A Reflective Essay On Redeployment

Throughout the story of this one deployment, there are parts where the author talks about his early life as well as some parts of his earlier days in the Army. The author puts these Stories in to the book in an intriguing way to help explain why and how the author ended up where he did.

This book got me interested in the citations of the marines in 1st platoon. I would also like to know if the author got injured during the battle. The battle itself is very tragic and horrible, but just knowing how these men had each other’s back was enough for me to want to their about their backgrounds.

With this part of the story, O’Brien is able to inject the theme of shame motivating the characters in the book. This chapter is about how the author, who is also the narrator, is drafted for the war. He runs away to the border between Canada and the United States, he stays in a motel with an old man for about a week and finds that he should go to war for his country. In the beginning it was about shame, he didn’t want to look like a coward because in truth he was scared. He was afraid to face the pressures of war, the humiliation and the fact of losing “everything”. This man was an average person who lived an average life with no problems, until he got the notice about the war, which caused the shame and fear of being seen as a bad person to come out.

Beginning my love of reading an early age, I was never the type of child who was drawn to fictional stories. As an 8 year-old child in West Virginia, I was recognized by the local library for my love of biographies, autobiographies and recollections of world events. This love has continued throughout my adult life, desiring to read novels such as “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore rather than watch the major motion picture “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Even though the motion picture received multiple awards, when reading the recollection of Mr. Moore’s accounts, the feeling of loss, distress, anxiety and fear can be felt in each word that he has written while reliving this horrendous war.

O 'Brien illustrates to us the necessity for each man to be connected to their old life, telling a story of Mark Fossie flying in his girlfriend to ease his loneliness (104-05). Each soldier found himself facing insurmountable barriers throughout the war, and these small effects and coping mechanisms were often the only necessity that would give them reason to return home again. They needed personal methods of coping with the war, and this primeval survival was the only way to remain a man.

Young men who are sent to a war learn the reality in a very harsh and brutal way. Both the stories, ‘The Red Convertible’ and ‘The Things They Carried’ portray the life of a young soldier and how he psychologically gets affected from all the things he had seen in the war. Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried,’ is more specific on the experiences of a soldier during a war where as Karen Louise Erdrich focuses more on describing the post war traumatic stress in her short story ‘The Red Convertible’. One thing similar in both the narrations is the Vietnam War and its consequences on the soldiers. From the background of both the authors it’s easy to conclude that Tim O’Brien being a war veteran emphasizes more on the

In the story “Redeployment by Phil Klay, the narrator was deployed in Iraq for a period of 7 months, during the deployment, he sees many dark stuffs and done many. As result of these events, the narrator is impacted in many ways. The experience of war transforms his views on a normal social life in america, therefore makes his readaptation to society challenging.

When I first started reading the book I was very excited because the first few pages were very detailed and made me want to read the rest of the book as soon as possible. The only thing I really didn't like was when he flashed back to his time back in his hometown in Minnesota. "Late at night, the town deserted, two or three of us would drive a car around and around the town's lake, talking about the war" (16). I can see why he puts this in the book because it has a lot of relevance to his life in that time. He was a protestor of the war and didn't think that it was right. What O'Brien signifies by flashing back to this time before he was drafted it shows the major conflict in the book, being drafted into a war that he wanted no part in. Other than that I really never lost focus in the book, partly because as his time in Vietnam progressed the action grew and his experiences were growing more and more exciting. "Then the RPG fire resumed. Our own return fire stopped as everyone ducked and sweated. Men were shouting. Running" (152). The whole second half of the book was mostly action packed like that quote. It is pretty hard not to get into a book when there is that kind of action going on.

Many of the words that soldiers used to describe their surroundings and themselves had negative underlying meanings and many of the platoon members and O’Brien (p.54) believed it wasn’t fair that they were out fighting a war while everyone else was back home. The implementation of new words and phrases into the story gave the setting a more authentic feel and added depth to the characters in the book.

John had 3 kids with her that he had watched by his parents while he went off to war. His main objective now is to not end up like his other squad mates and die at the hands of the germans. The desire became stronger as he stared at the bodies of his dead squad mates. The blood flowing out like a river. The cold dead look on their faces. The men find an abandoned house to try and radio call for help. As they were trying to make the call they heard men speaking in german again. The voices were near by. John went to look out the window and counted ten men armed with rifles and submachine guns. The three men froze upon seeing the sight of the angry germans. John’s mind turned blank and he was unable to think of a plan to get the three of them out of this if they were discovered by the germans. But just then an M2 Sherman tank came mowing down any trees that came in its path and shot down the germans with machine gun fire. Tears of joy stream down John’s face at the sight of seeing a friendly tank with a bright yellow sun behind it. The nightmare was over and the darkness from the night has fallen. The three men have survived and are fortunate enough to return home to their families. John will get to see his kids once again in a happy and safe

Redeployment, a national book award winner by author Phil Klay is a powerful, informative book about the Iraq war. It is composed of twelve incredible stories. The most memorable story for me is titled “Bodies.” The title got my attention emotionally and logically. Making sense of life, to readjust in the civilian world is the main theme of this story, which I believed it is a struggle to find direction to continue to live life and not just exist. Manipulation was another theme that made the process of connecting with people less stressful. However, it was not the most effective method.

Numerous people all over the states join a military branch. Some are forced with war and others are not. Soldiers that have war experience might experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when returning home. In the story of “Soldier Home”, Harold Krebs seems to have quite a few symptoms of this disorder. Prior to his war services, Krebs experiences conformity, connections, and his faith; however, after the war he has a difficult time adjusting back to civilian life.

One thing that all military installations offer to families is a mock deployment line. A mock deployment line is a wonderful thing for a child to experience. During a mock deployment line, the child will go through all of the steps their parent does when preparing to deploy. It cannot be stressed enough to parents the importance of informing their children’s caregivers and teachers that a parent will be deploying. Doing so is a vital step in helping the child cope with the upcoming separation. The child’s teacher, once informed of an upcoming deployment will help the child cope by incorporating activities such as reading books where a family member is taking a long trip, or talking with all the children about how they feel and why they feel the way they do into their lesson plans. Parents need to make sure they do not put off telling children of the deployment, letting their children know about the deployment as soon as possible will provide them the opportunity to become involved in preparing for the separation. Children will want to have many conversations with their parents about the deployment; parents need to make sure that they keep the discussions honest, straightforward, and factual (Clash, 2008).

I am interning at Children’s Home and Aid for the Redeploy Illinois Program. Redeploy is a program that involves community involvement, alternative treatment, and local services for juvenile offenders to prevent juveniles from being incarcerated. Redeploy is a program that allows youth to turn their lives around and get a second chance in society. I have the pleasure of working with Case Workers that help youth become less deviant and deter them from future criminal acts. I noticed that there are more males than females in this program. Yet, the females’ files are thicker than the male files. I found it interesting as to why they’re more males in the program than females in the Redeploy program.

Lt. Col. Hal Moore, Maj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall, Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, 2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan, were four of many soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. Lt. Col. Hal