I recall reading an interview with one guy who was talking about why he left a fairly safe and stable job to go do contractor work in Iraq. It basically amounted to him saying that he wanted to be a part of history, that he could say in the future 'yeah, I was there' about something that was going to be written about in books in the future. Yeah, yeah it was all horrible and stuff, but it was also exciting, different, and like nothing else you could experience. The risk of death, to him anyway, was just the price of admission for the unique experience it offered.
In all honesty I sometimes think we tend to blow out of proportion how war effects people. I think we do this because on some level it can be disturbing how many people it really doesn't, or even how many come to thrive in it and even considered it a high point of their lives in hindsight. It says something we perhaps don't like about ourselves that so many of us can go off somewhere, kill others for years, and then come back not particularly the worse for wear from it. For all the talk of PTSD and such it must be recalled that while many people do develop such things the majority don't.
It's also worth noting how many veterans, despite whatever they might have seen, say they'd do it again regardless. That's basically a tacit admission that whatever the hardships involved they considered the experience either worth it or such a part of themselves they can't see themselves without it.
The Lee quote might be cliche at this point, but only because it's so damn true.
Originally, it was connected to here...Bombing bad enough to change the shape of the landscape...The islets in front of Noumi Marine Lodge...Past?but the land was blown away by wartime bombing, and it ended up as it is now.Yep.That island has a tragic past, you know.Scary stuff.Memories of the PastIt turns into adjoining land at low tide.Ewww...There's a shrine in a spot like that.By boat, maybe?How the heck do you get over there?