Soldiering for Freedom
I just compete a very interesting book, "Soldiering for Freedom," by Herman J. Obermayer. Mr. Obermayer's book is an easy read. The chapters feature a summary and then copies of Mr. Obermayer's letters to his family during World War II.
What makes Mr. Obermayer's story interesting is that he was a young man who didn't like the Army, but did his best to serve his country.
Every since the movie "Saving Private Ryan," and the book "The Greatest Generation," the public has viewed WWII veterans as people who were on a crusade. "Soldiering for Freedom" brings back the facts of 1940 military life we've forgotten. He describes:
• The hurry up and wait so common to military operations.
• The dependence on rumors for information and the concurrent frustration of not knowing what's happening.
• The forming and training and then re-forming and retraining. He goes through a dizzying number of programs and units: college based technical training, Combat Engineer battalion, Airborne Engineer battalion, a medic in a Fuel line detachment, and legal clerk.
• The senseless and unfair rules: officer only facilities of higher quality than what the enlisted men were provided with, censorship of his mail, working for officers and noncommissioned officers who had less intellegence and/or education than him, etc.
• The resentment and lack of support from liberated French people for the war effort.
This is a part of the Army and the war that use to be shown in the television show "Sergeant Bilko" or the "Sad Sack" comic books--Civilians with an uneasy alliance to military life who often spent their time in uniform doing the best with what little the Army gave them.
What makes Mr. Obermayer's story interesting is that he was a young man who didn't like the Army, but did his best to serve his country.
Every since the movie "Saving Private Ryan," and the book "The Greatest Generation," the public has viewed WWII veterans as people who were on a crusade. "Soldiering for Freedom" brings back the facts of 1940 military life we've forgotten. He describes:
• The hurry up and wait so common to military operations.
• The dependence on rumors for information and the concurrent frustration of not knowing what's happening.
• The forming and training and then re-forming and retraining. He goes through a dizzying number of programs and units: college based technical training, Combat Engineer battalion, Airborne Engineer battalion, a medic in a Fuel line detachment, and legal clerk.
• The senseless and unfair rules: officer only facilities of higher quality than what the enlisted men were provided with, censorship of his mail, working for officers and noncommissioned officers who had less intellegence and/or education than him, etc.
• The resentment and lack of support from liberated French people for the war effort.
This is a part of the Army and the war that use to be shown in the television show "Sergeant Bilko" or the "Sad Sack" comic books--Civilians with an uneasy alliance to military life who often spent their time in uniform doing the best with what little the Army gave them.
posted by Steve at 10:29 AM
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