Tag Archives: Mentorship

Understanding War Through Fiction

October 11, 2019 Andrew Zapf Leave a comment

There are many nonfiction books that bring to life the events of the past, cast real-life villains and heroes as relatable, and provide a human touch to the recitation of historical events. Pushing Horizons will undoubtedly recommend many such books to our readers, as we did last month. However, there are times when Fiction takes a prominent place in the education of a reader. There is great value in a fictionalized version of history, where an artful rendering can transform a daunting mountain of facts into a carefully constructed story symmetrically framed and walled in symbolism. To my students, perpetually busy with the demands of academic life, I offered the following novels as a break from their normal scholarly consumption – with the hidden benefit of continuing their education.

The Centurions and The Praetorians by Jean Larteguy

“Well, we’ve become adult without the help of our traditional leaders; we have fought wars in which they took no part and undertaken journeys on which they were unwilling to accompany us.”

Few novels make it into the required reading lists of military professionals. Once An Eagle by Anton Myrer has been hailed for decades as an instructive tome for prospective second lieutenants – helping cement the image of the mature, experienced, and savvy prior-enlisted platoon leader at the expense of the Academy-bred lieutenant. However, well-worn, annotated copies of another set of novels was being quietly passed within the military profession. After the US military’s traumatic experience and exit from Vietnam the institution of arms, along with the country, was willing and eager to jettison the memory of guerrilla warfare in favor of conventional, large-tank formation, anti-Soviet army doctrine. However, the novels of Jean Lartéguy bring guerrilla warfare to life by putting skin and flesh to the historical skeleton of France’s painful exit from their Algerian province – providing historical parallel to America’s war in Vietnam. The wars in Algeria were fought with a ferocity and intensity that forever scarred the French psyche. Lartéguy, a veteran of the Free French Forces during World War II, before he turned to journalism, gave an ugly and personal fictionalized narrative of the very real tension and contradiction of France’s opposition to the Algerian War of Independence.

Lartéguy’s main characters evolve from the experiences and internment after the defeat of Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina to the savage war in Algeria. Having been asked to maintain the integrity of France, with which Algeria was an integral part, the officers of the fictional 10th Parachute Regiment resort to torture and extrajudicial murder to defeat the National Liberation Front’s fighters in Algiers and the elsewhere. Each of Lartéguy’s officers must grapple with the emotions and implications of a conflict that pitted the idea of France against the rights of her subjects. In Algeria, European and Muslim neighbors were thrust into murderous competition as the availability of a moderate central path to a peaceful resolution disappeared under revolutionary violence.

The “enemies” of France were the very people that had come to believe that their independence was guaranteed French liberte. Every action taken in Algeria was taken at the behest of a series of French governments that refused to accept its shrinking empire – even as Vietnam, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria all agitated to separate themselves. I recommend The Centurions, and its sequel The Praetorians, as a way to understand that the military exists in a world of messy, often short-sighted politics where leaders with power sometimes lack the vision, and those with vision lack the influence. Armies don’t go to war alone. Their societies go with them. This novel allows the reader to compare their contemporary environment with France in the mid-Twentieth Century – a modern, republican democracy with nuclear weapons and a worldwide military presence.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

“Hey, brother, we in a real nightmare,” Jackson finally said. “You just trust in Jesus,” Cortell said. They both knew these might be the last words they would exchange. “But keep you fuckin’ rifle out of the mud, too.” They touched hands again and Jackson turned to follow Mellas down the line.

Probably one of the better, if not the best, war novels that unflinchingly provides a realistic and emotional perspective on camaraderie, tension, and trauma of the bonds made and severed in combat. I would recommend this to any level of leader, as the Marlantes gracefully shifts from the platoon commanders’ and battalion commander’s perspective to show the rational and consequences of the brutal calculations of military benefit and human cost. It’s an immersive read, which reflects the high quality of the writing.

Karl Marlantes is a Vietnam veteran, and he makes an appearance in Ken Burn’s “The Vietnam War” documentary – which I also highly recommend. The documentary’s film footage and testimonials of the Vietnam War mirrors the fictionalized experience in Matterhorn. I don’t think Marlantes pulled any punches in his story as his words smack of real pain, real frustration, and real hopelessness he probably experienced first-hand.

“Within an hour Cassidy had joined Hawke at the LZ and every replacement was laden with machine-gun ammunition and water to the point where he could barely move. Hawke or Cassidy would walk up to each one and have him jump up and down. If the kid looked too lively they’d throw another belt of ammo across his shoulders until his knees were just short of buckling. Then Cassidy left and they were all sitting in the mud again, covered with ammunition and canteens. “Don’t fucking worry,” Hawke joked with them. He began to speak in a sonorous monotone. “Come unto me all you who are burdened and heavy laden.” Smiles appeared. He quickly turned on them. “But I ain’t giving you fucking sinners any rest.” He turned to one of the replacements who had cracked a smile. “You think I’m fucking Jesus or something? Do I look like Jesus to you?””

I have already recommended this book to several young lieutenants to help them imagine the complexity of serving and leading in war.

The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw

“I’d change with you, Old Man, Michael thought. The days you’ve lived through. The best days of America. The optimistic days, the short wars, the little killing, the bracing, invigorating, early-century weather . . . You married and sat down to dinner with many children in the same house for twenty uninterrupted years, and only foreigners fought in the wars then. Don’t envy me, Old Man, don’t envy me. What good fortune, what a gift to be seventy and nearly dead in 1942!”

Although entirely set during World War II era, this novel barely focuses on the combat aspects of the century’s greatest conflict. In fact, the main characters aren’t the stereotypical hero that finds themselves in extraordinary circumstances unlocking their greater, more courageous versions of themselves at the moment of crisis. Rather, the characters’ involvement in the war is so normal it allows the reader to concentrate on the emotional transformation their army experience thrusts upon them. The impacts on their worldview and personal relationships at home and within the service are relatable to today’s veteran. Written in 1948, this novel had an immediate impact on the popular understanding of World War II.

Although Shaw’s narrative covers a lot of ground, from the 1930s to 1945, the progression doesn’t feel rushed or unnatural. In fact, it helps that he avoids the major battles of the war, using the interludes to prod the characters into different emotional conflicts and self-realizations. In the end, it’s a tragic human story played alongside one of the greatest of humanity’s calamities.

To make my list of recommendations, I would draw your attention to the way fiction, just like other forms of art, can impress upon the reader an emotional connection to the topic. There are passages within The Young Lions that are more valuable to someone willing to learn about war. Non-fiction works aren’t able to fully capture the emotion of love and loss, there are few moving sermons quoted in the history books, and the symbolism of a well-crafted story can resonate across a generation. From Irwin Shaw comes these powerful and consistently applicable warnings about the savagery of war:

“The enemy is more savage than a tiger, hungrier than the shark, crueler than the wolf; in honor and in defense of our modest way of life, we stand up to him and combat him, but in doing so we out-tiger him, out-shark the shark, over-wolf the wolf. Will we at the end of all this then pretend to ourselves that the victory is ours? The thing we defend perishes from our victory as it would never perish from our defeat. . . Kill, if you must, because in our weakness and in our error, we have found no other road to peace, but kill remorsefully, kill with a sense of sorrow, kill with economy for the immortal souls who leave this life in battle, carry mercy in your cartridge cases, forgiveness in your knapsacks, kill without revenge, because vengeance is not yours but the Lord’s, kill, knowing that each life you spend makes your life that much the poorer.”

Andrew Zapf is a co-founder of Pushing Horizons.

Disclaimer: All views expressed are that of the author.

Book Reviews, Mind

At War

September 6, 2019 Andrew Zapf Leave a comment

Students of war are hungry for realistic books that portray combat realisticly and explore the the causes and roots of conflict. Below are three non-fiction books that I frequently recommend to introduce these topics and begin larger more wide-ranging discussions. Two are centered in the two largest wars of the Twentieth Century, World War II and the Vietnam War, while the third sits directly in the current conflicts of our day.

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

“Comrades are closer than friends, closer than brothers. Their relationship is different from that of lovers. Their trust in, and knowledge of, each other is total.”

Army officers and those interested in military history don’t need me to recommend them Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. The HBO series based on the book is widely used in professional development platforms, leadership seminars, and military pop culture references. (Woe be it for any new officer to be labeled as a “Captain Sobel.”) I still have my copy of the book on my bookshelf. I read it during the Summer of 2001 at Camp Buckner and the pages reflect time spent being handled by the dirty hands during cadet military training. The cover carries a badge proclaiming “Soon to be an HBO Miniseries Event.” However, after nearly twenty years since it was first published it may be overlooked and its impact forgotten.

The book was first published in June 2001. I purchased it on the way to Camp Buckner, the United States Military Academy training ground for rising sophomores and home of “the best summer of your life.” In primitive metal bays, with only a creaky bunk bed and ancient wall locker I kept this book alongside my other personal effects and my olive drab-colored web gear. I would spend my days learning a little more about military leadership and small unit tactics, and I would retreat to my bunk to read another chapter of Easy Company’s trials before my next duty. The books lessons became part and parcel of my education that summer.

At the time of the television series release, in September 2001, there had been few movies available to the military community that depicted the daily life of army leadership during wartime. The Rambo films, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, and the previous decades’ films set during the Vietnam War featured fantastical stories of soldierly outliers or focused on the enlisted soldiers in a unit. The Band of Brothers series was especially useful for young cadets at West Point because it followed the training, maturing, and experiences of the officers of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Lieutenants Dick Winters, Ronald Speirs, Lewis Dixon, Buck Compton, along with many of their noncommissioned officers, became heroes to a generation of cadets and officers at the onset of the War on Terror.

There are two reasons that Band of Brothers is especially meaningful to me. Firstly, I initially read Band of Brothers because of my own family history with World War II-era paratroopers. Sergeant Michael Zapf, my grandfather, jumped into Normandy France with F Company, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He served in the same company through the Ardennes and Operation Varsity – the invasion of Germany. Having “E Co. 506th PIR, 101st Airborne” on the cover of Band of Brothers, only a few clicks of the dial off of Grandpa Zapf’s unit, made me feel like I was reading his story, getting to know the man that he was before he became a father, grandfather, and my personal hero. Since Band of Brothers, the D-Day paratroopers have been glorified, mythologized, and honored very publicly in the military circles and across wider American society, but at that time the recognition and realistic dramatization was new – and it seemed tailor-made for my own interests.

Secondly, watching Band of Brothers was a communal experience for me. When it first aired as a television series I was a cadet at West Point myself. At the time we did not have HBO streaming on our ancient computers or televisions that allowed us to watch anything other than Yankees baseball games. One of my friends had their mother tape each episode onto a VHS (yes, a VHS) and mailed it each week from Ohio to New York. For ten consecutive weeks we would gather in a basement common room, called a Day Room, and spend an evening with friends watching each episode. The theme music emanated from the mighty speakers of the old tube television and the cinder block walls echoed the sounds of battle in primitive surround-sound. Afterwards we naturally reflected upon what we saw, spending a few minutes to discuss what had transferred well from the book and what was missing – for we all had read the book already – before returning to our cadet lives.

In addition to the atmosphere of the room, the mood at West Point had been dramatically altered by the attacks of September 11th, 2001. West Point is only 55 miles from where the World Trade Center towers stood and each of us in that room were on Academy grounds when the attacks occurred. The United States had also recently invaded Afghanistan and the attention of the student body instantly intensified on the realities of leading soldiers in combat. The leadership lessons of Easy Company during World War II seemed more useful than that of West Point’s faculty – who at most deployed in support of NATO and UN peacekeeping missions during the 1990s. We paid very close attention to Band of Brothers as we assembled in that Day Room.

The book remains a vital companion piece to the television series. The limits of hour-long episodes, selected dialogue, and film editing leave plenty of material to learn from in the book. While the wars of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and nation building do not resemble the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny, the moral lessons, professional bearing, attitude, and ethos of those written about by Stephen Ambrose are valuable for any leader.

They Marched Into Sunlight by David Maraniss

“The selfless and the self-involved, the peaceful and the reckless, the righteous and the contentious, their differences were covered over by their overwhelming opposition to the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. “

“What happens in a battle? The ‘fog of war’ is the classic cliche of military jargon. It means that when the fighting starts, the objective truth or reality of what is happening unavoidably becomes clouded by the chaos of the event.”

There are plenty of memoirs and narratives about soldiers in combat. The stories are harrowing, the bravery is exceptional, and the leadership lessons abound. However, when asked narrow questions about wartime experience, combat leadership, or geopolitical ramifications I have always urged my cadets to expand their understanding of a problem beyond their initial query. Sometimes that involves looking at election timelines within the United States, economic events that impact global markets, or a series of things that may seem unrelated or tangential. Based on this widening of the scope, I recommend David Maraniss’ They Marched Into Sunlight because it weaves combat history, with political calculus, along with the changing social currents of the time.

The Americans of 2-28 Infantry Battalion, 1st Infantry Division were the ones that “marched into sunlight” during the Vietnam War under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen Jr. Maraniss spreads his storytelling across the officers and enlisted soldiers at all levels in the battalion, providing a human feel to the unit. He comments on the camaraderie, training, leadership styles, personal struggles, and challenges of fighting in the jungles of Vietnam in 1967. The leaders weren’t gods and they weren’t omniscient. They were impressive, some came from famous families, and they carried the burden of legacy on their shoulders with superior officers breathing fire down their necks. They fought a war that was being misdiagnosed and walked into a devastating ambush in October 1967. Over two days the battalion suffered horrific casualties and signaled to the North Vietnamese that the United States could be defeated by surprise, while also making it impossible for the U.S. Army to hide the death of 2-28 Infantry’s battalion commander – son of famed World War II general Terrible Terry Allen.

Meanwhile 2-28 Infantry was cuttings its teeth in Vietnam, opposition to the war was bubbling at college campuses. Violent protests at the University of Wisconsin, also in October 1967, would launch the movement onto the national stage. Upon entering the military, service members can become a bit insulated from civilian society and that bubble exists in some form throughout a military career. The story of the protests in Madison is vital to understanding America’s war effort in Vietnam. Gaining a full appreciation for the different voices of the students, faculty, administration, and municipal authorities paints a complex and layered picture of American society at the time.

This connection between the student protests and the 2-28 Infantry’s ambush, and the reverberations that reached all the way to the White House, are important reminders that war does not exist in a vacuum. The Vietnam War has many lessons for the contemporary soldier. The strategy and tactics of counterinsurgency used today were first developed for Vietnam. For the first time in American history multimedia platforms outside the control of the government and the full-color images of unfiltered warfare had incredible influence on the war’s narrative in America. Lastly, the Vietnam War fundamentally changed the relationship between the United States Government and the citizenry that remains a factor of American society and politics today. They Marched Into Sunlight is an excellent place to begin understanding these ideas – with a helpful bit of distance from contemporary events and biases.

The Strong Gray Line Edited by Cory Wallace

“And when our work is done,

Our course on earth is run,

May it be said, “Well done”

Be thou at peace.”

– Alma Mater, United States Military Academy

The Class of 2004, my class, has suffered the most casualties of any class from the United States Military Academy since the beginning of the War on Terror in 2001. With contributions from multiple members of the class, The Strong Gray Line is a readers’ digest of reflections on loss, love, duty during this war. I recommend this book to cadets and new lieutenants for one simple reason. The Class of 2004, these officers that have died, can be any graduate of West Point, any officer, anyone’s son or daughter. They are all of us.

When I returned to West Point as an instructor I briefly transported back to the mind of a cadet as I adjusted to the surroundings again. I became worried about being in the right place, having a proper gig-line on my shirt, and unconsciously looking at rank from across Central Area with squinted eyes. Despite all of the new construction and upgrades, there was much in the on campus that remained from my days. The rare wooden pointers, the hooks in the hallways, and the slippery non-slip coating on the steps all remained. Within the classroom, the simplest of my cadet experiences resonated with the young cadets I was teaching. Furthermore, my lieutenant and wartime experiences were still valuable to cadets also considering the possibility of going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

I urge the cadets and leaders to read The Strong Gray Line because they will see reflections of themselves and their friends on the pages. The losses of my class may inspire them to cherish their classmates a little more, to sincerely love their soldiers – because love is the real core of great leadership.