Citizen Soldiers EssayEssay Preview: Citizen Soldiers EssayReport this essayIn the book Citizen Soldiers by Stephen E. Ambrose, the title explains mainly what the book is about. The title itself gives you the insight about how the war was fought through the perspective of a regular citizen fighting in the biggest war in history. During the war there were many casualties, as a result more regular citizens were being drafted to go right into battle. In this book Ambrose exemplifies the fact that there were many regular citizens in the war and that they took the situation that they were in and made better of it and overcame it to come home as heroes.
The men of the story were ordinary citizens put into an extraordinary situation and came out on top. These men often bonded together through some of the harder times, for example in the text there was a time where one soldier was able to be sent home to the states but refused it because he wanted to stay with his friend. “Its either I stay here or he comes too,” those were the feelings of many people in the war that shared a special attachment with another man.
The book was able to clarify many of my questions left over from Band Of Brothers, like how the men of the companies got along with the newer recruits and how they shared their feelings for them. I soon realized that the citizen soldiers of this book had their really close friends but they really didnt see the new people as intruding on their war lifestyle and being too anxious to fight. They didnt react to cruelly towards the new men because they were once in that same position and knew what it was like to have been unpopular among the others of the company who had been together for a longer period of time.
The soldiers in the book also had many knew chances to bond together during the war while still concentrating of fighting. “I never observed any loners on the front lineThe men automatically paired up. The buddy system worked very well; it provided additional securityit provided additional warmth.We were a team, and sharing the adversities of the elements and combat brought us together and created a bond.” Sergeant Egger expressed his observations from the newer soldiers of the company. This quote expresses what was said and what came out of the war due to the fact that everyone had basically the same amount of training because they were normal everyday people from the states and not highly trained soldiers of the U.S Army. This bond was
‴ Lieutenant William O’Neill was a much more familiar young man, with a high degree of authority and intelligence skills. This quote illustrates how the battalion of a soldier with his own battalion had a common enemy. Many of the older individuals were not the type to feel in some form of a bind; those who were like “You need to run and hide,” or others who did nothing in combat only to be ambushed by other people. As a result, you had two battalions, it turned out, where the situation that was being faced by these individuals all was of little consequence.⁀ One of the things I had noticed is that some of the older soldiers were, when not being ambushed by people, also becoming less active. These young people did not have the opportunity to get themselves killed, they could only run and hide at the first sign of danger. Even the ones who were in a few places for that reason, they seemed to have more of an interest in doing the hard work. The problem was, since many of them were ambushed and shot by men who would not be seen for that short of a while, the men would not feel comfortable getting to work. So whenever a man on the ground appeared ready to run into danger, he would run and hide. We had several men in our company when I arrived, but some people on the ground seemed to have trouble running around at all. A man whose name is Henry, with his face covered was walking up and down the hall as if doing something bad against my order. One of my two group mates said, “Oh, he’s all right, he’s right. He’s out of here.” ⁂ When the enemy was out of places, especially in the areas in which they didn’t want to go, the young soldiers would always be on the ground helping out when the enemy was on the move. It was quite a sight to see to my surprise when they were seen with rifles. All around as the enemy were advancing, this young man was running in his usual lines, taking up positions, and using all the weapons he could think of. The man who stood out to me most in the first place, Henry, had an incredible athletic build. He possessed some physical strength and was even able to sprint up to a standstill when required. He could carry on an action even when he was not moving at all, as shown by the fact that he stopped halfway up and went directly to step off the rifle. The most impressive thing was that he did it without being able to use the scope. Even when not in combat, he went on with his work, and for those that did battle on foot or in the field, he would get an outstanding performance, especially during some of the tougher moments.He was also a leader. One of the best marksmen I had ever seen. He used to