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Author Topic:   Brotherhood Between Soldiers-Overexaggerrated?
NeedSpeed
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posted September 12, 2013 11:38 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One of the things that makes Military History the most popular branch of history is the notion that soldiers are brothers-in-arms and many people join the military expecting to find friends (or even a family) for life.

In fact this comradeship is a prime reason why even soldiers who known to be rapists and criminals are admired by students of military history and enough to overlook the negative flaws of soldiers.

However I've already been reading a bit about life for the average soldier in history outside of battles. I can't help but find so much animosity between soldiers in various points of history and soldiers are not above stealing from their comrades and lying to their officers and such vices. Its surprisingly common for soldiers to literally abandon a member of the same unit or even commit "friendly fire" as a way to get back at a fellow soldier for an earlier vice done before battle.

This isn't even counting fights between soldiers outside of battles in the barracks and bars (or whatever cultural equivalent).

Of course brotherhood exists but this seems to be more exclusive in the thick of battle than a general thing. Soldiers become like family willing to fight and protect each other from being killed. But in the barracks or camps,etc. such a brotherhood cease to exist or become rather minimal and its so common to see soldiers who risked their lives to protect each other on the battlefield become such bitter enemies in the camps or barracks.

The strongest brotherhood I noticed aren't even necessarily between people of the same unit but people who were friends before the war or had compatible personalities that they would have quickly become close friends if they met before the war. I notice there isn't as much guilt and sorrow for seeing a fellow soldier who ****** you off in the camps when he dies as movies would lead you to believe (as in "I miss him even though I hated him before he died" attitude).

If you lurk on UNRV, Caldrail posts a lot of stuff about the corruption of the Roman Legions. UNRV's survers are down and a temporary forum has been established so I won't be able to link some of the posts he made. But how corrupt and how much unbrotherly the Roman Legions treat each other outside of the battlefield really parallels what I read about military history very shockingly.

The deeper I study military history outside of famous major battles and famous operations, the less I see this comradeship that makes military history the most popular branch of history.

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