Short Story

As he maneuvers through he thinks not only of his fate, but also of how, “it should protect me, and especially as Death himself lies in it too7.” The brave soldier realized death could come at any moment, and it is practically lying right next to him. The young troop has become aware and vulnerable to death, just like the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iran. Because soldiers witness the physical traumas of other man or themselves their lives are never the same at home. The mentally struggling soldiers often rub off on their family, affecting them as a whole.

Most people agree that a soldier is still a human when at war. O’Flaherty, however, may say that war turns humans into soldiers that kill without remorse until they have realized they just took human lives. Furthermore, O’Flaherty depicts said soldiers as having little regard for human beings. Using irony and foreshadowing in his short story “The Sniper” O’Flaherty shows that war turns a person into an unpredictable soldier that views people as objects.

As the plane lands in Atlanta, Georgia two hundred others and I are escorted by Drill Sergeants to the buses. Several hours go by and finally I arrive at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I glance at my watch, it’s three o’clock in the morning. The Drill Sergeants are screaming “MOVE PRIVATES! WE DON’T HAVE ALL DAY!” I run as fast as I can to formation just to stand at the position of attention for three hours. The morning sun is beating me in the face and the Drill Sergeants are still yelling.

I feel a cold chill as I slide my helmet down my greasy black hair. As I rub my right hand over the smooth metal of my handgun. I listen to the crashing water bashing into the side of the boat. Suddenly it stops, to create an eerie silence. We’re here. I kneel down and tighten the laces of my boots. As I let go of the laces, I realise that my hands are shaking unbearably. I still can’t believe that this is happening and a part of me wishes that I was back home or that I could just stay on the boat as everyone else invades Cobblers Bay. The sound of the heavy thud of boots echoes throughout the room as my comrades climb up the ladder. Christian quietly sobs as we prepare are gear. We met at school and have been friends ever since. He never wanted to join the army but he had no other choice as he was a conscript like me.

The sound of screaming and swords clashing outside jolted me awake. I found myself pressed against the wall, sword and shield both in hand. The thane shouted commands to destroy everything in sight. With that, the sound of death was on the other side of the wall. I heard my mother’s screams become instantly silent. An army man shouted, “One down! The other cannot be found, sir.” My stomach became knotted as I thought of my mother, lying on the ground with no hope of waking up. I should have burst through the wooden door, swinging my sword in every direction until I heard the last breath of each Rine there. Instead, I sank to my knees and wept as I listened to the Comitatus invading my home. I waited for the thanes to come here and kill me as they did my mother. My father had managed to escape, but there is no way he could save me. However, I knew he did not care to anyways. The sound of men approaching the door took my breath away. My sobbing became uncontrollable. I heard the wooden door creek open, as I sank deeper and deeper into the dirt beneath me. A feeling of helplessness over took me. My life was over. The Rines had a mission to kill everything they saw, and I knew they saw me. One officer yelled,

Adeline rushing, Corter particles grafted to my cells to resist the radiation. My body has been inclined and attached to the chains as the pain overwhelms, like an American cloud turtle poison drifting through your entire body. Feels as death is indianite, but desired greater then death. As my body has been tethered to the “Happy drugs”. Rainer comes in with Kinter, they crack up some jokes to enlighten the mood. ‘So big shoot, ready for death?” Meaning as an motivational statement, as I craved to die. But die here and kill this great organization? Or do as they say and destroy Urination and the borderlands, that are ruled by tyrants? As they have showed me how to disable the bomb, as they didn’t want to waste 56% of their total support money to one single project. Like if I got caught, by the TOA special forces, they will either capture me or kill and disable the bomb . ‘So ready to

“The dead only know one thing, it is better to be alive” (Full Metal Jacket). Many of the men in the movie Full Metal Jacket soon come to find that war kills the soul the same way a bullet stops the heart. In this paper, I will argue that war kills the soul is one of the main themes in the movie Full Metal Jacket because of the heartbreaking decision that one soldier is driven to make.

“Thats madness”, no mans land is covered with landmines and booby-traps, charging through it would be suicide. But i have no choice, war is horrific, but desertion is punishable with execution. “Shit, I'm going to die”. My horrid and broken body has had enough, my pinky finger is broken, I have bruises all over my body, cuts over every piece of revealed skin, I kneel on the floor, its covered with broken glass but i don't care. “I haven't prayed in a while”, i say to myself, and then begin to pray, I pray for the well being of my family and farm and hope that this god forsaken war can end. As i finish, i pick up my rifle, and as i do a sense of fear washes over me, “Could this be my

The world was spinning, I’ve been hit, this was the end. Without a thought I pulled the trigger, I saw three of him, but I knew that If I could end it I would. I wanted to be remembered a hero who saved our race, died in the battlefield. As I fell back a smile crept into my face as I heard a loud grunt, I did it , I killed him. I was ready to hit the hard concrete floor as our troops came out of hiding, but I fell into something delicate.

Thankfully, no one was there. I hate war, I hate war, I hate it. In my country, they say that joining the army is honorable. Fighting for the country makes you a hero, but now that I have, I don’t believe it. Is killing another person, a living, breathing, creature with family and friends honorable? Does it make you a hero? Killing another person like how we are trained to do, when they can’t see you, and can’t defend themselves. It’s below what a coward would do. But I guess that’s what I am. I kill to stay alive. I am a coward. I don’t even know why there’s a war, but as a soldier, whatever orders I’m given, I follow through without question. We obey, and we make every shot count. I clench my fingers around the trigger, but I don’t shoot. Not just yet. The good person inside me says don’t shoot, someone on the other side could get out of this alive, just like you want to. The soldier inside me is unforgiving, you shoot when you’re supposed to and you don’t ask questions. My heart flutters in my chest for a moment, because for a moment, another soldier is still alive. I don’t even take aim, I just close my eyes, and

My mind buzzes, as I search desperately for a way out of this. But close my eyes, as I draw a blank. I listen as the soldiers boots stride towards me,

Fear encases me, flooding my brain with a cold wave of shock as the life bleeds out of his limp form and the soldiers stand, laughing. This is why I have to leave, I can’t stay in a place where they steal the lives of the innocent.

Could you imagine killing someone you know nothing about just because you were told to do so? That is something that many military members have to experience at some point. The poem “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy colors

Brett smirked in reply, his eyes moving from Elena's body and dripping pussy to trail the movement of the cube up, then locking on her face. As gorgeous as the woman's form was, and the many temptations she had to offer, he was entranced by her features, and her expressions and moans as he dripped the cold water onto his skin had his already aching shaft threatening to rip through the seams of his boxers.

War is unforgiveable. Even to the novices and the arm-chair commanders whose combat experience does not extend past “Call of Duty”, it is clear that choosing one path over another can mean the difference between life and death for oneself and one’s unit. Sometimes there is no right decision, and yet in others our own prejudices, fears, and emotions get in the way of the right decision. While the former is often the well-known reality of life that is seldom overcome, the latter leads people to make the wrong decision when the right one is clear. The same can be said of the unit from the Academy Award-winning 1986 film Platoon that fell victim to their own prejudices, fears, and emotions, eventually committing a number of war crimes before the film was through.