Indoctrination

Warrior Writers Chicago is in week 3 of a 6-week residency at a local community art space called Mess Hall. The theme of this week's workshops is "indoctrination." During this workshop, facilitators ask veterans to reflect on their training in the military. What values did you learn to adopt? What changes did you undergo during training? What did you begin to believe that you hadn’t believed before training? How did your time away affect your life, family, community?

Here is mine:

Indoctrination

We did jumping jacks until we called them side-straddle hops.
We walked with ruck sacks on our backs until we called it humping.
We accepted punishment until we called it discipline.
We shouted cries for death until we called it singing.
We fired guns until we called them weapons.
We shot at plastic people until we called them “enemy.”
We studied myths until we called them realities.
We trained to oppress populations until we called it liberating them.
We said awful things about stomping babies until we called them jokes.
We did the wrong things until we called them right.
We instilled and lived in fear until we called it love.
We called it all something else until we believed it.

"Dirty Realism" in Granta

Check out the new Granta, which includes Phil Klay's story "Redeployment"--reviewed in the Economist.
Also don't miss his web-only story "OIF."

X-posted from caribou (4 Sept 2011)

To Hell and Back Again

X-posted from caribou (24 Sept 2011)

 

Last night I had the chance to see a screening of To Hell and Back Again here at Princeton, thanks to React to Film and Prof. Meredith Martin.

This documentary tells the story of Sergeant Nathan Harris, a Marine squad leader who gets wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan. Using footage from Afghanistan and after, director Danfung Dennis weaves an affecting, complex story about the effects and experience of war.

Northumberland, PA (redux)

Our troops are on bases in lands far away
I cant help but wonder what grandfather would say
He sailed from England for a better life
And here's where he lived and married his wife
There were children born and that led to me
I've followed the path on my family tree
The British Empire stretched far and wide
But he joined the militia on the American side
Today we're deployed in so many places
The Sun never sets on all of our bases
I'm wondering now like the man on the street
Is Empire really something we want to repeat?

Jim Hale
September 27 2011

Northumberland, PA

Our troops are on bases in lands far away
And I cant help but wonder what grandfather would say
He sailed from England for a better life
And here he lived and met his wife
There were children born that led to me
I've followed the path of my family tree
The British Empire it stretched far and wide
But he joined the militia on the American side
I'm wondering now like the man on the street
Is Empire really something we want to repeat?

Jim Hale
September 27 2011

from Clerks

We wrote the paperwork
We got the calls
We booked the flights
for the boys
getting the fuck outta dodge.
Boys with sunken cheeks
darkened by the sun
with sand still in their ears.
Boys with only a burden,
beer, and sex on their minds
to soften the edges of
the sins they carried.
Then there were the boys
that left their burdens
in the desert,
draped in flags
to soften the burdens
of the sins we carry.

Reflections on 10 Years of War (free write)

How can I say what can't be spoken about rage and regret?

10 years later how does my country feel about all that's been lost?
What has been lost?
morality, love, acceptance, progress, deep thinking, questioning, connecting

Where is our military? What are the reasons for supporting the wars?
fear, hatred, vengeance, need for significance...where else can we find meaning?
family, love, nature, beauty, hope, believing, giving of ourselves

Why do we look to war for meaning?
History, lies, we want to be a part of something bigger

What is the problem?
sub-human, no connection, no love, no respect-for ourselves or others

We saw the smoke billowing up to the sky,
nervous energy about our own lives, what role would I play in this, how can I shine?

Then I saw the lives as valuable as mine
Then I saw the love much greater than mine
Then I saw the hate grow in my own kind
Then I asked the question, why am I here, with a M-16 and sand in my hair?
Where is my life, my love, and why?
Over lines across oceans I cry out to you or God or anyone.

But no one heard because my words wouldn't come, they just stayed in my heart like a beating drum.