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2006-08-04 - 11:49 p.m.
So, you know, I grew up during the Viet Nam War. And my parents were pretty liberal, or at least indifferent. So I absorbed a lot of the antiwar sentiment. The music, the looking back at the generation just before us, well, half a generation or so. Or whatever, the war ended in 1975, I was 18 in 1979. So anybody four or more years older than me could have been drafted and served.
But like many relatively poor inner-city kids without much of a future I attempted to join the Navy in 1984 or so. Went through the whole recruitment process. They wouldn't have me for health reasons.
I kind of regret not getting in. I actually think I might have done well in the military. Which is odd, because the stereotype of military people is practically the antithesis of the kind of person I am. Or maybe not.
I wanted training. The navy has a renowned "school" for photography. But, according to my ASVAB, I'd probably end up a lavatory sanitation engineer on a combat support ship.
'Course the Navy and the Air Force are two entirely different sort of services in terms of warfare. Yes, crews on ships and aircraft, and their associated bases are certainly exposed to dangerous and difficult situations, but unless we're in an all out war, it different by degrees of magnitude from what Marines and Army infantry face on the ground.
Neverless, serving with other men in the military or a paramilitary organization has a certain appeal for me.
Uh, and no, it's not looking at other guys' hairy butts in the shower. I'll leave that to them what likes that kinda stuff.
Really it's about esprit de corps. It's about working in a team in life or death situation, or at least a situation that means something.
There's something about being on a team, and I absolutely do NOT mean a sports team, that brings out the best of you. Energy, strength, skill, courage. All of those things are amplified in you when people around you depend on you, for their very lives.
You gain such a sense of worth about yourself. And there's a feeling of love for your comrades as well. And trust, and being trusted.
I've only ever experienced this on a very low level, but enough to feel it, and extrapolate. Literature and film is full of people who have felt this at the highest levels in wars and disasters and attempt to get it across to those who haven't. If you have felt it, even a little bit, you can imagine what the full on experience must be like. And find yourself in awe and admiration.
In exchange for that esprit de corps, and that membership in that group you ultimately must pay a price. It comes at a great expense. Physical and emotional wounds that may or may not eventually heal, and the ultimate price, you life.
I don't think that price is too much to pay, if it's legitimate. The problem is legitimacy. The group I think that has the best chance of having the legitimacy to back their play so their member can at least have the moral highground to bolster their recovery is the worlds firefighters.
I don't think I have to mention the moral pitfalls of the other groups, do I?
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So, how do you like them apples?