Skynyrd, Whiskey, Cigars, and War
Soundtrack of the Russo-Ukraine War
“Now I’ll tell you plainly, baby, what I plan to do. Say, I may be crazy, woman, but I ain’t no fool.” Lyrics from “I Ain’t the One” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
War has its own noise and consequently its own music. Yea, there’s a soundtrack for war. Each individual has their own, of course. We all turn to our soundtracks for comfort, nostalgia or just to forget. Soldiers might use their own when they go on attack as motivation. This thought came to me as I sat on my balcony in Kyiv, drinking whiskey, smoking a cigar, listening to the above song as the air raid siren started blaring. First, I will give you a little back story before I fill in the details of the above event.
The day was Tuesday, August 20, 2024, my day off. A few months ago, I had started communicating with a Ukrainian soldier on LinkedIn. Let’s call him M (I don’t reveal his name out of respect and privacy). M had served at the front for eight months. He’s a very intelligent man in his thirties who was educated in the US (a Virginia Public University). I am a graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, so we share a link to the Virginia system. M was demobilized after suffering four concussions and a pretty bad case of PTSD. He writes very honest posts on LinkedIn about the war and the situation in the country. That’s what impressed me…
