An Aging Process

I’m back to reading on Kindle and although I haven’t yet finished it, am reading Boys for Men. The author, a Vietnam vet, had read a friend’s ancestor’s account of joining the army in 1876 in Montana and becoming part of the group involved in the battle we know as “Custer’s Last Stand.” (Obviously, the fellow who wrote the journal wasn’t with Custer)

At any rate, the vet who had wanted to write a memoir of his time in Vietnam, decided to write parallel accounts of his friend’s ancestor’s war experience and his own. To add to the interesting parallels was the fact that the two men’s experiences occurred about 100 years apart as the author served in ‘Nam in 1970. 

This book was of added interest to me because I possess a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s account of his experience as a teenaged soldier in the Union Army in 1863. The comparison of the three men’s experiences during day to day life has a common thread: totally boring and pretty much horrible. The only soldier who mentions having any favorable days is the soldier in 1876 and I credit most of that to the fact that he was marching through Montana.

The Civil War soldier and the Vietnam vet both suffered with horrible food, horrible sleeping arrangements, and all three soldiers appeared to have had idiots for commanding officers. (I know, they might have been prejudiced, but…)

Boys for Men is based on the premise that boys are sent to war to do a man’s job, and that was certainly the case for my Civil War ancestor. The author mentions that many in his platoon were teenagers and he was only twenty-one or so. Despite that, the boys got the job done (can’t discount the men who were also present), and if they lived through the battles, they became men in spite of it all.

It didn’t hit me until mid-week that this had to be the weekend to write about this book since Memorial Day is almost upon us. So, in honor,of all the boys, men and women who fought for freedom throughout the history of our country—I salute you! Thank you for your sacrifice.