Two Thousand Yard Starlings

That 2,000 yard starlings
Thomas C. Lea , 1944

Thousand-yard stare (also That 2,000-yard stare or Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare closely. Two thousand yard -Starren ) is the title of a painting of the war painter Thomas C. Lea , that this after 1944 to Peleliu Battle anfertigte. The picture shows the frontal portrait of a soldier after the battle, whose disillusioned and rigid gaze seems to penetrate the viewer.

After the picture became known through its publication in Life Magazine in 1944, the title of the painting (also abbreviated to Thousand Yard Stare ) became synonymous with the facial expression and unfocused gaze of a traumatized and exhausted soldier, who was seen as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) applies.

Image description and reception

The term became popular in 1944 when Life Magazine published a drawing by correspondent and artist Thomas C. Lea entitled "Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare". It shows a young soldier of the United States Marine Corps after the Battle of Peleliu in 1944. The drawing is now in the possession of the US Army Center of Military History at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC

“He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure? "

“He left the US 31 months ago. He was wounded during his first combat mission. He had tropical diseases. At night he only sleeps halfway and during the day he pulls the jacks out of the holes. Two thirds of his company are dead or wounded. This morning he will be back in combat. How much can a person withstand? "

- Thomas C. Lea

In his essay Painting It , first published in 1975 in WWII , James Jones described Lea's art before Peliu's series of pictures as excellently executed propaganda, but called the picture itself moving.

Concept history

The soldier on the left has what is referred to as a thousand-yard stare

Frank Johnston , Vietnam War photographer , used the term in a 2001 interview with Smithsonian Magazine .

“I looked up and saw a Marine with what they call the thousand-yard stare, and I lifted my Leica and snapped his picture. The soldier's gaze never left my lens. "

“I looked up to see a marine with the look they call a thousand-yard stare. I took my Leica camera and took a picture. The soldier's stare never left my lens. "

- Frank Johnston

The then Corporal Joe Houle recalls his arrival in Vietnam:

“The look in their eyes was like the life was sucked out of them. [...] After I lost my first friend, I felt it was best to be detached. "

“The look in their eyes looked like life had been sucked out of them. [...] After losing my first friend, I felt that it was best to be removed from the world. "

- Joe Houle

A picture of US soldier James Blake Miller after the Second Battle of Fallujah appeared on the front page of many newspapers. His gaze has often been interpreted as a thousand-yard stare .

literature

• Brendan M. Greeley (Ed.): The two thousand yard stare: Tom Lea's World War II / paintings, drawings, and eye-witness accounts by Tom Lea . Texas A&M University Press, College Station 2008, ISBN 1-603-44008-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Glenn R. Schiraldi: The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook . McGraw Hill, New York 2009, ISBN 007161494X , p. 215.
2. ↑ Tom Lea: Thousand-Yard Stare Military History Network, accessed May 7, 2008
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ James Jones: WWII . Grosset & Dunlap, 1975, ISBN 0448118963 , p. 113f. ( Published in German under the title In WWII .)
5. ↑ Brendan M. Greeley (Ed.): The two thousand yard stare. Texas A&M University Press, College Station 2008, pp. 7 and 200.
6. ↑ Pleasants, Angela M. (December 2001): The Thousand-Yard Stare , accessed May 7, 2008.
7. ↑ Stone, Sgt. Arthur L .: "Retired Sgt. Maj. Joe Houle recounts Vietnam tour," Marine Corps News. May 2, 2005