We Are Sending Boys

Everyone thinks a soldier is a highly trained, muscular, brave, specialist in killing everything in their way. People believe that they are very brave and aren't scared about the war and what they are getting themselves into. However, this is completely false. E.B. (Sledgehammer) Sledge says, "there was nothing macho about war at all. We were a bunch of scared kids who had to do a job." (196) Even though they are trained a fair amount in cardio and a little combat there is nothing that could prepare them for the things they had to do and things they had to see. There is nothing that could prepare them to see their friends and fellow soldiers being killed and having their limbs come off in front of them. There is nothing that can prepare them to deal with actually killing another human being especially if they were innocent and were killed for no reason. It is also scary to not know what the other people are thinking especially because of the different backgrounds everyone comes from. For instance, E.B. Sledge talks about Japan and how they, "fought by a code they thought was right: bushido. The code of the warrior: no surrender." (197) he talks about how you really can't understand the true meaning of that until you really see it. he says, "you really don't comprehend it until you get out there and fight people who are faced with an absolutely hopeless situation and will not give up." (197) no one can understand each other because people don't sit down and try to they just kill each other instead. Nothing can prepare these soldiers for what they are going into and they know it. They aren't always really the image people put with them.