House to House: A Soldier\u2019s Memoir<\/a>\u201d by Medal of Honor Winner David Bellavia, a 2007 book about his time in Fallujah. In the course of his duty there, Staff Sergeant Bellavia killed many of the enemy, and saw many of his own comrades die. His observations are profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe see occasionally the dark humor that helps people in life-or-death professions keep going. In one chapter, an American soldier takes a bullet through penis and scrotum, and desperately asks the medic if he\u2019s going to keep his manhood. The medic replies, \u201cYou\u2019re hung like a Lincoln assassination conspirator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one particularly bloody event in the house-to-house combat that gave the book its name, Bellavia recounts the barehanded battle to the death with an insurgent. His M4 carbine empty and useless he grapples with his opponent, literally biting and gouging. The enemy bites the American\u2019s genitals. The American in turn gouges the man\u2019s left eye out. Bellavia finally remembers that he has a Gerber knife on his belt, gets it into action, and slashes the other man\u2019s throat. As the latter fades, dying, he reaches up and tenderly touches the face of the man who has killed him. This incongruous gesture will haunt Bellavia forever after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In post-military life, Bellavia became an advocate for veterans and their families. His book brings home the ugly horrors of war and the sacrifices demanded by military life. It goes far deeper in exploring the concepts of duty and honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Powerful reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Self-defense is, by definition, lawful countervailing violence. Unpleasant as it is we have to confront it if we\u2019re going to be prepared to protect ourselves and those within our mantle of protection. You can learn a lot about this from warfighters who have been in combat, up close and personal. I recently re-read \u201cHouse to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8440,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8439\/revisions\/8440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}