Is it just me or are others of the brotherhood getting angry? We weren’t angry, and no one asks us about our anger, but I feel a definite burn growing and I wonder if I am alone.
We get used an awful lot. Politicians love us when they are running for office, then they hate us when they are setting the budgets that fund the things put in place to give us some modicum of reward for what we did for our nation.
The media loves us when we are using the weapons of our craft, they show really cool pictures of night time bombings and day time dead matériel. That gets viewers to watch, that gets ratings. Those viewers sit forward in their seats and they eat that stuff up! They hate us when it’s time to show how our nation actually treats us when we come home. No, other than a few, very far in between, articles about the state of suicide, or the V.A. or the homelessness of vets, well, we’re pretty much ignored.
And those viewers, they don’t want to see that, they want to see their favorite Die Hard film made real on television.
And it’s those same viewers, too many of them, who are really angering me.
Now, it’s law that we don’t require mandatory service, we made that decision as a nation and I, for one, feel it led to a much better military. We had people who, for the most part, really wanted to be there. I support that in this, our democracy.
We didn’t have too many of those folks who should never, ever be there, if we did, drill sergeants and unit commanders weeded them out and sent them home or to a prison, depending on how things went for them.
So, yes, a lot of people chose not to serve their country. I understand that and I find it a good thing. what I don’t find a good thing is all those people thanking me for my service, it’s become rote, I don’t often feel it is sincere, it became the thing to do.
That’s new by the way, in the eighties I was walked up to by a white man, about fifty five, while I was in uniform in a public place. I was told, loudly and with a vicious, snide tone “Soldier huh? You’re all fucking leeches on our country, get a real job!”
And you use us, we, collectively, are used to make erroneous arguments, we are used, or rather, sympathy with us is used to “Prove” the patriotism and love of country of people who aren’t being asked if they love their country- but who, for some reason, feel a need to show that they do.
The militias use us, saying they fight in our name, saying they fight in the name of those still on active duty.
I’m getting angry again, I have to slow my fingers down.
None of you asked me my opinion while I was serving. I can’t for the life of me see an organization as diverse as our military being of one opinion on anything. I do remember all of us putting our ideologies aside to get a necessary job done.
One thing that just screams through my brain as I see these politicians wanting more of our people to die in wars that make no damned sense and people wearing OUR duty uniform, carrying civilian versions of my tools of the damn trade and calling themselves patriots-
Where the HELL were you?
Where were you in the Nam? were you beside my section chief in the eighties, the guy who taught me so much about war after one mandatory and two voluntary tours in Viet Nam, the guy with REAL PTSD who ended his military career because he hit a first sergeant in the face at Ft. Hood? You weren’t in my barracks, you didn’t see him slither down the stairs in camo with a bayonet in his mouth at 0300, going out in the rain to “Hunt the Cong” according to the C.Q. I was on duty with. They cashiered him in disgrace, PTSD wasn’t anything anyone wanted to admit to back then. I often wonder how his life went after that.
And where were you when one of my friends, you know, stationed so far away from home, a little awkward, he was so young, so proud to serve, and so unhappy. He took to drinking, one night, he figured he could jump, drunk, from one window of the barracks to another.
Senseless, and so, so common. Marriages, do you know how many I’ve seen go bad because we served, do you have any idea of how hard those separations were on all of the people? I know you see the maimed and the wounded, how can we not, but do you ever see the rest of it?
Where were you? Korea? Europe? Iraq or Afghanistan? Panama or Ft. Myers? Where were you?
it’s a question I ask when some people talk about their patriotism.
The first time I left service, yeah, I re-upped after awhile, an older sergeant getting out at the same time as I was at Ft. Dix looked at me and grinned, told me with a shrug. “Good luck man, that uniform and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee in any restaurant in the country.” And we all knew that was just the way it was, we didn’t expect anything more.
I’ve been told by a co worker “You guys are fuckin’ stupid for going to serve this country, it isn’t worth it. I stayed home and took care of what’s important, me!” I’ve spent the years since I left service working for supervisors who are supervisors because they did the same thing. And it rankles.
And then the absolute hardest for me to take.
“Fuck all of them, all of them! I think we should just invade and bomb anyone who gets in our way!” I asked my colleague “Hey, did you serve?” He replied with a shrug “No, that wasn’t my thing, I had other plans for my life, kind of wish I had… ” I couldn’t stop myself, I told him. “Then shut the fuck up!”
And that is what is angering me, this idea that those folks who didn’t risk it, and let me be clear, since the voluntary enlistment laws came into effect, we have all, every one of us, accepted that we were shouldering the risk that being a soldier for this nation brings with it- if you didn’t risk it, shut the fuck up!
Politicians that didn’t serve, worse, gamed the system so they wouldn’t have to, man- your penchant for wars that you would not fight in is angering me! The same with those of you who lean so far forward in your chair to watch the nightly battle entertainments on Fox, I feel the same about you.
You could have risked it, you didn’t, watch movies, stop sending our men and women to die for no reason!
The militia men, well, those that served, you’re breaking your oath! And those of you that didn’t, all I have to say is that if you want to face the might of our soldiers, if you really want to have a showdown against your own sons, daughters, nephews and neighbors- I spit on you.
You can’t say you love us, then want to try and kill us. But hey, grab your AR or your Lapua and do, please, pick a regiment you don’t like and declare war.
You’ll get your wish.
Thank you for letting me rant, I don’t expect any tips, this is just something I had to get off of my chest.
A vet.
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