Friday, November 5, 2010

Chasing Ghosts Essay.

In Paul Rieckhoff’s memoir Chasing Ghosts, the violent scene of war and fighting develops the work’s theme of enjoying the freedom’s and the safe conditions we have instead of being stuck in a  country without any of these.
Rieckhoff’s position of be Lieutenant in the National Guard fighting over sea’s in Afghanistan e was faced with problems such as the lack of control the local hospital. Before he arrived in Afghanistan only wealthy people could use the hospital, but, now everyone can use it. Also there are no sanitation rules and regulations over in Iraq like there is back in America. Doctors would either leave them on tables or in corners, but they also put a lot of body’s into a small trailer along side the loading dock. After he experiences for the first time in his life. He begins to enjoy what he had back at home.
Paul Rieckhoff also faced the fact of being hit with “god bullets” while he slept or walked around patrolling. God bullets are celebratory bullets from the Iraqi people, they would shoot there ak-47’s into the sky but they all faced the chance of being struck in the head with one. If you were hit in the head it would explode and this feared him because he has a girlfriend and family at home hoping and praying for him to return in one piece, instead of being given a folded American flag because he died by stray bullets from Iraqi civilians.
Even when something isn’t going right you should always enjoy the little things in life. Lt. Rieckhoff was faced with the first death of one of his soldiers. Robert Wise was the young man that died by a roadside bomb, and all of this happened on veteran’s day. Then a few days before Christmas Rieckhoff lead almost 40 men to there death but his reaction made him stop. When he implies the little things he means it. Even if it’s a huge or small gift you should enjoy it because you could die any second, but he gives all the men a DVD, and other goodies they got sent by there wife’s back at home

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