Sheepdog Tip of the Day, After Combat tip 69
Across the centuries, in funerals, wakes and around the campfire, warriors would tell of their fallen comrade: the noble deeds that they had personally witnessed, the lessons in life that had been taught, and how their lives had been shaped by the life which was now departed. They also found humor in what happened: a strange, twisted, dark humor at times; simple and childlike at other times; but always they found the peace and healing of humor in what they did, and this was an important part of multiplying the joy. At the same time they also shared and divided the suffering, the grief and the pain, breaking it into manageable chunks, grieving intensely and briefly so that they could bear it and get on with life. We conducted these debriefings every night around the campfire, throughout history. You see, up until the 20th century, warriors almost always took the nights off. After Agincourt, Waterloo, Picket's Charge, Bunker Hill and San Juan Hill, the winners and the losers sat around their separate campfires that night and debriefed. After ten thousand battles across thousands of years, warriors have always gathered to put together the pieces and figure out what happened. Combat is a corrosive, toxic environment, but someone has to do it. Just as surely as someone has to go into blazing buildings, toxic waste sites and hospitals full of infectious diseases, so too does someone have to go into combat to confront those who would do us harm. George Orwell said, "We sleep safely in our beds this night, because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." Someone has to do it. So, across the centuries, over thousands of years, slowly, painfully, we found a way to be able to live with ourselves after combat and then go back into the heart of darkness again, and again.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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