Comrades.

One usually associates the word comrade with a friend or companion. It originated from the Latin word camara, meaning, “chamber or room” and was adopted into French and Spanish meaning roommate. Whether in the physical or emotional sense, such as the close quarters one shares with a roommate or the emotional connection friends share, the word comrade may be linked to a closeness.
In Friends and Enemies O’Brien writes about two soldiers in his regiment that had sort of a “love-hate-relationship”.  It illustrates how a proximally physical closeness can develop into an friendship. For example, in Enemies O’Brien writes how the two, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen have a fist fight that escalates Jensen to paranoia. He states,

” One afternoon he began firing his weapon into the air, yelling Strunk’s name, just firing and yelling, and it didn’t stop until he’d rattled off an entire magazine of ammunition…
But that wasn’t the bizzare part.
Because late that same night he borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose.”

The chapter concludes with Jensen confronting Strunk, asking him if this act made them even.

What I believe is truly bizzare is the way in which this incident cause a bond between the two. As O’Brien writes in Friends,

“Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk did not become instant buddies, but they learned to trust each other. Over the next month they often teamed on ambushes. They covered each other on patrol, shared a fox hole, took turns pulling guard at night. In late August the made a pact that if one of htem should ever get totally f***** up- wheelchair wond- they other guy would automatically find a way to end it…”

Its ironic that two people, seemily mortal enemies, are able to become such close comrades. It does show how the etymology of the word links the old definition to the modern.