Michael Durant, Essay Example

Despite the fact that war is a catastrophe widely associated with destructive influence on the lives of people no matter on what side they combat, military professions are still prestigious and necessary. They have a number of attractive aspects for candidates ranging from fitness demands for those reluctant to lead sedentary life and the charm of working with sophisticated modern technology to purely patriotic feelings and a human desire for glory which is traditionally earned on the battlefields.

In this respect, the figure of Michael Durant is most inspiring. He is one of the best – an impeccable military man who has analyzed his experience in a number of publications, interviews and talks given to do justice to his friends and to help the new generation of soldiers find stronger psychological ground for their work that would allow them to cope with the hardships of their service.

Still, Michael Durant’s experience can hardly be called typical. First of all, his training – the Defense Language Institute – must have made him a qualified specialist well aware of the culture and psychology of people involved in military conflicts. It is due to this training that he was assigned to the 470^th Military Intelligence Group. This training and service marks an important peculiarity of the modern military jobs – they are increasingly intellectually demanding. Modern combatants do not differ much from their counterparts who served a couple of decades ago: since World War I which showed that military conflicts are now mainly determined by technology rather than the number of soldiers, military people need to acquire profound technological and cultural insights.

Later Durant attended a course as an instructor pilot and was qualified to join the newly formed 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (also known as SOAR) in which he served as a Flight Lead and Standardization Instructor pilot. It should be noted that the job of a military pilot is quite different from other military jobs. A crew of an aircraft is small compared to, for example, the crew of a ship; as a result, the work is much more individual. It may remind of medieval knights in contrast to infantry. The knights had heavy ammunition and often could rely only on their own skills and equipment. The pilots also often have to work in isolation.

This isolation accounted for Durant’s unique experience of being an American prisoner in Somalia.  Durant was the pilot of Super Six Four, which was the second MH-60A Black Hawk helicopter. In the raid over Mogadischu in Somalia (October 3, 1993) the helicopter crashed after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade in the tail. The crew – Michael Durant, Bill Cleveland, Ray Frank, and Tommy Field – were badly injured by survived. For a while they were being protected from the air by suppressive fire provided by Delta Force snipers – MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart who volunteered for insertion and were fighting off the Somalis until they ran out of ammunition. The Somalis took over and killed them as well as Cleveland, Frank, and Field to capture Durant alive. Gordon and Shughart received the Medal of Honor posthumously for this. Later when he would give talks and write books Durant claimed not once that his primary aim was to pay respect to Gordon and Shughart. Durant was kept by the Somalis for eleven days and finally released to make a quick recovery and rejoin the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

This episode is described as the crucial point in the biography of Durant. It must have also been of utmost importance in his combat experience. His narrow escape, injuries and the loss of his close friends is shocking by itself. But the selfless involvement of Gordon and Shughart who sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save the crew of the crashed aircraft must have given Durant the unforgettable experience of friendly support and readiness for a literally heroic deed. Although the war can be and is ruinous for personalities, such episodes as this elevate the spirit and remind the survivors that their lives may not only be the gift of God and their parents but also the gift of their friends, their fellow-soldiers who found it more important to save other people than to save themselves. It appears that the notion of a combat comprises not only conflict and destruction but also exceptional courage and devotion, the feelings which are not ready to reveal and test in everyday life. Many combatants say that a battle is a moment of truth. People show themselves unable to hide anything in the face of death. That is why veterans may appear to have a different system of values to the civil one. They tend to respect courage, openness and strong spirit and be less charmed by broad-mindedness of tactfulness than people who meet others and learn about them in, for example, business spheres.

It goes without saying that a strong ideology is what comes behind steadfast combatants. The job of a soldier is highly risky and not many are ready to sacrifice their lives out of financial reasons. The ideology must be comprehensive; it should not create illusions that would be painfully shattered by war. It should stress the respectability of military people in the eyes of their nation. Furthermore, future combatants should obligatory receive psychological training that would help them perceive the complexity of war and remain healthy people.

The nature of contemporary wars makes it necessary to prepare soldiers for cultural and emotional isolation in which they may find themselves doing their jobs in foreign countries. Ernest Hemingway touched upon this problem in a number of his works and, although they related to the events of World War I, they remain applicable to the situation in which our soldiers appear today. The frustration and emotional devastation experienced by young American combatants described by Hemingway (and felt by the author himself) is a warning to today’s military leaders. Naturally, modern combatants are highly qualified military professionals in terms of technology, but they remain humans and should be spared the emotional sufferings of their numerous predecessors.

Special psychological training is equally important for the war veterans who might find themselves unable to return to peaceful lives and no longer ready for constructive endeavors that would help them build families and careers after their combat experience and the losses they suffered in the form of the deaths of their friends and the burden of war destruction.

The figure of Michael Durant is also indicative in this respect. He appears to have been able to return to peaceful life and find support in his big family – Durant is the father of six children – and his country. He analyzed his combat experience and formulated the results in his books and talks, which gave him a release from the emotional burden. It is extremely important that Michael Durant – the modern hero – is not only famous for his military deeds but also for his activity in peaceful life. He shows that military people can find place in the society even after their combat experience which may differ dramatically from the experience of non-military people.

References

Biography of Michael Durant. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from http://www.mikedurant.com/

Jennings, P.A., et al. (2006). Combat Exposure, Perceived Benefits of Military Service, and Wisdom in Later Life. Research on Aging, 28(1), 115-134.

Kennedy, C.H., Zilmer, E. (2006). Military Psychology: Clinical and Operational Applications. Guilford Press.