It's Thanksgiving evening. We're at home, safe and warm, with our dogs for company and things to do. Janis has been wrapping Christmas presents. I did some work for one of my clients, ran some errands, and got frustrated with the company that hosts my web site. It was a pretty quiet and routine day.
This evening, I watched the documentary movie "Korengal". It's a follow-up to the movie "Restrepo", about a platoon of soldiers in the Korengal valley in Afghanistan. Where "Restrepo" showed what life was like on a mountaintop outpost under constant attack, "Korengal" delves much deeper into the soldiers' minds. It is a timeless film. The way combat affects an American soldier or Marine now is not really different from the way combat affected them in wars past. There is the adrenaline, the excitement of combat, the bonding among those whose survival depends on each other, the earth-shattering grief of losing a brother, the horror of some of the things that have to be done, and the almost wistfulness of veterans who miss the intensity of the experience once it's over. "Korengal", far more than any other war movie I've ever seen, brings an understanding of the experience of combat, and an understanding of those who live through it.
It may seem to be an odd choice of a movie right before the Thanksgiving holiday. Actually, it's the reverse. "Korengal" brings a fresh appreciation for the quiet, normal life we have. Janis and I are able to wrap Christmas presents, do some work for clients, get in the car and drive around to do minor errands, pound on a computer, and eat Thanksgiving turkey until we burst, because of men like these soldiers in Korengal. They are the same as those warriors of all services who were in the jungles of Viet Nam, in the snows of Korea, on the beach at Normandy, in Belleau Wood, and all previous wars. And they're just like the ones who are out there right now.
So this Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks to them.
This evening, I watched the documentary movie "Korengal". It's a follow-up to the movie "Restrepo", about a platoon of soldiers in the Korengal valley in Afghanistan. Where "Restrepo" showed what life was like on a mountaintop outpost under constant attack, "Korengal" delves much deeper into the soldiers' minds. It is a timeless film. The way combat affects an American soldier or Marine now is not really different from the way combat affected them in wars past. There is the adrenaline, the excitement of combat, the bonding among those whose survival depends on each other, the earth-shattering grief of losing a brother, the horror of some of the things that have to be done, and the almost wistfulness of veterans who miss the intensity of the experience once it's over. "Korengal", far more than any other war movie I've ever seen, brings an understanding of the experience of combat, and an understanding of those who live through it.
It may seem to be an odd choice of a movie right before the Thanksgiving holiday. Actually, it's the reverse. "Korengal" brings a fresh appreciation for the quiet, normal life we have. Janis and I are able to wrap Christmas presents, do some work for clients, get in the car and drive around to do minor errands, pound on a computer, and eat Thanksgiving turkey until we burst, because of men like these soldiers in Korengal. They are the same as those warriors of all services who were in the jungles of Viet Nam, in the snows of Korea, on the beach at Normandy, in Belleau Wood, and all previous wars. And they're just like the ones who are out there right now.
So this Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks to them.
