# Dopers who have experienced war: What was your experience like? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 1, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-have-experienced-war-what-was-your-experience-like/815285 "2018-06-01T22:40:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-have-experienced-war-what-was-your-experience-like/815285/1 "2018-06-01T22:40:40Z")
Curious - from the perspective of a civilian who has never experienced war (and probably never will) - and also as a writer who would like to understand people’s experience of war, in order to add some “color” to fiction I’m writing: For Dopers here who have experienced war - and I mean, either as a soldier deployed to war, or a civilian who was in the immediate vicinity of hostilities - what was it like? (Please be as specific or general/vague as you’d like.) Especially want to understand what is going through people’s heads, what people find the easiest and hardest things to handle about such a war, how people behave differently in war vs. in peacetime, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-who-have-experienced-war-what-was-your-experience-like/815285/2 "2018-06-01T23:33:41Z")
I’m not a soldier, but this book is probably a good primer on it. > **[Amazon.com: What It Is Like to Go to War: 8601400435120: Marlantes, Karl: Books](https://www.amazon.com/What-Like-War-Karl-Marlantes/dp/B0071UEX8W)** > > Amazon.com: What It Is Like to Go to War: 8601400435120: Marlantes, Karl: Books