With The Old Breed Essay

I believe that the mission of the author, Victor H. Krulak, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.), in writing this book was to describe how vital the United States Marine Corps is to our nation and that through the extensive preparation and training we receive, we have become the leading fighting force on and off the battle field. The purpose of this book was to inspire readers about the Marine Corps and to explain stories about how different equipment came into the Corps and how we perfected them. The author’s goal was the educate readers based on his personal experiences

The subject of this book has affect my life by serving as a reality check of what my Marine predecessors went through in order for me to be able to obtain the deep-rooted fighting tactics today. I will never have to deal with and survive the adversities that the Marines of Fox Company did. It also affected me by teaching me that as a Marine, no matter what struggles may present themselves, I will always thrive and keep fighting.

This disassociation allows for the whole sale slaughter of people with moral justification. The unforeseen byproduct of this disassociation, as Cameron points out, can be seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when many veterans consigned their wives to the kitchen. The intended product of this disassociation, however, was to kill Japanese soldiers. The Marines would reap the benefits of this first in the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. With the U.S. Marines of First Division engaged in a life or death struggle against their Japanese opponents, the cartoonish portraits of four-eyed, slow Japanese soldiers burned into the American Marine’s mind kept them from thinking about the enemy as men who are carrying pictures of their families eerily similar to the pictures that were carried by Americans. Using the invasion of Peleliu as a backdrop for his analysis, Cameron expands upon his analysis of the individual Marine to the collective thought of the organization. The U.S. Marine self-image caused Marine units on Peleliu to charge head-first into the waiting Japanese defense with foolhardy, head on assaults which they stubbornly pressed. The Marine Corps, even through their hyper-masculine indoctrination, had not prepared their Marines any better than their U.S. Army counterparts on the island. Before Peleliu, the perception of combat had been that of a clean affair due to the romanticized images of World War I. After, due to Tom Lea’s reporting of events, the

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

Some of the soldiers were such cowards that they injured themselves just to be taken away in a helicopter and extracted from the war scene. The soldiers “spoke bitterly about guys who had found release by shooting off their own toes or fingers. Pussies, they’d say. Candy-asses” (22). However, deep down inside, the soldiers who did all the mocking “imagined the quick, sweet pain, then the evacuation to Japan, then a hospital with warm beds and cute geisha nurses” (22). The soldiers even dreamt at night about freedom birds. The men were flying on a “real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons and high screeching… The weights fell off; there was nothing to bear” (22). The soldiers did not want to be at war, they imagined to themselves “It’s (the war) over, I’m gone!—they were naked, they were light and free” (22).

At With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is a World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, a United States Marine. The text commences with Sledge's induction into the marines, follows his training through boot camp and Infantry Training Battalion, and describes his pre-combat deployment to Pavuvu. As the story continues Sledge describes the difficulties of living in the frontline, or in the war zone. The war zone life was described as constant fear, fatigue, and filth. The book describes how they found bodies of their fellow Marines mutilated and what some of the Marines did to the enemies corpses. Special emphasis is placed on the mental and moral aspects of warfare. Surprised to be offered the choice, Sledge opts to specialize in 60mm mortar

The Marine Corps Experience, pp. 12 – 31 The Corps today, pp 318 – 335

“With The Old Breed” begins with the start of the author’s military career. Eugene Sledge was a freshman at Marion Military institute, his family pushing for him to eventually become an officer in the United States Army. But the authors desire to serve his country in battle with the enemy before the war was over was strong enough to make him end his college career and begin anew in the Marine Corps.

Once a person dedicates their life to something, everything unknowingly changes. Becoming a marine was more than just a career for Sledge. Sledge definitely changed from the time he went to boot camp until the end of his combat experience in Okinawa. E.B.’s nickname was “Sledgehammer”, it didn’t particularly match his physical appearance though. He was a shy college student, who would not have been expected to enter any type of war scene, but Sledge had in fact chosen this path for himself. Even though his family had begged him to stay in college as long as possible and avoid the dangers of the war scene, he had not only decided to join the Marines, but when he was put into officer training, he intentionally flunked out in order to enlist as a private. His goal was to see combat before the war was over. Sledge begins his memoir admitting, like many men of the other men joining him that he was "prompted by a deep feeling of uneasiness that the war might be over before [he] could get overseas into combat..."(5) so he joined the Marines. This shows that he was a little hesitant about the whole ordeal. Sledge described his feelings as being anxious and on the edge. The book 's most evident theme is the feeling of being of a Marine, what Sledge calls "esprit de corps." Sledge provides many examples throughout the book about how the Marines regularly exposed themselves to fire to retrieve

Throughout human existence war has been a glorified way of settling disputes and asserting dominance, a place where powerful men have proven themselves, a place where glory and honor were achieved and a place where noble heroes died. Continuously through history humans looked past the horrors of war and misleadingly saw it as a glorious manner. This glorious view on war went unchallenged for centuries when finally the general William Tecumseh Sherman spoke out about the horrors of war and famously quoted that “war is hell”. In All Quiet On The Western Front William Tecumseh Sherman’s words can been seen in Remarque’s portrayal of the First World War by making display of the close similarities that war and hell have. Remarque exposes how truly horrendous the conditions at the front were displaying similarities between the conditions at war and to conditions described of hell. Remarque shows how the weapons used in the war turned man into ashes and countrysides into dead zones creating a real hell like environment. Lastly Remarque manifests that the horrors that war brought were so deep that the suffering would become eternal just as the suffering of hell. Therefore in the novel All Quiet On The Western Front Remarque brings life to William Tecumseh Sherman's famous quote “War is hell” by exposing how alike war and hell are by virtue of their similarities: How the conditions at the front were so horrendous they resembled conditions of hell; How new warfare technology turned

During boot camp, we were taught about the Battle of Fallujah, but after reading this book, I was able to understand so much better. I was able to picture their tactics, strategies, their emotions, and why the Marines were called the “Greatest Generation.”

Parts five and six bring together the personal and professional relationship between Marines themselves and the American public. These relationships, forged by the millions of men and women who have donned the Marine Corps uniform, are a result of training methods and careful selection. General Krulak gives the reader a taste of why Marines do what they have come to be known as America’s force in readiness. First to Fight has many good traits. The book, while easy to read and addictively interesting, never sugarcoats the intense conflicts between high level officials. General Krulak enhances the “official” record with personal accounts of events and people now legendary. His no-holds-barred approach to his writing makes General Krulak’s book both honest and educational. His explanations of the struggle to keep the Marine Corps alive and the early development of amphibious doctrine make First to Fight a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the modern Marine Corps. In parts of the book, General Krulak provides a mountain of detail. While these facts would be of great historical value for a reader who knows military structure and nomenclature, they tend to bog down the reader at points. The political volleys also tend to get tedious when the General describes the how the Marine Corps had to fight tooth and nail for institutional survival. These

Any form of exercise can come off as an impossible task. Even before some take a shot at trying it, they fail. Those that stick with it, however, are met with even greater challenges -- one of which are the other people who decided to stick with it. These lifters are best described through different dog breeds appearing in common American households. Perhaps the three most prominent breeds which can represent these athletes are the Maltese, the Beagle, and the German Shepherd.

If I were to write an essay on this topic, here is how I would do it.

The two became a fast pair. Elliot begrudgingly spent the money to fix his car in order to take the little thing, now named Buddy, to the necessary veterinarian appointments. Though he might have complained to the other waiters about the tightening of his wallet, he didn’t hesitate when the veterinarian suggested several expensive shots to ensure Buddy’s continued comfort. Life with Buddy wasn’t without its difficulties, the occasional couch pees and rug feces; but even the other waiters at the restaurant had noticed a change in Elliot’s tune - he had starting singing, singing to himself in between tables, in the kitchen, and even during late night closings when Elliot was typically in the most sour and surly of moods. After one late