The Long Road Home

Over the weekend, I managed to finish the last few episodes of The Long Road Home.  If you liked the film Black Hawk Down, which I did, then you will like this – essentially the same premise of some trapped American soldiers in hostile territory, but very much fleshed out into a miniseries length of 8 episodes.  Obviously being an American series about the American military, it was somewhat pandering to heroism and over-patriotism – but was still very watchable with a couple of outstanding episodes (each episode primarily features on a different character, and the ones involving the interpreter and the guy who is eventually disabled and becomes an anti-war protester were particularly memorable).  But what was interesting was that coming out of this, I don’t have a regret per say but maybe some wistfulness that I never served in the military.  War is brutal and I would never had made a good soldier – I have neither the physical ability, courage or temperament to survive on the front lines.  I would probably be some amalgamation of Gomer Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, Albert Blithe from Band of Brothers and Pike from Dad’s Army.  But I think there is some nobility and duty to serving – and I’ve lived a relatively sheltered existence, and this would maybe have helped make me a more mature and better human being.  This is not a question of whether war is right – which it isn’t – but, at least to me, a case of character-building and being part of a lifelong comradeship/brotherhood that I have never really had.