LA HBL Poem Analysis

This poem showcases the story of a man in an Iraq war. He writes down his feelings and experiences in a form of a poem. He uses hyperbole to elaborate the difficult tasks at hand. He uses present tense to give a vivid description of the atmosphere.

I know it is the Iraq war as Steve Carleson is an ordinary soldier who has experienced 3 years of war. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1st battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peace keeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. This proves that this is the Iraq war as that was the only war in that time period. Also, the mentioning of Hindu Kush ,which was a prominent part in the Iraq war, further proves that this was in the Iraq war.

He brings out the difficult missions he had accomplished through the use of a wide variety of hyperbole. Firstly, he describes the difficulty of running with all his equipment through a heavy rain. He felt as if the rain was made of "lead", an extremely dense material. It also meant the lead in gun ammunition, thus, showing that he was retreating while gun shots filled the air. He also use a hyperbole in describing the mountains he was required to climb. He compared the mountains with the sky by saying that they were "so steep, so high they kiss the skies". Therefore, he feels that the mountains are extremely high and difficult to climb. He then went on to describe the war zone on the mountain as "hell" and it is so close to "god" as in heaven.

In line 3-12 he used present tense to give the reader a sense of happening. It is as if the reader is the one going through the entire ordeal. This puts us in the shoes of Steve, giving us a better and deeper understanding of what he has been through. "Bullets are flying, the LZ is hot" are all in present tense. When reading, it feels as if the reader is in the moment, looking at the bullets flying and the landing zone bustling with activity.


Reference:
http://maytheforcebewithu.blogspot.com/2010/05/we-slept-with-our-boots-on.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Kush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratrooper