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Homefront

In: Historical Events

Submitted By mollnowg
Words 1164
Pages 5
Greg Mollnow Professor Gray
Homefront HI 1311

Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century

War and peacetime are losing meaning in today’s society. Most of the time, the standing army is active in some way. This is due to the U.S. involvement in foreign affairs. Fort Bragg just outside of Fayetteville, NC is a great example of this. What used to be peacetime is now time to prepare for the next war. This leaves distinction between the two almost impossible for the people in Fayetteville, who generally see war games played out sometimes involving the city. Due to this and the non-violence of the Cold War, civilians find it impossible to find distinctions between war and peace. Lutz explains in her narrative how our society is losing the time between wars once called peacetime. Now a days this time is used to prepare for the next war, as in war games, training and military exercises. These all put a major strain on society, especially ones that become involved with the war games, etc. This was apparent in Exercise Flash Burn. Here Fort Bragg was running a war game to practice for nuclear war. On maps used for the games, neighboring Fayetteville was dubbed “Pineland”. The local newspaper would cover these games generally in the “style of Reader’s Digest, ‘Humor in Uniform’: Soldiers participating in the games had mishaps as they bellied up to snakes in the woods or were bested by pickpockets on their bus trip in. And some featured a sporty rooting for the home boys against the ‘Aggressor Forces’” (page 88). This shows the interaction between the civilians and the soldiers during what is supposed to be peacetime. So what was once known to be a time between wars of peace and tranquility is now known to only practice for war and to prepare for what can come. This interferes with civilian life. The new type of warfare

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