girlsblouse
30th Jan 2005, 11:58
Clearly todays millitary establishments have orientated themselves to help ex servive personnel prepare for a writing career in civy street on their release from service.
Run of the 'mill ' stories such as 'messed up, got shotdown/sunk/captured etc, can now with a little help from your local ghost writer,and a dash of your childhood/schooling/basic training thrown in as page filler get you a nice little earner if your publisher can position it right on the bookshop shelves.
I know a chap who sold quite a few books a couple of years back, freely admits that the bit between ending up on enemy ground and getting extracted was a load of jazzed up tosh.
In the good old days soldiers did their job and came home ,without the need to tell the world about their daring do. (Though surprisingly todays published exploits rarely come from the real hero's, you never here from them, but from the ones who spin their own obvious screw ups into embellished tales of excitement).
My own Granfather was involved in a very well known action of WW1, on his return home he put his medal in a chest(were it remains to this day) and never said a word to anybody;not even his wife and family.He then signed up again for WW2,as a middle aged man, again with no war stories when he got back home.
Dad did pretty much the same thing, he gave me his medal when l was a kid because he wasn't too fussed about it.
So if you insist on writing about yourselves, here's a few pointers:
1.Unless you've done something pretty amazing e.g. changed the course of the war, personally modified an existing political/social landscape etc. keep it for the messroom/bridge night get together.
2.If you got your job wrong,seriously messesed up and dropped yourself(and collegues) in the poo,keep it to yourself, it's embarrassing.
3.Flying a forty year old chopper around is not interesting to the rest of us simply because it's painted geen etc.
4.Next time you're in the airline crew room, introduce yourself by your name and not your previous call sign/rank.
They sure don't make millitary chaps like they used to!
Run of the 'mill ' stories such as 'messed up, got shotdown/sunk/captured etc, can now with a little help from your local ghost writer,and a dash of your childhood/schooling/basic training thrown in as page filler get you a nice little earner if your publisher can position it right on the bookshop shelves.
I know a chap who sold quite a few books a couple of years back, freely admits that the bit between ending up on enemy ground and getting extracted was a load of jazzed up tosh.
In the good old days soldiers did their job and came home ,without the need to tell the world about their daring do. (Though surprisingly todays published exploits rarely come from the real hero's, you never here from them, but from the ones who spin their own obvious screw ups into embellished tales of excitement).
My own Granfather was involved in a very well known action of WW1, on his return home he put his medal in a chest(were it remains to this day) and never said a word to anybody;not even his wife and family.He then signed up again for WW2,as a middle aged man, again with no war stories when he got back home.
Dad did pretty much the same thing, he gave me his medal when l was a kid because he wasn't too fussed about it.
So if you insist on writing about yourselves, here's a few pointers:
1.Unless you've done something pretty amazing e.g. changed the course of the war, personally modified an existing political/social landscape etc. keep it for the messroom/bridge night get together.
2.If you got your job wrong,seriously messesed up and dropped yourself(and collegues) in the poo,keep it to yourself, it's embarrassing.
3.Flying a forty year old chopper around is not interesting to the rest of us simply because it's painted geen etc.
4.Next time you're in the airline crew room, introduce yourself by your name and not your previous call sign/rank.
They sure don't make millitary chaps like they used to!