Fog of War

Maybe you were on an email list and received a series of these pictures from the Pearl Harbor attack, hidden inside a Kodak Brownie camera for 63 years. It's hard to do a better job of showing 'the fog of war'--what it's like when you're under attack and don't really know what to do. It's the same in Iraq...and was the same for me in Vietnam.

Those pictures of Pearl Harbor, I've scanned them a few times now, even printed a couple up. Can you imagine what was going through those guy's heads when it hit? Yeah, goin' home in a couple weeks for X-mas, get to see the family and so forth, BAM, not now, holy shit, I'm helpless. Now that's the tone I imagine went through each and every person on the island. A feeling of total helplessness.

I only had that experience once, when the Huey I was in got shot down. Going in circles (auto rotate) you have this feeling like whatever is going to happen, make it happen now--I'm scared to death and don't know what to do. Training helps in a fire fight when you expect to be in one and your mind gets prepared so that when the shit happens it's not a surprise and then you can react and counter. It's not unlike a big game situation in football because the physical aspect of the game is there, and you could get your ass kicked big time. It's much more about survival and, if you have leadership responsibilities, protecting those you are fighting with. It is the ultimate us against them mentality.

No one, and I mean no one, in a fire fight stops to think of the possible political/geopolitical outcome of the situation. It's just, "how do I get my ass out of this and prevent my guys from getting killed?" That's it. Survival.

I did know this: I did not want to be taken prisoner under any circumstance. The stories we heard about that stuff were probably exaggerated but they still made me sick. No, I would have been one of those guys who took it before surrender, down with the ship type. Thank goodness I never had to make that decision.

I could tell who to trust, count on, respect (regardless of rank) as soon as the shooting started. Or even as little as 10 minutes after meeting a guy. I had 2 lieutenants, both great, never took needless chances, weren't gung-ho and asked questions. When the second guy came in, the first thing he did was ask me what the hell this (war) was all about. In other words, 'I've been in the states training and I don't know shit about live combat so tell me the real story'. This was good as it gave us the confidence that this guy wasn't gonna march us into a blood bath. We were lucky, there were plenty of the other types of officers and if the VC didn't get them, their own men sometimes did. Like the 1st part of "Band of Brothers" where the guy who played Ross on Friends is put in command. That guy wouldn't have lasted a week in the Nam'.

War is hell.

hortense