Hacker Cinema
We Were Soldiers
2002 · Film · 138 min
Directed by Randall Wallace
The year is 1965 and America is at war with North Vietnam. Commanding the air cavalry is Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Gibson), a born leader committed to his troops. His target: the Ia Drang Valley, called "The Valley of Death." As Moore prepares for one of the most violent battles in U.S. history, he delivers a stirring promise to his soldiers and their families: "I will leave no man behind...dead or alive. We will all come home together."
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We were Soldiers is also a very realistic movie. I would recommend it over Saving Private Ryan a hundred times!
“Can a man be a soldier and father?”
Mel Gibson: “I would think so. I hope being good at one makes me better at the other.” (And vice versa).
- from movie “We were soldiers … and young”
(Apologies up front for the length of this post, I did not intend it to get this long when I started..)
I realize I’m a little late to the comments here and it’s unlikely to be seen, but there’s a dissonance that’s been stewing in me for a while now and I’m not sure how to reconcile it. It relates to the dichotomy between JackFr posting his fondness for a badge with cyberferret’s response, so this is why I’m replying here (if someone can suggest a more appropriate forum for me to ask this, please let me know).
I abhor war and death and killing. It’s vile, disgusting and so many other words I’m not literate enough to use to describe it. The very act of snuffing out another human’s life is something so imaginably terrible to me that when I dwell much upon it I become profoundly sad.
And yet, there’s another side of me that’s utterly fascinated by the actual implements of warfare. My father was in Vietnam and although he doesn’t like to talk about it often, I know it was a very unpleasant experience for him, particularly the time he described when he would have to carry body bags off the C-130s on base. Despite that, when I was growing up, I was given army men and plastic tanks by my parents to play with, toy guns, you name it. I fondly remember my father bringing home a variable swept wing toy jet fighter that I cherished. In my teens I pretended I was going nap of the earth in the chopper milsims available on the PC at the time.
Fast forward to today, I can sometimes spend hours getting lost in the endless rabbit hole of links on wikipedia reading about anything from the minute details of how the Exocet sea-skimming missile operates to the different types of recoilless rifles in service around the world. Or scrolling through google images admiring the sleep and sexy curves on the F/A-18. I enjoy watching movies like “We Were Soldiers” too. The scene where all the artillery batteries arrayed fired in unison I sometimes rewind a couple times just to see it over again because I find it awesomely impressive and…kind of “cool?” I watch the movie to be entertained…
This post/question is long enough so I'll try to wrap it up quickly here and get to my point:
I don’t want to go to war. I don’t want to see my brother get sent back overseas. I don’t want anyone’s sons or daughters, wives, husbands, loved ones sent to pick up arms, no matter their race, nationality, creed and regardless of wherever they call home. I wish all killing would stop, however utopian that view might be. I wish we could all experience the “Overview Effect.”
But how do I reconcile this view with my fascination of the instruments of war? I can’t help but find it incredibly impressive to watch a WW2 era battleship fire full broadsides. I enjoy visiting my brother and firing his firearms like an M1 Garand.
Am I wrong for “enjoying” these things which seem at complete odds to the way (I’d like to think) my moral compass points? Is this normal?
"The real heroes are dead"
This is a quote attributed to Cyril Richard Rescorla. Rescorla was British and originally trained as a Paratrooper in BA. He later found himself as a Platoon leader in AirMobile Infantry [0] distinguishing himself in la Drang Valley 1965 in the first American encounter with NVA.
Hard-core as they come.
A measure of a persons character is how they conduct themselves under extreme pressure. Rescorla would sing Welsh tunes to calm his troops in that desperate battle reported by reporter Joe Gallaway. A book was co-written with the Commander, Hall Moore and later turned into a film, "Once we were Soldiers"
It was reported Rescorla, a Security Officer for Morgan Stanley also present in the '93 bombings (great side story, Rescorla infiltrated and identified a radical Iman at a NY Mosque who was later charged) made his views clear that MS should have moved out of the WTC.
Rescorla was in his office on the 44th floor at 8:48 a.m., when the first plane struck the neighboring tower. At 9:10 a.m., a plane hit the second building where Morgan Stanley, an international financial services firm, had offices between the 43rd and 66th floors. Survivors said Rescorla grabbed a bullhorn and cleared out 3,800 workers from 20 floors. [0]
In being unsuccessful, Rescorla organised and drilled all MS employees every three months in fire evac procedures. [1]
"Rick could be heard saying "... be proud to be an American ... everyone will be talking about you tomorrow," and singing God Bless America and other patriotic and military songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the tower." [2]
The title of the article comes from when Gallaway put the image of Rescorla [3] on the front cover. Rescorla is reported to not have read the book, nor wanted any recognition saying, "The real heroes are dead".
[0] http://www.weweresoldiers.net/rick.htm
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla
[2],[3] http://history.army.mil/news/2015/151100a_Rescorla.html