Killing 649 Argentines in 72 days, the conflict in Malvinas is a polemic topic that has brought through the years different arguments both for and against it. For most people, the idea of fighting in a war is unbearable. However, Ronnie Quinn, a Malvinas veteran, shared his views on it from the perspective of someone who was completely involved in the issue, and sees the conflict in a quite different way from what most of us would if we had taken part of the battle.
Quinn is an Irish descendant born in Buenos Aires. His grandparents arrived in our country during the second half of the XIX century. When he was eighteen, he was obliged to be part of the military conscription. For those who do not know, in Argentina people who do the military service are chosen by a raffle with their DNI. Quinn had to serve in the ground service. As he was not a talented soldier, he had to stay a long time in the service. A year after he started the conscription, on April 2nd 1982, he was informed that the country had invaded the Malvinas. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to fight in that war, but his mother told him that it was his duty as an Argentinian citizen to serve his country. Now, when he reflects upon it, he explains that, although he would not want for anything in the world for his children to be part of a conflict, Quinn says that if they are called to fight for their nation, he would encourage them to do so, just as his mother did with him.
“Nothing can be solved by something like so dramatic like a war”.
During the war, Quinn was in the area of communications, which was a difficult task since England had the technology to leave the Argentinian army with very little communication. Life was harsh. He had the opportunity to shower twice in the entire war, and lost 20 kg in those months. Fortunately, as he described, it was not a cold winter. Quinn explained that the three weeks that he was taken as a prisoner were the best days of the war, as he ate a lot of food that he didn’t have access to before because it was in the airport.
After the armed conflict, and with help of a teacher, Quinn decided to write a book, retelling his experience. “The Odd Privilege”, as it is called, is a compilation of what he lived, combined with things he made up and exaggerated to make the book more interesting. He explained that the name of the book is due to what he feels regarding the war. Quinn feels honored to have been selected to serve his country, even in something so terrible as a war.
Quinn said that the battle taught him to appreciate every single thing that he gave for granted, because all of a sudden it could be gone. He added that after the event he understood that “Nothing can be solved by something like so dramatic like a war”.
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