What feelings did soldiers have when fighting war?

Answer 1

If they were career men, they performed their duties, and when their time was up, would request duty in more pleasant places. If they were draftees, and most of them were, they just did their tour (one year), and went home. While they were there though, and with 365 days to do, they had to figure out some ways to survive that amount of time, so... while conducting operations in the field, most GI's by the early 1970's, held the belief, that if the NVA didn't start a fight, neither would he. By this stage of the war, most of the grunts knew that that NVA soldier out there was a poor drafted kid just like we were, and the reasoning was, why should two men who didn't even know each other, and probably didn't even want to be there anymore than we did, suddenly want to shoot at one another at first sight? As an example: If a company of US Infantrymen was conducting a sweep in a forested area, and the word was out that there was a company of NVA waiting for them inside the woods, and all the GI's had to do was walk in there and out the other side, and in the process they might bump into the NVA, a firefight would begin. The thought for many GI's, especially the ones that were "Short" (Short timers-get to go home in 30 days or so), was in some cases, "they never did anything to me...if he doesn't want trouble, neither do I." As President Nixon began his troop withdrawals, the US Army High Command had issued an order to keep casualties to a minimum, which was keeping in line with President Nixon's order of reduced US casualties. The new slogan, during the last few months of the war became, "who wants to be the last man to die in Vietnam?" Search and Destroy missions soon became Search and Avoid missions. With fighting usually occurring only when someone attacked the other. During these final days of the US involvement in the war, fighting in self defense was the norm.

Answer 2

Fear: Fear of death, fear of never being able to see their families, fear of losing the war/battle and thus losing what they are fighting for in the first place (family, freedom, liberty)

Anger: At the enemy for killing their friends (family in some cases)

Sadness: For the loss of friends, homes, and families

Bravery: To stand up in the face of adversity in order to defend what they love

Joy: When they know the battle/war is over and they have won and thus saved what they were fighting for

Summary: Soldiers feel many different emotions while on the battlefield. Possible feelings are endless and differ from man to man. The best ways to grasp what a soldier would feel is to either ask a veteran or put yourself in their shoes. Picture yourself running up the beaches of Normandy or running in Pickett's charge. What would you feel?

Answer 3

Soldiers rarely get involved in the politics of war, they dedicate themselves to each other, a letter from home, clean dry socks and to surviving another day.

Answer 4

For Vietnam, they had no feelings once they had been drafted...just get it over with, was their attitude.