He has seen and done things that would have the run of the mill citizen in a straitjacket. Shrinks only make it worse with drugs.

As a VN vet I eventually realized that non-vets will never understand. There’s no point in trying to make them understand. I don’t expect to “fit in” and frankly couldn’t care less about it. By fitting in I mean becoming another zombie who watches reality TV and cares about what his neighbor’s junky car is doing to his property values.

I’ve been blessed by being married for 40 years to a wonderful woman who put up with my frequent snark about people’s petty concerns. At one time she watched a documentary on the war and told me she had no idea how vets coped. I said that we don’t have a choice. Taking it one day at a time is sometimes the only way through.

An over seas tour will teach you what is and what isn’t important in life. There’s nothing like being woken with mortar fire and green tracers to adjust your viewpoint.

I still hate f***ing chickenshyt REMFs.

REMFs, now often referred to as POG’s (PEOPLE OTHER than GRUNTS).

My view of them changed after meeting a coworker VN Veteran. The usual about Unit, location, MOS...

He went over as an 11 Bravo, and early on was selected for a work detail, some lucky guys went to burn shite he was most fortunate to end up at the main post office!

He spent his entire tour humping mail.
He said somebody has to do it, why not me!

My first night in country a 122 hit the barracks next to mine. Guys going home.

Something about the randomness of war, luck must be a factor? And not everyone is needed at the point of the spear.

That said, we truly are a band of brothers, that shared a unique experience.
Sometimes I think, I have more in common with the NVA that shot me, than with many of my fellow citizens?

Long ago I used to go to the VA, it was my opinion that many of the guys used the VA as a social event to visit with their own kind.Fine by me, but it does load up the system.

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