Into the Valley of Death - Rich Brooks

Junger's article Into the Valley of Death and Homer's Illiad are both very vivid and realistic depictions of war. One thing that is clear in both the accounts is the very young age of the combatants. Junger mentions one soldier being killed at the age of 19 and that a man of 27 years is considered "old" in the army. While Hector never gives us explicit ages for the characters in the Illiad, it is reasonable to assume that they were also very young. Achilles and Patroclus were described as children playing in Peleus' halls when the war started. Achilles was even still growing a sacred lock of hair that is supposed to be cut off once on reaches manhood. Also, it is probably safe to assume that Hector is not much older than Achilles if older at all. In ancient Greece people married and had children much earlier in life than we do today, and Hector's child was just an infant during the story. Also displayed in both accounts is the camaraderie between soldiers. Countless times during the Illiad one soldier fought over the body of a fallen ally. Likewise, in Junger's tale, one man gave his life preventing the Taliban from dragging off the one of his wounded comrade's body. The constant stream of battle was also depicted in both cases. The Americans stationed at Restrepo encountered firefights several times a day. Whenever they weren't under fire they were doing some sort of manual labor. Similarly, In the Illiad there were several attacks and counterattacks all day every day. Fighting was nearly constant throughout the book. Like the American soldiers, the Greeks and Trojans typical day consisted of fighting, eating, and sleeping. Once during the book we even saw manual labor thrown into the mix, when the Greeks had to build fortifications to protect their ships after a day's worth of battle.