Research Blog 4

  I received an email from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs today about a(n) inquiry I made about Retired Army Sergent Juan Arrendondo. The basis of the email was to inform me that my inquiry about Mr. Arrendondo’s email/contact information was declined. A  section of the letter read,

 

“Due to Privacy Act laws we can’t give you the Veteran’s private information, such as an address or phone number. However, you can send us two letters. One for Mr. Arredondo – with your contact information, and one requesting we forward the letter to him. If we have his address we will forward the letter to him. We will read your letter addressed to the Veteran before forwarding it to him. Please include as much information about Mr. Arredondo as you can, such as date of birth, and branch of service, and dates he was in the military to allow us to properly identify the Veteran.”

 

    Since I could not receive his information via the V.A, I am going to follow the instructions that I was given in the above Sergent and send two letters to the V.A. One letter will be for Mr. Arrendondo directly, and another will be for the individuals at the V.A requesting that they foreword the first letter along with my interview questions to Mr. Arrendondo. In the mean time I plan on trying to contact Mr. Dean Kamen for my interview inquiry, and doing the best I can to finish my research on both men, and my subject choice.

Research Reflection Blog 3

 

    I recently was interview be Mrs. Hammilton about my Netvbies page, and it seems that my group and I have pulled ahead of the class with our Netvibes pages. Along with the required elements such as the Gale and Global Issues in Context widgets, we all have added our own personal items to it so that we can better display our research findings. I myself have added 2 new tabs, one being images of past and present wars, and the other being informational videos about my topic. However, that is not the only reason that we have pulled ahead. Netvibes makes it so easy to add and edit content on the pages we create, and being so I have really started to think about what I am going to display on my page dealing with my research. We have also gotten about half-way through our books, my groups being Flags of Our Fathers, and so far this book has become some-what of a personal experience for me because of the subject of the book. I have to say that I really am looking forward to how this book is going to end.

Research Blog 1

We were introduced to Evernote, and reintroduced to Diggo earlier this week/past week. I can say so-far from a personal perspective that I am enjoying Evernote’s highlight and click way of adding note to your profile much more than the old way with Diggo. So far I have found two individuals that have really peaked my interest one being the founder of the DEKA corporation, Dean Kamen, and another being the first man to ever receive a bionic hand, Retired Army Sergent Juan Arrendondo. I have notated two articles for each individual already, and one segment that features Mr. Kamen. We are also close to being introduced to a website generator called Netvibes, and we are told that it is like Google Sites but with a much more simpler way of adding content. I am looking forward to this new site, and hope that it really is as simple as it seems.

Reader Reflection 5: Flags of Our Fathers

    ” They were boys of common virtue.

Called to Duty.

Brothers and Sons. Friends and Neighbors.

And Fathers

 

It’s as simple as that.”

 

 

    This passage speaks for itself. It not only describes the soldiers of wars past, but also the soldiers of the present war, and wars to come. It can be connected to All Quiet on the Western Front, and just about any war-novel in any conuntry. It describes the men of battle (Unfortunally women were not allowed in service yet) of that time, and what they were brought to preform, and what they were taken away from. Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, wives, and sweethearts all left at home to wonder if they will ever see them again. Reading this passage about brought me to tears thinking of what generations of my family have done in the military, and what I plan to do when I graduate college. And as the passage reads, “It’s as simple as that”, there is no other way of correctly describing the individuals that have fought, that are fighting, and that will fight along side their fellow country men and women for the freedoms of their country. Reading this book has been a personal experience to say the least, and I am more than happy that I was assigned it.

 

Reader Response 4: Flags of Our Fathers

“The Shot got him from behind. As the boys around him dove to the ground, Franklin swatted absently at his back, as though brushing away a fly. Then he fell. Someone shouted to him, “How ya doin’?” and Franklin answered back, “Not bad. I don’t feel anything.” And then he died.” (Bradley, Chapter 13, page 245)

This scene when I first read it sounded eerily similar to when Pauk died in All Quiet on the Western Front. The only major contrast that made this scene differnet was the fact that Franklin was shot in the company of his comrades, and was alive for a few brief moments, where-as Paul was killed alone in no mans land, and was seemingly killed instantly. This struck me as a reoccuring theme among the two books as-well-as war itself, where soldiers are killed/injured at any second, and from any which direction, and without their commrades knowing. This event I believe will be a reoccuring factor among some of the soldiers that return home, and will be something that will affect them mentally.

Research Reflection Blog 2

        Today as I reviewed the blogs of two of my peers researching the same topic as I, I came across a comment made on one of their blogs that involved an individual by the name of Tony. This man from what I read was very interested in helping my peer (As well as the others) out with links loaded with information on his career field which happened to be the exact topic that my peers and I are working on (The Work being put toward prosthetics for wounded veterans). As “poof” of his creditability he left the department name for which he worked, “The Advanced Prosthetics & Human Performance Center”, and a critical piece of information that made this source even more credible. That being that he worked for the “U.S Army’s Medical Research & Materiel Command”. Thanks to Tony’s incredible generosity we now have most of the information needed for our research. We are also pending a request form Tony to participate in a online video conference (via Skype) for us to ask research questions. Below I have provided the link to my peers site for review:

                                                                                         http://nolanwilliamson.wordpress.com/
 

Reader Response 3: Flags of Our Fathers

Quote Comparison: All Quiet on the Western Front to Flags of Our Fathers

“It wasn’t a matter of living or dying or fighting. It was a matter of helping your friends.”
-Corpsman Robert Degeus

This quote can be found at the begining of chapter ten in Flag of Our Fathers, and directly links to, I believe, the overall theme of brother-hood in All Quiet on the Western Front, and to how soldiers feel about their commrades in times of war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the main character Paul is “drawn” to his fellow soldiers by a bond that can only be explained as “brother-hood”. This bond is what keeps Paul, and his comrades fighting to survive this war in the hopes that one day they will return home together. This is very much apparent when Paul and Kat are emmited into the hospital together, and both keep each other from under-going surgery, and when they are being moved to another hospital how Paul makes it his priority to stay with Kat. However the theme of brother-hood can be found in the present wars as well. The “No man left behind” slogan is used most by the United States Marine Corps during training and times of warfare, symbolizing the bond that soldiers have toward one-another.

Flags of Our Fathers: Reader Response 2

Quote:

    

    “We had no idea if this was a bad battle or not. One of the guys yelled, ‘Hey Lundsford, is this a bad battle?’ Lundsford  shouted back, ‘Its’ a f*cking slaughter.’ Maybe two minutes later-Whoom!-we got hit with a mortar. I ducked and something dropped on my back and rolled off. It felt like a coconut or something. I looked down and saw that it was Lundsford’s head. Those were his last words: ‘A f*cking slaughter.'” (Bradley, chapter 7, page 159)

 

    This passage really took me by surprise. Not because of the detail but of the pure randomness/coincidence that was associated with it. To me this related back to All Quiet on the Western Front and how Paul saw so many of his own men die, to how he had seen all of the injured in his hospital stay. The fact that at any moment these men could be, and would be slaughtered by a mortar without the time to think back to their lives before the war, and to some-how avoid the mortar is something that I couldn’t comprehend. And as if having to write a letter home to your friends mother after he died is not bad enough, but having to look at your comrades head laying next to you after he was just talking to you almost made me close the book and stop reading. I couldn’t even begin to think of the emotions that would come up, and also finding the will to go on after experiencing it, it was just a terrible moment for me.

 

Text to Text Connection:

 

    The book in general has been lacking interest at some points, however the “mentality” of the book to me was summed up in the verse of a song I was listening to at the time I was reading it. The name of the song is : ‘Your Soul is Mine’ and it is by a band called: Mushroomhead.

    

    “Very many few can hear me, and if any to come near me. Nothing, everyone can barely, Find this truly quite contrary…I want to see, the light leave your eyes. Feeling your breath one last time, I want to see the light leave. …”

    

    To me the first part of this passage can connect to the “after-affects” of the war, and how normal citizens can not begin to comprehend how these soldiers feel, and what they are going through in their own minds. The second part to me expresses how “war” does not care who you are, if you have a family, or a house back home all it wants is for you to either kill for your purpose or be killed in the enemies’ fight for theirs’, and unfortunately most of the time “war” gets exactly what it asks for, blood, senseless violence, and murder all in the pursuit for what I think is power.

 

 Predictions:

 

    I am going to predict the answer to a problem or action that James’ dad “takes” when he returns home. I believe that even though his dad had become an “American Icon”, the horrors, and all the “murders” he witnessed through his journey to get their to him may had made the experience meaningless to him. I believe that James Bradley will hopefully find this out toward the end of the book and understand why his father “ignored” his fame in the first place.

 

 

Flags of Our Fathers: Reader Response 1

“Picking a Girl

Is like picking a flower from the garden

You only pick the best.

                                                                   Love,

                                                                              Franklin

 His last words to his sweetheart were: “When I come back I’ll be a hero”.”

         

      This passage shows us the reader that not only did these young men have something to fight for, but also had ample time before the war to “start” relationships with sweethearts. Also the men had families that supported them as they were drafted into the war. This of course contrasts the situation that Paul and his comrades were in during All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul and his classmates volunteered into service during World War I, in which they had not graduated school yet, and had not be able to experience “first love”. The boys were also “forced” in a sense to enlist because of their “elders” pressuring them into fighting for their country.

Why Libraries Rock!!

Why do Libraries Rock? \m/ (//_<) \m/ 

Libraries are just awesome because, much like the library at my school (Loving called the “Unquiet” Library), they provide a peaceful, serene location for students/ or the average individual to sit down and read. Our library stores volumes of accurate information, sometimes straight form the “source”, that anyone can easily find rather than consume long periods of time searching for it on the Internet . This large selection of information include: magazines, encyclopedias, Biographies, and a large collection of Fiction and non-fiction works.  Our “Unquiet Library” also has a high availability of computers, thus providing students with a place to go work on projects and assignments,  and is open to any and all students during lunch periods as-well-as the mornings too. The students of  Creekview also get great mini-lessons from  Mrs.  Hamilton like: Gmail use, Google Document use, Research techniques, Research sites, and more. The library also provides a “chill” area for students to come into the library converse with their friends, read, an work on class projects. In general the library is one of the more precious additions that the school has, and if they were cut, then the students would lose a wealth of information.