Full Metal Jacket

POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Saturday, April 19, 2008 06:47
VIEWED: 4845
PAGE 2 of 3

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE

XRAFTERMANX

Sunday, April 13, 2008 4:50 PM

Can't believe I missed this thread. Baldwin and Joss were the main reason I tuned in to Firefly as well.

FMJ is classic Baldwin, much better than his role in Next of Kin.

You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is. ~Detroit Browncoats~

TRAVELER

Sunday, April 13, 2008 7:40 PM

Hello Boris:

War is a serious subject. I never served, but my father was a navigator on a B-17 in the Eigth Air Force. I got the feeling dropping bombs on cities took a lot out of him. You may not see the results, but you knew. Boot camp is suppose to break you down so the military can make the kind of person who will follow orders with question. Our morality is still there and if you know your doing something wrong it catches up with you.

My father was shot down over Berlin and spent about six months in a prison camp. One day they woke up to find the guards had all left and then the Russians showed up. I asked him what the Russians were like. He said one word, "gangsters" and I did not press him any further.

I wish our leaders would go lightly into war. They seem to think it is the best solution to a problem. Years later we are left taking care of those who gave their all for that war. When I talked to my father about it there was no glory, just incidents that were engraved in his memory.

One of my hobbies is the study of military history. Text books and training do not replace experience. During World War II the United States Army had very little experince from the top down. They had to go through a lot of disasters before things began to jell. In Africa the British were angry with us because they said our men would not fight. By the the time we landed in Salarno Italy our men were fighting.

Washington and Lincoln had to go through the same thing in their wars. So men have to learn to kill and survive at the same time. Quite an education.

I have stayed away from studing Vietnam. I think it is to close to home for me. All my friends made it back from that war. Some have adjusted while others are should be in a Veterans Hospital.

So there is no need to say your sorry about how serious your post is.
traveler

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

BORIS

Monday, April 14, 2008 5:14 AM

Hey Traveler thanks for your story.My Granfather was in a German POW camp...he told funny stories about the experience...but they didn't seem so funny when I got older. (what with the starving and the beatings) some of the prison guards were harshly disciplined for being nice to the prisoners, so I guess that's a sign that some people have the strength to maintain their humanity. My parents were young kids in Sicily during and after ww2 so I've heard more than I need to about the evil that went on.
mind you the Enemy soon learned not to mess with the Sicilians, who had their own swift brutal brand of justice.

TRAVELER

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 2:46 AM

Hello Boris:

My father would have been okay, but he got back from leave in London late and that did not go well with the top brass. Needless to say he ended up on what they called the "Shit List". So any navigator that reported sick my father had to replace on that mission. So my father was not even with his own crew when he got shot down. Since it was very late in the war the B-17 must have been hit by flak. Not much left of the German Air Force by then. All he knew was it sounded like a glass wall shattering. I guess at those high altitudes everything sounds strange. Then it was just get the hell out of the plane!

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

PHILONIUS

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 3:17 AM

Very interesting... I too am an amateur student of military history, particularly WWII (although dad was in Nam). I've had the fortune of talking to a lot of vets from both sides of the war, American, British, and German, and it seems that they all share a common thread: all thrown into a world that they didn't want to be in, but all proud that they served their respective countries. In the case of Germans, they tell us that they might not have agreed with their government, but believed in their country... and ultimately toward the end, had to defend their homes. Most people here in the US can't fathom why Germans would be so ready to follow a madman like Hitler, but what they fail to recognize is that Hitler was a savior to them in the 1930's... pulled Germany out of the depths of the Depression, and turned it back into a thriving power, almost overnight. They didn't see the evil of it all until the very end....

Anyway, yes, "Full Metal Jacket" is definitely up there on the list of top war movies of all time. Adam sure portrayed a man driven to an extreme, in an extreme situation. Can you compare Animal Mother & Jayne? Sorta, although Jayne "didn't fight in no war". Makes you wonder what upbringin' he had!

Wuh duh ma huh ta duh fung-kwong duh wai-shung doh...

BORIS

Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:04 AM

War is just wrong on so many levels...human conflict generally is wrong, particularly when someone else's ignorance/insecurity/insanity/ need for conflict puts you in a position where you have to ignore your values/ideals and use abuse or violence...I am not a violent person, but due to my oddness seem to attract the "thug element" and have had to resort to violence, or emotional abuse in the name of self defence. even though I've never been harshly judged for my actions, I'm acutely uncomfortable about it, and feel sick when I cause harm,even if the person deserves it.
I doubt I could be in a war and come out of it mentally intact.

STARTROOP

Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:05 PM

Boris

Anyone who "sees the elphant" is not quite right when they get back. Its been almost 30 years for me and I am still not over it.

JONGSSTRAW

Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by boris:
War is just wrong on so many levels...human conflict generally is wrong, particularly when someone else's ignorance/insecurity/insanity/ need for conflict puts you in a position where you have to ignore your values/ideals and use abuse or violence...I am not a violent person, but due to my oddness seem to attract the "thug element" and have had to resort to violence, or emotional abuse in the name of self defence. even though I've never been harshly judged for my actions, I'm acutely uncomfortable about it, and feel sick when I cause harm,even if the person deserves it.
I doubt I could be in a war and come out of it mentally intact.

That's why there is combat training and mental conditioning when you're in the military....to get you ready to do what you'll have to do to survive. You're no different than any of us....Browncoats are peaceful, friendly folks who don't want to do violence to anybody. We WILL however, defend ourselves and our families....someone tries to kill you, you kill them right back. The history of mankind is a struggle to acheive peace, but throughout the ages there have been men that have tried to dominate and enslave all free men...those forces of pure evil have always needed to be eliminated for the good of civilization, and often times these wars have been paid for with a very high price. Now we're living in the modern, push-button instant everything age and we sometimes forget that much of the world has never reached our level of peace & comfort, so they all want to kill us out of hatred and jealousy and/or a desire to enslave others. We cannot ever become so enlightened that we forget about those who would take away every single thing we cherish and love.

TRAVELER

Friday, April 18, 2008 12:19 AM

I just got done watching "Forbidden Planet" and its message is quit clear. We carry in us a sense of survival that gets muddied with ignorance and greed. You go through a period of poverity like the Depression the world went through in the 1930's and people will make bad choices if they see a chance to improve their lives.

We just had a synagogue in Milwaukee robbed of it's Holy Testament. This is the ignorance and bigotry that we have to fight.

Maybe if people were made to work in a soup kitchen and hand out trays of food to the poor and homeless they would see we come with many different faces and backgrounds. People come alone off the street or as a family trying to stretch what little cash they have a little farther. Some are old and no longer able to work, while others have ruined their lives with alcohol and drugs. But none are turned away. There is no one standing at the door checking skin color or the way a person is dressed. There is no questionnaire to fill out to be sure your the right kind of person to be served. The food is there for whomever wants or needs it. It is a good lesson for anyone to spend a day making sandwiches and soup for those who are hungry.

You will probably never here the words, thank you, more often then when passing out food to those in need.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

BORIS

Saturday, April 19, 2008 5:24 AM

Startroop,
I hope you have really good loving people around you to help ease the pain. My parents tell me stories about their experiences. The imagery is still fresh after 50+ years. I doubt it will ever fade.

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE