Soldier's Letters - Essay Example

SOLDIERS LETTERS, JOURNAL & CRITICAL ESSAY Soldier’s Journal Thursday, 19th March Reality Training To be a soldier without training is like to be a monkey without a tail. This is to say that training is part of the daily activities of a soldier that contributes to success (Chaucer, 2007). In the absence of training, the soldier is just like any other person. Based on this, training continued to be part of our integral camping at the Shai-Hills Military Center when we were on peace keeping mission to Afghanistan. Thursday, 3rd March 2010, was to be a specialized training regime for the infantry in which I belonged. I term the training specialized because we were to receive dedicated training on self protection against enemies who may use indigenous forms of weapons. It would be noted that the part of the world where we went for the military camping is not as advanced as other parts of the world where sophisticated modern weapons of mass destruction are used. These are people who normally use medieval weapons. But it would be foolish on the part of any commander to underestimate the power of medieval weapons. For this reason, our commander arranged us for a special training on how to defend ourselves against the use of medieval weapons. The training program was with a resourced person who was a military personnel and an anthropologist. He took us through the basic defense technique regarding the use of medieval weapons and how to protect ourselves against sudden attacks. It was indeed a very useful day as it was a giant step against getting any of us get attacked defenselessly. Saturday, 19th March 2010 Social Outing All work and no play, they say makes jack a doll boy. This means that it is always good to wine off after some hard season of tough brainy drills. Who says we do not have funny at the military camp? Without these fun-filled moments, we would have each burst out with stress. On 12th March 2010, there was a special social outing section arranged for the soldiers in my infantry. There was one peculiar thing that made this day very special to me. This was because the day presented those of us at the lower rank to easily mingle with our superior officers. In this military service, such form of socialization does not happen easily because of bureaucratic discipline and respect for authority (DeVries, 2012). Personally, it was an opportunity for me to learn more about our commander in terms of how he started off as a young soldier and how he had risen through the ranks to the level he currently found himself. Opportunity for the interaction came when the junior officers engaged the commanders in several social activities including sports and games. Some of the activities included the playing of chess, soccer, basketball, hide and seek, and table tennis. After the major activities, where was an open forum where we freely asked our officers about their social life. Monday, 20th March 2010 War Field ‘Wahala’ In military terms, ‘walaha’ means trouble. I have therefore tagged the heading as war field ‘walaha’ to stand for a very serious encounter I had with an enemy on 20th March 2010. Before I even proceed, I must say that I thank God for keeping my life up till now because it was a very dangerous encounter with the enemy. Simply put, it was an unannounced attack on us at our camp. As soldiers on peace keeping, we try as much as possible not to be combative against the civilian or rebel soldiers. All that it is for us to do is to ensure peace between the two sides in the war (Gravett, 2003). But it was like a group of civilians did not appreciate this effort and wanted to take the law into their own hands. Their complain was that we were being too lenient with the rebels and so they came to attack as unawares and this started a battle between they and us. As predicted by our officers, these people came with medieval weapons such as bow, arrows, spears and even slings. There is no denying the fact that they showed mastery over these medieval weapons and could have been very deadly with them if we had not received specialized training on how to defend ourselves against them. I had a person injury to the left leg when a sling hit me to hard in that area. I briefly fell unconscious but before my enemies could attack me personally; my colleagues were therefore to resuscitate me. Tuesday, 21st March 2010 My Knowledge of Big Perspective of War The day after I was attacked, I awaken my sense of the need to bring my knowledge of the bigger perspective of war to being as the enemies came for the second time. Some of the lapses that happened earlier were not going to be allowed to repeat it self. Great men of the battle have said that first fool is not a fool; for it is a great soldier who learns from his mistakes and makes amends (The Economist, 2010). What I learnt from the previous day was that I was being over offensive without thinking of the need to be defensive. So this time round, I used all my knowledge on basic war defense to get myself a right position on the battlefield. As my enemies kept firing their weapons; some of which were medieval and others, modern weapons, I used every needed trick to ensure that as much as I attacked back, I got myself protected. This gave me the ability to fight so hard towards the enemy that with the company of three other soldiers, we could approach the enemy front and made them surrender. What was more skillful and knowledgeable about our approach was that we were not fatal or deadly in our attacks. Our major focus was to arrest and detain as many of those enemies as possible so that by the reduction in size of the enemy group, they would surrender to us. This was something that we achieved as a group of four soldiers. Though we had the support of other colleagues, the four of us were the main people on the ground that was pushing our way through to the camp of the enemy. Interestingly, there was one female among the four. 2. Critical essay Features of Military Life Training Training has for long become an integral part of military life. Experts say that a great difference between a good soldier and an ordinary soldier could be judged from their levels of training (Myers and Hansen, 2006). Training in military takes several forms and for several reasons. Some of the very basic reasons why soldiers would receive training include the need to equip them to be highly offensive in combat. To be offensive in combat means for the soldier to gain all necessary skill in attacking the enemy and any unsuitable target (Howard, 2006). To do this effectively, it is important that the soldier would have basic control over the use of weapons. The use of military training to get soldiers to be offensive is not a new phenomenon as it was used even in medieval battle (Gravett, 1988). Another reason for giving soldiers training is to enable them to be become highly defensive in battle. It is important for soldiers to defend because they are often attacked. In medieval warfare, being offensive was never regarded sufficient if soldiers would not have the skill of being defensive (Mondschein, 2011). The reason why this was so was because no matter how hard a soldier attacked his opponent, if he was skilled in the need to defend himself, just one attack on him could end his life. More to the reasons for training soldiers has to do with the need to keep them physically sound and active for their daily battle work. Finally, training helps in giving soldiers endurance. Endurance is certainly needed to sharpen the nerves and build on their tolerance to withstand difficult attacks from their enemies. There is actually news of soldiers who have saved their lives and won important battles because of their abilities to endure and resist death (Rotten Tomatoes, 2001). Socialization The need for the soldier to be socialized cannot be underestimated in any sense. This is because the whole process of military life is a learning process. Meanwhile, socialization has been identified as one of the most important ways by which informal learning can take place (Gravett, 2003). Informal learning has also been identified as a very effective mode of learning that lives lasting impacts on the memories of the learners. In military life therefore, socialization remains an important aspect of duty. Today, it is through socialization that soldiers come to terms with most of the new happenings in the technological world, making the phenomenon of globalization have a true reflection on soldiers. What is more about socialization is the fact that it aids in relieving soldiers of their occupational pressure. No one would doubt that the work of the soldier is very deadly and risky. This also makes it stressful and traumatic. Therefore, any act of social interaction that exists among soldiers is a useful means of ensuring that soldiers are not overcome by the pressures of their work. In the days of medieval warfare, it is reported that it was during social gatherings that soldiers came up with ideas on how they could create new weapons that could meet the demands of their battle (Gravett, 1988). Knowledge and skill in Combat Knowledge and skill acquisition in combat is also very important in the daily life of a soldier. The difference between knowledge and skill acquisition and military training is that even before a person enrolls as a soldier, he or she is expected to possess certain level of knowledge and skill in order that the person can best serve certain roles and responsibilities even outside the battlefield (Myers and Hansen, 2006). It is for this reason that before military enlistment, specific skills are demanded from applicants. Indeed, these skills and knowledge help in making the training of the soldier easier and without much compromise. This is because when such skills and knowledge prevail, soldiers become fast learners and they are able to apply everyday scenarios to warfare instances easily. But in all these, it has always become so important that soldiers also gain certain specific skills and knowledge in their military tasks. Certainly it is when the skills and knowledge that are brought from outside military training are combined with those that are acquired in the course of training that the soldier’s personality as a combative officer becomes whole and consolidated. In all, it is worth mentioning that one of the skills and knowledge that is very useful and important to very military personal is leadership skill and knowledge. Advantages and limitations of Primary Sources The bedrock of the discussions so far has been with the primary sources that were used. Without them, most of the points discussed would have been hollow and without any basis of proof. One of the major advantages of the primary sources is that it gave first hand information that did not have to fall the way of the writer through a third party or a reported medium. It would be noted that the more a primary source of information goes through other media before reaching the final user; it becomes distorted in a way and lack its originality and credibility. Again, the primary sources were very advantageous in the sense that it equipped the knowledge of the writer with information that would have otherwise been referred to as extinct information. This is because information on medieval warfare is very scanty today because most of the reports on them happened very long times ago. On the limitations of the primary sources, it may be said that the primary sources did not have empirical backing to the points that were raised. This has always been a weakness of primary sources as against secondary sources, which often go through the hands of several other researchers to authenticate the findings outlined. Ideas learnt So far, what has been learnt is that military warfare is part of us as a people and the more we made it better, the better for our existence. Even though it is the aspiration of all and sundry that the world will see peace, such times have no indications of coming any moment from now. Until then, soldiers and other military officers need to bring their expertise on board to protecting the sanctity of world peace. More importantly is the need for soldiers to record their experiences in the form of writing so that there will always be authentic primary information on some of the very basic happenings in the lives of our military heroes and heroines. CITED WORKS Chaucer, Geoffrey. The General Prologue. 2007. NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. eChaucer: http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/chaucer DeVries, Kelly, and Robert Douglas. Smith. Medieval Military Technology. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2012. Print. Froissart on the Battle of Crecy. 1346. The Chronicles of Froissart Online. September 2, 2012 Gravett, Christopher and McBride. Knight at Tournament. Osprey Publishing. Print. 1988 Gravett, Christopher. Towton 1461: Englands Bloodiest Battle. Osprey Publishing, 2003. Print. Howard, Bloch. A needle in the right hand of God. Random House: New York. Print. 2006 Mondschein, Ken. The Knightly Art of Battle. J. Paul Getty Museum. Print. 2011 Myers, Aikins and Hansen, Charles. 2006. Experimental Psychology, 6th ed., Thomson/Wadsworth: Belmont, CA: ISBN-13: 978-0-534-63441-4 Rotten Tomatoes. A Knights Tale. 2001. Online September 11, 2012 The Economist. The Battle of Towton. 2010. The joy of growing old. Read More