A Little Off Code, Computers, Photography and Guns

Quote of the Day

I have a couple of friends that either have already served in the military or are currently serving. And I've noticed one thing in a book I'm reading^[1] that seems to be pretty close to what my friends have confirmed.

Guys and gals from his high school keep com­ing round to vis­it, and Bob­by soon learns the trick that his fa­ther and his un­cles and grandun­cles all knew, which is that you nev­er talk about the specifics of what hap­pened over there. No one wants to hear about how you dug half of your bud­dy’s mo­lars out of your leg with the point of a bay­onet. All of these kids seem like id­iots and lightweights to him now. The on­ly per­son he can stand to be around is his great-​grand­fa­ther Shaftoe, nine­ty-​four years of age and sharp as a tack, who was there at Pe­ters­burg when Burn­side blew a huge hole in the Con­fed­er­ate lines with buried ex­plo­sives and sent his men rush­ing in­to the crater where they got slaugh­tered. He nev­er talks about it, of course, just as Bob­by Shaftoe nev­er talks about the lizard.

While this quote isn't exactly accurate it does have parts of the truth.

My friends rarely ever talk about what they did or saw when they served and for a good reason too. Typically it's because there's no way we can relate to their experiences and the story or feelings are completely lost on us. Only once did a friend share a story and it was after a somewhat traumatic experience, so it wasn't exactly normal circumstances for him to decide to tell us about it. So next time you see someone who served, thank them and respect them enough not to pry a war story out of them.

1. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson [↩]