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Praetorium Honoris

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Homecoming

(Source)
The man was shuffling along, head down, muttering to himself.

"One foot in front of the other, just keep moving ..."

He was blind to everything around him, but he knew this place, he was close to home, he had roamed these meadows and forests as a boy. Which wasn't really that long ago.

As he moved he thought he smelled smoke, but not like the smoke of a cooking fire, it was something else, an unpleasant smell.

He looked up, there, on the horizon, a column of smoke. He continued to walk, then he felt a hand on his elbow.

He turned to look at his companion, another man, about the same age as himself. "What is it?"

"Do you think it wise to continue towards your village? Maybe we should detour around that smoke ahead, I don't like it. It feels bad."

The man stood up straighter and looked around, checking landmarks, the curve of a slight ridge, a cluster of trees. It all looked so familiar, yet different somehow. He spoke.

"My village is there." he said, pointing towards the smoke column.

His companion shook his head, "Why is there so much smoke? Aren't you the least bit curious?"

The man sighed, "Where else is there to go?"

His companion looked around and said, "Let's think about this for a moment ..."

The man shook his head and started walking again. "I have no place left to go. All I know has been swept away. If the village is gone ..."

"Then so am I."


Thirty minutes later, they could see the village, or rather, what was left of it.

The few remaining dwellings were still burning, smoldering as if they refused to burst into full flames. The man reckoned that the rains of the last few days had soaked the thick thatch of the roofs, the more simple, poorer dwellings had already burnt to the ground.

The man's companion said, "Where is everyone?"

The man sat down heavily on a tree stump, he saw no one, no one at all. Well, no one still alive.

"The enemy has left, there was nothing else for them to do after they destroyed this place. So they must have moved on to the next place." The companion started to move towards the nearest dwelling, then he stopped.

"The villagers are still here ..." the companion's voice sounded small in the face of such wanton carnage. He turned to look at the man who was from this place. He sat, stunned and unmoving.

"We should go."

"Perhaps we should look for survivors ..."

"There will be none, we've seen this before, you and I, we have done this before. Would you leave anyone alive?"

The companion realized the truth of it, no he would not. Survivors could lead to revenge, no, you killed them all.

You left nothing behind.

The man stood up, and rubbed his grubby face, moisture streaked his face as he did so. His companion stared at him for a moment, saying nothing.

The man spoke, "We need to go, there is another village perhaps a day's walk from here, further back in the forest. Perhaps they have been spared."

His companion nodded, "Perhaps."

Shouldering his small parcel of belongings the man began to move off, muttering, "One foot in front of the other, just keep moving ..."

As they moved off, towards the nearby forest, the companion looked back, now he recognized the other smell, burning flesh.


The scene played out above could be from nearly any moment in our species history.

Etruscan soldiers fleeing the Romans? Colonists fleeing their colonial oppressors? Confederates fleeing Sherman's bummers? Russians fleeing the Nazis?

Pick one, any one, it's all the same to those who suffer the Hell that is war.

Yes, I'm in a black mood lately, but this too shall pass.

Pray for peace, prepare for war.

Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum.¹







¹ Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war. - Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus - Dē Rē Mīlitārī

34 comments:

  1. Can one ever truly come home from war? Some say yes, others, not so much. Things left on the field of battle. Memories, hopes, dreams. Things brought from the field of battle. Memories, despair, nightmares.

    Sometimes the physical embodiment of Hell on this Earth is bad, but not as bad as what's left of one's mind.

    But coming home to no home, whether because it's literally gone or because one's family moved on or because one can't move on. Horrid.

    "A Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves is a rather excellent movie about coming back to not-home.

    "The Best Years of Our Lives" is another.

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    1. There's an old saying, "You can't go home again." I've experienced this, even without going to war, moving away, things change, we change. When you go back, everything looks different.

      War multiplies that to the nth degree, warriors have seen, and done, things which those back home can't even begin to understand.

      I read the write-up on that film, I will be tracking that down this weekend.

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    2. Both movies are quite good; though "Best Years of Our Lives" is rightly considered a classic.
      Dark mood, aye; you may be describing a future event. Well written, as always Sarge; you draw us right in.
      Boat Guy

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    3. Having trouble shaking this mood, a few days off should do wonders. I've got a five day weekend starting Thursday. Should do wonders.

      The country is going to need more than that though.

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  2. Woke to rainfall, dark so much so that the dusk-to-dawn lights are still on. An ominous setting in which to read today's dark post Sarge. Seconding Bean's choice of "The Best Years of Our Lives" movie, guess seven Academy Awards back that up.

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    1. Hot and sunny here, hopefully the weather improves my mood. But I have my doubts.

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  3. WOW! Powerful and somber stuff. Thank you.

    Only the names, uniforms, and technology of war change. The faces stay the same. Take the faces here https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/08/15/world/atwar_coffee2/atwar_coffee2-blog480.jpg and they fit into any era.

    I never served. I think it was in 1973 I mentioned to one of my dad's friends, might have been Knights of Columbus, might have been VFW, there was a lot of overlap in those two groups in Vista CA then, that I was thinking of enlisting after high school. He had just resigned his commission as a Major in the USMC rather than go back to Viet Nam . He told me, "Don't!" and went on to explain why it would be a Bad Idea at that time.

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    1. Frankly, you made the right choice. The military was a mess in 1973. I went in in '75, it had gotten better but was still dysfunctional on so many levels. Vietnam scarred many, the national psyche as well.

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    2. I graduated from HS in '75 and so, if he hadn't discougated me, been enlisting then. Being raised almost next door to Camp Pendleton my inclination was towards USMC. But as I watched events in SE Asia unfold after Major L gave me his advice, and with Saigon falling in April of that year, and our "leaders" making noise about reinserting our forces into that quagmire, I was thinking it a wise choice.

      Our military still hasn't recovered from the aftermath of that debacle.

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    3. Well, actually we did, but our misguided and idiotic involvement in Afghanistan erased all those lessons learned in Vietnam.

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    4. Yes, we did build back better. But then we had Leaders that had been there done that, and they were led by a President that actually loved this country. "Loved this Country" translates to "wasn't in it to enrich himself and his family" which is apropos to nothing whatsoever that might be happening to day. No Sir, nothing whatso-f-ing-ever.
      juvat

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    5. A crime family is running things these days, that's for sure.

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    6. We did improve our military for a time. I went in in 73. My soldier father counseled against going in because he saw "another war we're not fighting to win". I accepted his advice for a time, but didn't see anything better in college. Parris Island replaced sophomore year; the Old Gent approved of the finished product. MOS training was with the Army; LOTS of credit go to the pro's described in Akinson's " Long Grey Line" the young LT's who had to strap on a .45 to enter barracks in Germany. I gave the Army the "most improved" award in those days.
      These days are far worse; we don't have those officers Atkinson portrayed, we have DEI advocates now. I now advise young people to avoid entering any of the travesties that have replaced our military.
      Boat Guy

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    7. BG - Yup, the social justice engineers have mostly destroyed our current flag officers. Those young officers back in the day, the ones who had to "strap on a .45 to enter barracks in Germany," we need them now. Do we have them? I really don't know.

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    8. StB - Goes without saying. (Is there such a thing as a "good" crime family?)

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  4. Any time, any continent.

    Your mind is running the same as mine Sarge; I wrote on something similar coming this Friday. There is a thing in the air, something that saddens me even as I do not fully know what it is.

    There are those that have been to war and bring it back, knowing the experience. There are those that have not been to war but study history and know what war does and what it creates. And then there are those that have neither first hand experience nor historical background, who see it merely as a "good policy" or "glorious" or "acceptable losses", or only view it through the lens of sagas or video games.

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    1. "The Second Coming" by Yeats is on constant play in the back of my mind these days.

      Sad that we should experience such times.

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    2. I had to remind myself of this poem. Truly, the centre cannot hold and the "blood-dimmed tide" is loosed.

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  5. Dark. Trained for war, didn't get to go. Was told I was lucky I didn't; I felt I'd let "my side" down. That may be; the world changed while I was training, and I came back to a different, horrid, world. Aha! That's why I was so driven to solo hiking deep in the mountians then, it was returning to my early childhood, a kind of rebirth. That was a real world, society was, well, hell. Now ... even that is being destroyed. "They've paved paradise, and put up a parking lot." Some of you, too, might remember when the improved roads in Yellowstone were graveled, not just graded. Single lane, wide spots to pull aside for a car traveling in the other direction. It's been improved out of existence. (In some ways, those memories are a blessing.)

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    1. "Improved out of existence ..."

      Speaks volumes.

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  6. Personally it's depressing to watch the changes to society (& the world) that the 24/7 corporate owned media is doing. The media is just the tool...

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    1. I have to agree. I also have to ask, what do they think they are gaining? Ignorant of history, I guess they think they will get to be "on top" in a "brave" new socialist world. Unwitting dupes, they contribute to their own downfall.

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    2. I think it's all about control.

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  7. I always wanted to be available to defend this great country. Now, I'm available to defend my part of this great state. I've reverted to the state citizen mentality that existed pre-WNA. I didn't want to, but there it is. Even that is being tested at times. There are few I'm willing to die for now. Of all the things that I have on my list, the last is to die well. I don't know what that will look like. Maybe not whinging like a brat when pain is constant, keeping a happy outlook when the news is grim, or standing up to protect my tribe, even when escape isn't possible. My mind has been dancing in the dark for over a dozen years now. Embracing the suck since 2009. Thankful for the bright spot in 2016.... Back to reality in 2021....

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    1. Embracing the suck ...

      Wow, that brings back memories.

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    2. Well put STxAR. Another one from my past is "Lean into the pain". It helps at times.
      We'll hope we all die well, having lived well.
      BG

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    3. Death awaits us all, I don't want to die on someone else's hill, I'll choose my own.

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  8. Crusty Old TV Tech here. I keep remembering words written by Wilfred Owen in the Great War. "...My friend, you would not tell with such high zest, To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori.".

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    1. Amen to that/

      Words used by old men sending young men to die. A pox on the "ruling class."

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  9. "After all, tomorrow is another day." As Scarlett O'Hara said.
    JB

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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