Another thing I don’t understand about people like you is how you go on about all the hardships and traumatic events the soldiers in Vietnam and Korea experienced, yet you seem to completely disregard the people whose countries were invaded and who saw their homes destroyed and families killed for rather pathetic reasons.
Partially bullshit.
If you’re married, you either get base housing or get paid to love off-base, and on top of that you get an allowance for food.
If you’re a junior enlisted man and choose to have children on your salary…well, I originally framed this more harshly, but let’s just say it’s obviously unwise.
I floated the idea on here a while ago that the military shouldn’t pay for dependents until a servicemember has completed a 4-year enlistment. I got a hell of a lot of shit for it, but I stand by it.
SenorBeef is right on target. My father was in the military from the late 50s through the early 80s. I’ve seen it come full circle, and find both extremes sickening.
Current active duty officer here. Prior enlisted. I’ve deployed to the desert 6 times in my career. Twice to Afghanistan. I’ve been deployed almost entirely in support roles and have never fired a weapon at another human being though I have been shot at and taken alot of cover from indirect fire. With those qualifiers out there now…
The military worship is out of control. I find it to be embarrassing when I’m in public and people thank ME for my service or buy me lunch if I’m in uniform etc… It’s not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, I do, but providing blanket accolades to a massive subset of the population, when the overwhelming majority of us go our entire career without ever being in harms way just feels icky. It also takes away from the guys who really put it on the line everyday walking patrols deep in the shit in Afghanistan or special operators accomplishing missions while truly putting their lives on the line.
Don’t lump us all together. Don’t put me in the same pile as the real studs just because I wear a uniform during lunch at Golden Corral. 90% of your military doesn’t put their lives in any more danger than a mall security guard and we know that when we come on duty. I get paid a great salary, have a great medical benefit and potentially a great DoD bankrupting pension coming ahead of me. If you want to praise or worship something praise the Actions of specific people. Don’t praise the uniform.
Hey, I’d just tell them what I tell my employees. If the company wanted you to have a family, there would have been one in that packet you got when you came to work here. Now quit whining and get to work.
As is obligatory in these threads, I must point out that the extent to which Vietnam veterans were “vilified” when returning home has, over the course of the years, been exaggerrated to an absolutely preposterous degree. It is interesting to note that many Vietnam veterans JOINED the peace movement upon returning home, a strange thing indeed if the people they were joining thought them murderers.
This is coming from someone who has never visited the US; my opinion is based on exposure to American media and plenty of contact with Americans, including a good friend whose husband has been deployed overseas many times:
It has always seemed fairly clear to me that “soldier worship”, as the OP puts it, is essentially propaganda (especially when it’s spun as “these guys protect your freedoms”). I think this reverence of soldiers is very important to a country whose position in the world partly depends on its ability and willingness to send its military all over the world with varying degrees of legitimacy. Few wars are popular nowadays, but the military and government can still benefit from the idea that everyone supports soldiers even if they don’t support the war.
It’s also just part of American culture. The most ridiculously expensive military in the world, together with the picture of American exceptionalism painted in schools, media, etc. leads to a culture where, for many Americans, their country’s ability to “kick (someone’s) ass” is a big part of what’s so great about it.
Someone explain to me why I should be anything other than disgusted at our military adventurism of the past decade, and I’ll consider being thankful to folk who chose to participate in those disasters.
Also, I am unfortunate that in my job I encounter a segment of veterans who have a sense of entitlement far greater than the other people our office serves. Servicemembers choose to enlist, knowing that there is a chance they would experience some horrible stuff. Of course, the vast majority of vets never came close to combat.
I don’t understand the mindset that someone merits a lifetime of preferential treatment simply because they served a minimum hitch. And the ones that astound me are the reservists and national guard members seeking sympathy over active duty. “Oh wait - you mean there was a chance I might have to do something for this pay and benefits other than give up a few weekends?”
I’m sure a great many veterans are fine folk. I know many of them. Some of them are assholes. I know some of them too. I don’t praise the uniform if I don’t know something about who is wearing it.
That’s seriously fucked up. War is hell, the quote sounds like some romantic fantasy of the glories of war. Death in war isn’t some honor to strive for, unless you’re a suicide bomber or kamikaze pilot.
I think the soldier worship started with 9/11. I don’t recall people fawning over the troops when they invaded Grenada during Reagan’s miserable foreign policy years. Starting with the Afghan war and continuing through Iraq, it became patriotically correct to publicly profess constant adulation of the troops and we’re all supposed to lick their combat boots. They aren’t fighting for our freedom, they’re on a fool’s errand. They would fight and die for us, and they deserve some respect for that, but right now they aren’t fighting for a noble cause by any means. Soldiering is a dangerous job, no doubt, and someone has to do it, but I don’t feel compelled to honor them any more than teachers, coal miners, electric linemen, or taco restaurant employees.
I really appreciate this post. It’s well written and honest.
Is it about the soldier that often? Isn’t it usually a political statement to themselves, who they are with or to whoever they will tell about they did - that they believe in ‘their country’ or they accept there really is a war on TERRAH!!, to validate their own experience or that of a family member, etc.
Yes that is a fair point, however because of that it seems like soldiers get a rather ridiculous amount of preferential treatment.
I kind of agree with this. My acquaintance from high school was in the Navy, but to him it was just kind of a job that would help him get money for schooling – and he liked working out so he figured the training would help him stay fit. He mostly spent his tenure parked outside Italy and as far as I could tell his job consisted primarily of posting on Facebook at 2AM (which is how he described it, not me). The most notable part of his career was when he ordered a Cookie Monster costume and paraded around Venice giving people hugs during his off hours.
Which is cool and all, but I ain’t buying him lunch for it.
IMO, until their employer starts treating them better pay wise, and health wise when they are injured o0n the job, I will not say they are getting preferential treatment.
Other dangerous jobs done on the public dime, the employees such as firemen, a lot of LEO’s etc., are not being treated nearly as bad as is the combat soldier. All jobs have those in a support role, it just kind of spills over.
Due you feel this way about those people? Do you think they should be able to say no as to when they do their job so it lines up with your political or personal slant?
While I was in the military many many years ago, I had friends & family that were / are very anti about anything to do with the politics of why the country was fighting over there or over that a way.
But not a one of them did not wish me to be safe & they worried about me.
I have many friends who are LEO’s & firemen & no way, under any circumstances would I say to them or any other of them that I don’t know personally, when they are recounting a particularly bad situation with, “What is the big deal about getting hurt or seeing a friend die, it is just business as usual because they knew it was dangerous in the first place.”
If you only act that way in cyber space, it is meaningless.
If you are willing and do it when it comes up in person, then I have no problem with it.
If not, then I’m not.
That was always my dad’s(USAF, 1969-1973) and grandfather’s(US Army, 1942-1945) opinion as well. Both were wartime vets, but neither ended up leaving the continental US, even if both were scheduled to deploy when the wars effectively ended.
Both take/took pride in their service, but never claim that they’re “veterans”; they just served in the military while a war was going on.
Interestingly enough, my other grandfather was a veteran of 25 B-17 missions over Germany in the Fall of 1943, and he never mentioned to anyone outside the family that he was even in the military unless someone asked him.
But you choose to go into those front line units - I’ve only known a few of those types but none of them did it for ideological reasons, they want the buzz, the kill, the Rambo/warrior thing, maybe the status.
None of them were remotely concerned about ‘protecting’ ‘the nation’ and all that bullshit.
I have a lot of respect for combat veterans-they put their lives on the line. But for some guy who was a mess sergeant for 12 years ? Just another ordinary job.
The lack of knowledge about the US Military seems to be a lot in this post.
You know how I became a Special Forces soldier? They gave me a green beret & said, “You are now in Special Forces.” I was not given a choice.
There are a lot of guys who were drafted who went to Vet Nam who can prove you wrong about how they got into combat.
Conscientious objector?
I’m not talking about that era. The Draft ended with Vietnam.
Now it’s a volunteer army supported by countless contractors.