Ghosting: call back the past


anthony

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WOW! Now that is incredible.

To be honest, I thought you meant something else by "Ghosting". I'm not disappointed though.

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That is spooky. A few times I stopped when the 1944 image was barely superimposed over today's picture and it did look like ghosts. A British soldier guarding POW's had his rifle in hand but was not worried that a German prisoner would grab it.

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The first photo is the most poignant to me. I was only 5 - 6 weeks old. Some of those soldiers would soon be dead. Even with all I now know, I'd still have had to fight in WWII if I had been old enough. I mean real fighting. I'd try to be comfortable while doing it. If I could have chosen I would have taken--this is a fantasy--a quad deck gun gunnery job on an old battleship and take on the suicides. When it comes to comfort, I'm a coward. I was pretty comfortable in Vietnam, but there were days . . . . Those helicopter crews were comfortable too. I once saw a bunch of 'copters land, then the machine guns opened up and the tracers--one in five--went right at them. Most men are simply wired to fight--or at least join up if only for support. I could still feel the tug in '91. I wouldn't even have minded Afghanistan in '01. I wanted to be with those SF kicking ass. Then everything went completely stupid and I shifted over to more of a libertarian perspective. But even today--I wonder how much of all this would be true if I hadn't been sluiced into the military like millions of others because of the draft (you don't have to be drafted to be drafted as the first use of the word is de jure and the second de facto)--I think frequently about who I could kill under what circumstances and why (any home invader gets blasted with a 12 gauge (defensive); any ISIS with a weapon too (offensive). Unlike Vietnam--I had to get out of there--I could kill ISIS until the cows come home and put American Sniper in the rear-view (but not as a sniper as I never could shoot at that level the eyes not being good enough). I'm not talking about my combatant abilities beyond the psychological. My training was Basic, Light weapons, Paratrooper, Medical. In Vietnam I was a walking, talking, acting contradiction: a combatant combat medic with no Geneva Convention protection (which was like nothing in practice for other combat medics). My guess is what I am today soldier-in-the-head is 90% learned. The skill set and orientation become ingrained. I feel much the same way about flying an airplane or driving a semi-tractor trailer or even Grand Canyon hiking--the hiking would probably kill me. The other two, no problemo. I wonder what Nathaniel Branden would have said if I had told him my ability to kill someone contributes to my self esteem? Or save someone's life? Both. I mean, I want to fly an airplane. I want to drive a truck. I want to kill someone. I don't want to crash the airplane--or the truck. I don't want to kill anyone who doesn't deserve it and maybe then only out of pure moral and practical necessity. I can all but feel the throttle, the gearshift, the trigger. Flyer, driver, killer soldier--and not too much a soldier treating war wounds or running medical patrols, but that too.

So, in spite of my new libertarian perspective I'm psychologically still wired up, ready to go, for God and country. I don't think there's anything to do about it for me except to concentrate on work, money and love. I like myself well enough, except I'm now ramping up to more of an alpha male, out of necessity. I have to do that from time to time, and this time will be into a place I'll have to stay in. I've been waiting for this, seeing through all my procrastination until this day. I see intimations of some mental decline in finding the right word for the this and that thought. The thoughts are still there and retrievable--just a little more work with a dictionary--but it's time to get cracking.

--Brant

and get a little more sleep

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