Recon Force: Lightning Strike by Charles Ryan. In the essay it talks about how the main character First Lieutenant John "Red" Parnell gets through issues by thinking of how it was before the war.

Essay by Just_Gettin_ByHigh School, 10th gradeA, January 2004

download word file, 6 pages 5.0

Downloaded 21 times

Recon Force: Lightning Strike by Charles Ryan - October 2003

First Lieutenant John "Red" Parnell was the leader of Blue Team under the Command of Lieutenant Colonel James Dunmore. Lt. Parnell's character is a strong leader type. He handles most of his issues through memories of how it was before the war. He started feeling nervous right before Operation Torch took place. "Parnell watched out the back of the lorry, the countryside solid grass now, hilly with scattered farmsteads and stone-marked fields containing stacks of peat bricks. There were herds of shaggy, blackfaced-sheep, too, their coats the color of oatmeal, and cows and horses, black as ink. He studied the horses, wondering if they had spirit. He didn't think so. They looked as fat and docile as the sheep. They wouldn't make a goddamned pimple on a decent mustang's ass. Still, the country was pretty enough, especially where the rose into foothill forest.

It reminded him some of the high meadows in the Pinos Altos Mountains of southeastern New Mexico." Memories can get you through the toughest of times and Parnell took advantage of it. Now on another mission, Parnell again starts to feel the pre-battle jitters, "Captain Archie Carr, Commanding officer of the Long Range Desert Group patrols T-1 and T-2, opened the big thermos and passed it to Parnell on his right , 'Here you go, gents,' he said. 'Have a plow of this. A welcome to the desert.' Red took a pull. The liquor was thick and smelled of cloves and had a hot sting to it. The New Zealanders called it Devil's Brew and told them it was made of Woods rum from their daily ration, lime juice, a can of sugared fruit, toothpaste powder, and chips of acacia bark." Parnell now befriending the LRDGers, has...