Everyone knows their are casualties in war but are soldiers every really prepared for death on the battle field? These men and women fight side by side and become like family to each other, so
how do they adjust to losing them and how do they mourn for their lost friends
in such a short amount of time?
Everyone has seen
war movies and seen soldiers fall on a fake screen with actors but is that what
really happens? In the documentary Restrepo we get to see the raw feelings of
the soldiers seeing and dealing with death.
The article Restrepo:
Is this the greatest war film ever? reports the movie as being, “No script. No acting. No props. Real blood, real bodies.” The
movie shows a soldier break down over a lost friend but, because his group is in
the middle of a battle, he is not given time to register or accept his death.
When asked how the film maker, Tim Hetherington, managed to film the
emotionally evoking scene, he said, "Yes, it was upsetting, and it's
difficult. The American lines had been overrun by insurgents, people were being
killed at close range, and we were in a state of shock. But you have to go on
to autopilot. I was just doing my job."
In the end soldiers have to do just that: their job. They do not have time to mourn the fallen.
They have to get through and continue to fight or risk getting killed
themselves. The article, Soldiers
Try to Cope with Battlefield Losses , by Corey Flintoff describes an example of this. The article tells the stories a group of soldiers in Iraq as they deal with loss during battle. Flintoff points out, “[They] had no time to mourn or even consider its losses. There were wounded to
treat, houses to search and acres of orange groves where insurgents were known
to camp and stash weapons.” The soldiers have to forget and ignore death in
order to get the mission done.
So how do soldier
deal with death after battle? The web site army medical gives
steps to helping soldiers cope with loss. These steps include going through the
five basic steps of mourning, which include denial, anger, bargaining,
depression, and acceptance. The web site
stresses that soldiers need to have reasonable time to grieve the death of
friends or other soldiers. It reports that, “Many of the mental health professionals now
treating combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorders feel that too
often the soldiers didn't allow themselves to grieve for their buddies at the
time (or soon after), and so are still haunted by them today.” But sometimes
this is just not possible because all people grieve in their own way and take
different amounts of time. War does not always allow them this time. We also see
this in Restrepo as one of the leaders of the group speaks to the soldiers
about having to get over the large loss within another group of soldiers. He
tells them they need to mourn and then get over it and do their jobs. They get a moment of silence to remember and
pray and are then sent to go along their business as usual. 
Soldiers have to
learn how to deal with death because sooner or later in war it’s going to
happen. When it does happen in battle they have to try and continue to fight
and do their job. Afterwards they are
often not given enough time to cope with the losses, which could sometimes lead
to PTSD. However, soldiers do find ways to remember those who died. In Restrepo
the soldiers set off flares to remember the anniversary of a lost friend and named their outpost after him. There are also web sites such as Military Times that are
dedicated to honoring the fallen. Even
though they may not get to mourn the traditional way; they can always find ways
to show their respect for those who died
fighting alongside them. 
