Just curious. I DO NOT want to start another debate on the whys and wherefores and so on of the stuff happening in Iraq.
I speak as one whose country has a military that is underfunded by legendary proportions (I’ve heard that the West Edmonton Mall has more submarines than the military, for example) and we’re not big fighters anyway.
My sister dated a guy who was in the reserves. Other than that I do not know anyone in the military. Nor do I know anyone (in Canada) who has told me that they know anyone in the military.
On these boards, I get the impression that quite a lot of Americans are close to troops in Iraq. Is this true? Do you have family members, friends, aquaintances, friends-of-friends etc in the military?
I guess this question can be open to anyone but I am particularly concerned about our neighbours to the south, as it is their mindset that I’m really interested in.
I know several people that are reservists and have known many more who were in the armed forces. Its considered an honorable profession -and the Marines have special recognition- and many people who don’t have a lot of education enlist, learn a lot and how much they can achieve, and then go to college. That’s where I met a lot of them.
Its a job, you are a citizen, and you do it to protect the country.
I don’t know any soldiers who are currently serving, but among my circle of friends I know 5 Gulf War (I) veterans, and one guy who served in Serbia.
You meet quite a few people who go into the army, do their time, leave and go on to do something else. For people who can’t afford to pay for college otherwise it is a very attractive option (the government offers soldiers money to pay for college education).
I know one person - a rabbi in the reserves - who was activated and is serving in Iraq now. I believe that he’s also the senior chaplain in the theatre.
II was in Iraq for two months this summer for work. I became friendly with some military people while I was there. I go back on Monday and I hope to run in to some of them again.
Well, we may not know each other personally, but I’m one Canadian who has known or met a number of our soldiers:
– In my high school, there was a group of guys who were reservists.
– One of my high school buddies joined the Canadian Forces full-time (air branch).
– One of my current buddies spent ten years in the Forces. He was on a few UN peacekeeping missions, although to hear him tell it, they weren’t very peaceful.
– Most recently, I met a few of our Canadian soldiers who were in Afghanistan. It was quite by chance; I happened to be in a Halifax bar that they wandered into pretty much as soon as they returned to Canada.
I will agree that as smiling bandit points out, military service in the United States is seen as an honorable profession, or at least as a respectable alternative to work or school. My American-born wife (who was seriously considering joining up with the US Air Force at one time) backs this up. We don’t have this attitude in Canada, where joining the military seems to be often seen as a last resort, or worse.
My friend Frank just came back from 2 years in Korea. Now he’s going to Ft. Campbell in KY. to join 101st Air Assault and most likely will end up in Iraq in a few months.
My co-worker’s husband is a combat engineer in the Army Reserves. He was in Kuwait and Iraq, but he came home in mid-July. He joined the Reserves to pay off student loans. Most of the people I know who have joined the military have done so primarily to pay for school or further their education. As Hello Again pointed out, many people see military service as a good way to pay for college and broaden your horizons. Hell, that’s why my father joined the Navy in the 1950s.
The son of a good friend of my father was shot to death while trying to get a coke at a machine in Baghdad. Another family-related friend is/was stationed on a ship offshore. Other than that, most of my friends who have served are now discharged or retired.
I know a co-worker who’s in Iraq. Actually, he was supposed to have been back by now so we’d have an excuse to go to lunch, but it seems his return has been delayed…
My husband has been retired from the Navy for a little over a year, so we have a number of friends on ships over there.
I also have a nephew who is in the Marines. I can never remember his division or whatever it’s called – the terminology is so different from the Navy-talk I’m used to. I know he’s with one of the Marine Expeditionary units – either the First or the Third. They’re huge, of course, and I can never remember the way it breaks down into smaller units. And I can’t remember his job, either – I just know he’s infantry and it’s his job to pack around a real big gun. And he’s been pretty much in the front lines since before the war started.
He was the type of kid you’d never expect to go into the military – just a skinny, goofy, sweet natured kid who loved computer and board games. We have a military history in our family – my dad (Kyle’s grandad) did 20 years in the Navy, I did 6 years, my brother has done 22… Also, my husband (Kyle’s uncle by marriage) did 26). But we were still surprised when Kyle joined up… He said he wasn’t interested in going to college just yet, but didn’t want to just work some piddly job and live in his parent’s basement either. So we all, frankly, viewed his choice as a pragmatic one rather than an idealistic one. At least until he sent my dad a letter a couple of months ago – around the middle of the war. In the letter he mentioned that he had had a lot to learn to become a Marine and much of it hadn’t come easy to him – he’d never even held a firearm in his hands before Boot Camp, for instance, and the neatness and physical discipline so integral to most Marines didn’t come to him naturally. However, he assured my dad, nobody had to teach him about personal integrity, courage, and love-of-country – those attributes he learned from his old Grandad, Chief Warrant Officer Bill James. So, obviously there was some idealism there after all. And I’ll leave you all to guess how much my daddy treasures that letter.