What It Is Like to Go to War

From the author of the award-winning, best-selling novel Matterhorn, comes a brilliant nonfiction book about war

In 1968, at the age of twenty-three, Karl Marlantes was dropped into the highland jungle of Vietnam, an inexperienced lieutenant in command of a platoon of forty Marines who would live or die by his decisions. Marlantes survived, but like many of his brothers in arms, he has spent the last forty years dealing with his war experience. In What It Is Like to Go to War, Marlantes takes a deeply personal and candid look at what it is like to experience the ordeal of combat, critically examining how we might better prepare our soldiers for war. Marlantes weaves riveting accounts of his combat experiences with thoughtful analysis, self-examination, and his readings—from Homer to The Mahabharata to Jung. He makes it clear just how poorly prepared our nineteen-year-old warriors are for the psychological and spiritual aspects of the journey.

Just as Matterhorn is already being acclaimed as acclaimed as a classic of war literature, What It Is Like to Go to War is set to become required reading for anyone—soldier or civilian—interested in this visceral and all too essential part of the human experience.

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: With unflinching honesty, bestselling author Karl Marlantes captures What It Is Like to Go to War in his compassionate, powerful narrative on Vietnam. Marlantes does not shy away from recounting experiences that, outside the arena of war, are horrifying or embarrassing and addresses a soldier’s self-imposed “code of silence” as an attempt to fit back in to a society that “simply wants us to shut up about all of this.” While American pop culture celebrates the warrior spirit and winning the battle, “reconciling the moral conduct we are taught…with the brutal acts we do in war has been a problem for warriors of good conscience for centuries.” Marlantes tempers the brutal truths of fear, power games, and courage with a thoughtful prescription for our soldiers’ well-being; caring for our soldiers and their families differently will benefit society as a whole. In What It Is Like to Go to War, Marlantes sets a new standard for understanding the experience of war. --Seira Wilson

You can see the 'F' in my eye on my contact lens! Sunday: So I did very little today until my parents got home from London. Monday: Work was fine. Debbie was in, which was good. She's really fun. & Vicky wasn't in because apparently she has norovirus. So yeah. My Dad picked me at 4.45pm & dropped me off back home. We were supposed to go out for dinner but we didn't know if Hugh was back from his UCAS convention, so I got changed while my Dad went to look for him. We all went out to meet my Mom for dinner just after 5 at Wetherspoons, which was nice. We talked about the universities Hugh had looked at this afternoon, and about his day in general. I told them about the silly things customers had done today. They left at 6pm to get to Hugh's hospital appointment. It's just a scan. My Mom showed me a book she'd bought me, & then at 6.30pm we left for class. I thought it was the last one tonight, but Simon, our teacher, said we have one more next week. The lesson was okay - gradients, dissolving, etc. We called home on the drive back to see how Hugh had got on. Apparently it's something to do with his cruciate ligaments, and he's going to have to have an operation on his knee. The doctor said he shouldn't have been able to play sport since it happened (about 6 months ago) & that it's amazing he did. Hugh & I spent ages looking over his prospectuses & then I wrote a really rough draft of his personal statement. Then we watched trailers & music videos til about 2am. It's a habit of ours. Tuesday: I had to text Coppinger this morning to ask him when he & the rest of the cast were going to watch The Little Shop of Horrors. I forgot to ask beforehand. When I was waiting for my Dad to pick me up for work I was waiting in the kitchen, & I noticed Abby looking really odd. She just wasn't herself. I stroked her, but she just wouldn't respond. My Dad then told me to quickly get in the car so I rushed out and asked him to check on her when he got back. At work Vicky came in & then Debbie had to leave early to drive her home when she started feeling sick again. She shouldn't have come in if she has norovirus. She wouldn't recover that fast. She went to wait for the bus, but the next one wasn't til 3pm (see how much it sucks living in a small town with a crappy bus service?) so that's when Debbie offered to drive her home. When I got home my Mom & brother said they couldn't find Abby. I insisted they looked harder, & they enetually found her. She wasn't looking too good, & she was seriously ill & filthy. I sat with her & read the paper on the carpet outside my room. She just lay there, listlessly. My Dad checked her when he came back, & said hopefully she'd getter better by morning, but if not we'd take her to the vets. Next my Dad & I went to see Little Shop. It was an okay production. It started off weakly, but finished better. I wanted to be able to say how brilliant it was, as Helen directed, but I am such a critic of theatre. & the chorus irritated me. They didn't dance in time, were weak in parts Steggles was hilarious - he is such a brilliant actor - but he couldn't sing. I guess that works for a school production, but the school should aim higher than that. & you couldn't hear some of his lines because of the accent he used. But he was so brilliant it kinda made up for that. And 4 of the minor characters were awful. & couldn't sing. But I liked it. Afterward my Dad said it was really good for a school production, and I had a long talk about how that's really just not good enough. Give me one month running that Arts Centre & I would have it running a lot more efficiently too. When we got home Abby was still barely moving. My brother & I sat with her for a long time & just chatted. My Dad brought me the printed calendar part way through the evening & I got a small thrill reading 'Imitation of Life - a new play by Catherine -------'. I didn't think they'd put my name with it or anything. It's just a small step towards greatness, but still awesome. My brother eventually dragged a matress into his study & slept next to Abby. I was so scared she was going to die. I managed not to cry, because it wouldn't have helped anyone else, but inside I was distraught. Wednesday: I woke up to hear my Mom telling my brother how much better Abby was, & then I drifted back to sleep feeling much happier. I could have gone to Health & Safety talks at work today, but I'd already made plans with my Mom. We went to The Black Lion for lunch, & my Mom managed to irritate me within minutes by telling me I should pick up shifts there - I don't need the extra work & she knows it - & by asking me why I wouldn't go on holiday with her. We have vastly different ideas of a good holiday. But we were okay after those hiccups. Then we headed to Shrewsbury to see Alice in Wonderland 3D. &

"Os teus atos, e nao os teus conhecimentos, e que determinam o teu valor." (Johann Fichte) 06 de Marco, homenageamos o Dia Internacional do Optometrista. A Optometria e uma ciencia da area da saude, com base na fisica. A profissao existe no mundo ha mais de cem anos, sendo praticada em mais de 130 paises (inclusive nos EUA, Japao e Europa). A palavra optometria deriva etimologicamente do grego optometron, sendo esta decomposta em opto, que provem de opsis que significa "visao" e de metron que significa "medicao". A Optometria e uma ciencia especializada no estudo da visao, especificamente nos cuidados primarios da saude visual. O optometrista e o profissional independente da area da saude, com formacao superior, que esta habilitado a examinar e avaliar o sentido da visao, sendo um especialista em diagnosticar e compensar, atraves de artefatos opticos, alteracoes visuais de origem nao patologica, melhorando o desempenho visual dos pacientes. Podendo ainda fazer adaptacao de lentes de contato e protese ocular, tratamentos de ortoptica para evitar a instauracao de ambliopia. O trabalho do Optometrista esta voltado para a prevencao de patologias oculares e problemas sensoriais. *** "Your deeds, not your knowledge, is what determines your value." (Johann Fichte) March 6, we Homage the International Day of Optometrist. The Optometry is a science of health, based on physics. The profession in the world for over one hundred years and is practiced in over 130 countries (including USA, Japan and Europe). The word derives etymologically from the Greek Optometry optometron, which is decomposed into opto, which comes from opsis meaning "vision" and metron meaning "measure. " The Optometry is a science specialist in the study of vision, particularly in primary health care vision. The optometrist is a professional independent healthcare, with higher education, which is empowered to examine and evaluate the visual sense, being an expert in diagnosing and offset by optical artifacts, visual changes of non-pathological origin, improving performance patient's visual. Can still make contact lens fitting and ocular prosthesis, orthotic treatments to prevent the introduction of amblyopia. Optometrist's work is geared towards the prevention of eye diseases and sensory problems.