ChiTownScion
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,247
- Location
- The Great Pacific Northwest
The example I always think of is my mother's late Gentleman Friend, a fellow who was probably the love of her life. He'd fought in WWII as a twenty-year-old boy, and while serving in the ETO he became involved in a one-on-one situation with a German soldier about his own age, and he shot and killed that soldier. He knew that's what happens in wars, and he knew why WWII was fought and why he was in it. But for the rest of his life he was tormented by the fact that he had killed somone's son -- and he recoiled at anything "military" as a result of that. And he didn't have an awful lot of use for preening civilians decking themselves out in "tactical gear" and cosplaying as "patriots" or "citizen soldiers" in that way that's become distressingly common over the last couple of decades.
Knew so many like that. Not just WWII vets, but Nam vets just a few years older than myself. Learned much from them.