Movie/film suggestions.

I just watched Warfare last night and highly recommend it for anyone that has romantic thoughts of combat. This is not a rah-rah portrait of war. It's written by the former SEAL who was there. He was concussed but kept on going and they relied on the memory of all the other SEAL team members to helped piece it together.

It's directed by the same guy who did Civil War and is actually pretty far removed from that in comparison. The military advisor on that was the same SEAL who wrote Warfare with the help of the director. There's no music soundtrack. In the end, things look rather fruitless considering what they sacrificed but that is basically the cost of war. It should be required viewing for all the gung-ho wannabes out there.

All the best,
Nonoise

I just took a look, @nonoise , and it appears I can rent Warfare for 5.99.  I have got Elephant at the top of my "pay for list", but I will put Warfare as #2.  (You may be interested in Elephant yourself; the trailer makes me think that it is based on Columbine.)

 In the end, things look rather fruitless considering what they sacrificed but that is basically the cost of war. It should be required viewing for all the gung-ho wannabes out there.

That was me when I was growing up.  From reading some of your posts, I think I am about 5 years younger than you, meaning that I was growing up under the shadow of Vietnam and the draft, but in the end the US was out before I was old enough.  But I was like Tom Cruise’s (nationalistic in his youth) character in Born On The Fourth Of July--I thought it was my duty, and I guess I couldn't wait to be old enough to go somewhere and be a hero.  Many times since then I have given thanks that I was born in ’59 and not ’49 . . . talk about fruitless.

@immatthewj  I'm in the same boat as you, or thereabouts. I was 6 months out from being drafted for Nam before the war ended. My older brother went in but he ended up in Germany as an MP. I, too, was gung-ho what with my dad being a Seabee in the Navy in WWII and my uncle was in intelligence. Raised as a good Republican in a Republican household and extended family until I first voted, and never looked back.

Born in '54 and I used to think it was too early but the way things are going now, at least I got to live a good, normal American life. 

All the best,
Nonoise

You were closer than I was, @nonoise .  I didn’t graduate HS until ’77 and by that time I actually had a pretty good part time job (36 hours a week for a high school kid!), and after I did graduate they gave me a raise (five and change an hour!) and put me on full time.  So when I did join the AF in ’78, it was more because I needed to get out of a certain small town in Montana and didn’t see higher education as something that would work for me, as opposed to it being my waning sense of nationalism.  A month or so before I was inducted I went to see The Boys In Company C (1978), and I remember thinking to myself that I was glad: 1) that Vietnam was over, and 2) that I did not join the Marine Corps.

but the way things are going now, at least I got to live a good, normal American life. 

My sentiments exactly.  At least I got to live the best days of my life when things here were not perfect, but all in all, still pretty good in comparison.