I don't know what your personal experiences of combat are, but I am interested. You can PM me if you don't want to share on here. I'll share something about my combat experience with you. Do you have ANY idea what it feels like to have to aim your weapon at a child and be ready and willing to kill that child at the slightest provocation of violence? I do. And I would do it in order to protect myself and my Soldiers because while in Iraq I became so desensitized to the local population that I didn't see a child...I saw a potential insurgent. That child I did not have to shoot. My company commander had a child in Mosul pull a pistol on him. How do you think he felt? Being ready, willing, and able to kill so you don't get killed is what war is. The hidden threats of IEDs is always on our minds...how do you fight an unseen and cowardly enemy?

I'm not saying I am better then you at all so please don't think that. What I am saying is feelings and experiences like the ones I had can not be easily depicted in a book to someone like me who KNOWS what it really is like. Thats all I'm saying.

I'm not sure why you are comparing Platoon to Saving Private Ryan because I know little about the filmmakers (I dont follow their personal lives at all...I have my own) but they were both were good depicitions of the hell of war and what war can do to a person (Platoon more the SPR on the last comment)

Brillaint post, very interesting to read.

I complared Platoon and Saving Private Ryan becasue the fella who made Platoon had served in Vietnam, and much of the story was autobiographical. I compared it with Saving Private Ryan because the beach landing scene is widely considered to be a very realistic depiction of battle, but the fella who made it had never been to war. I wondered if you'd pick up on any differences.

Which you did

It's been a while since I've had a chance to visit, and I see that my comments were taken in ways I didn't mean for them to be taken.

Yes, my mentioning of Rambo was over-the-top and wholly inaccurate. My intention was not to compare Jack's father to the actual character Rambo. And it wasn't to say anything about his hiding his military past (my father-in-law, like many vets, refuses to talk about Vietnam).

My point, which I'm still not making well, is that the whole setup just seemed a bit forced to me. Jack pursues the Otherness, gets in a jam, and Dad happens to be very skilled with a rifle. My inability to express my thoughts well is why I don't review books (and why I consistently got a B in my literature class in college). Some stories work beautifully, some don't. The whole story about Jack and his dad just didn't work for me. It obviously did for most of you here. I'm glad it did for you; I just found it a little disappointing. And I'll shut up now.

I complared Platoon and Saving Private Ryan becasue the fella who made Platoon had served in Vietnam, and much of the story was autobiographical. I compared it with Saving Private Ryan because the beach landing scene is widely considered to be a very realistic depiction of battle, but the fella who made it had never been to war. I wondered if you'd pick up on any differences.

I have never seen Platoon, so I can't comment, but the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan struck me as being innacurate if for no other reason than that -- except for the Thompson sub-machine gun and the 45 caliber side arm -- virtually all firearms used in World War II, fired bullets at supersonic velocities. In other words, the bullets whizzing by wouldn't wouldn't "whizz," they would crack -- like the sound of a whip, only louder. This makes verbal communication virtually impossible. The noise of the firearms and the sound of the crack of incoming rounds would be almost unbelievably loud.

Ken V.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to visit, and I see that my comments were taken in ways I didn't mean for them to be taken.

Yes, my mentioning of Rambo was over-the-top and wholly inaccurate. My intention was not to compare Jack's father to the actual character Rambo. And it wasn't to say anything about his hiding his military past (my father-in-law, like many vets, refuses to talk about Vietnam).

My point, which I'm still not making well, is that the whole setup just seemed a bit forced to me. Jack pursues the Otherness, gets in a jam, and Dad happens to be very skilled with a rifle. My inability to express my thoughts well is why I don't review books (and why I consistently got a B in my literature class in college). Some stories work beautifully, some don't. The whole story about Jack and his dad just didn't work for me. It obviously did for most of you here. I'm glad it did for you; I just found it a little disappointing. And I'll shut up now.

You did a great job of summing up your thoughts. But do us all a favor.... don't shut up. I think I speak for most, all veiws are welcome, especially about FPW's work.