Veterans’ Day
the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. 1918. My dad’s grandfather had been a brand new Army Lieutenant for World War I. My great=grandmother would tell storis about how his instructors had released all of the new soldiers after they finished training to go home for some time (a week, maybe?) before they shipped off to Europe. Don’t go get married! Yeah, of his training unit, about 90% of them (including my great-grandfather) went back and got married.
My dad admired his grandfather so much, and it served as inspiration for my dad to scurry around to finish college so he could go to Vietnam and kill a Commie. He ended up on active duty for almost 25 years.
I tried to be like my dad. I didn’t know, and there probably wasn’t a way to know then, what the hell was going on with me, physically. After experiencing significant problems getting through the physical training, it became pretty clear pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to get a scholarship. I had other things going on in my life that were more interesting things to pursue, so I left. My newfound political perspectives then, too, made me more than a little wary.
As more’s finally come out about WWI, the people who pursued it look worse.
My mind was fucking blown by the stories that came out about how you’re not allowed to dive near Lusitania because of the scads of ordinance that’s deteriorating on the sea floor.
Much like why I’m more worried about conventional weapons if something cooked off between the Norks and someone nearby. Yeah, a nuke is fucking scary. But there’s also a pretty damn good chance it won’t work correctly. The metric tons of conventional ammo that are sitting north of the DMZ will mostly work. And you’ve probably got a million people dead in South Korea before the attack can be stopped.
The NeoHippy crowd are absolutely terrified of nuclear war, but say nothing about the conventional stuff that will (still) work.
Still, after WWI, all of the remaining troops came home. Post-WWII policy really doesn’t allow that to happen very often, unfortunately.
We were in Afghanistan for nearly twenty years. (I think we should probably have left after it was clear OBL wasn’t there anymore….or, definitely, after he was killed in 2012. Instead, we were there until the pols, eager for a new MISSION ACCOMPLISHED moment, screwed up the withdrawal that had been scheduled. Lots more mistakes, like abandoning the air base before everyone was out, but I still haven’t seen anything that says that the delay wasn’t for anything other than political posturing….)
Even with Vietnam, there were things floating around that led to things like The Mayaguez Incident.
Do what you need to do, and go home. War, much like pimpin’ ain’t easy, but it’s necessary.
Thinking about my wife’s commentary on this when it comes up every year — there’s a substantial portion of the US population who don’t even know anyone who served. My feed on the Ginger Dropout’s social networking site is full of people today showing their early career photos from the military.
My father-in-law was in the Navy for years.
Spending as much time as I did in Norfolk, there’s veterans all over.
Is that true in, say, an affluent Northeastern suburb? You know, the kind of place where people are all bent-out-of-shape that the student loan forgiveness whim probably isn’t going to hold up in court. Or, to go to the opposite end of the country, how many people who live in the San Fernando Valley actually know someone who enlisted?
Harry Bailey from It’s A Wonderful LIfe just doesn’t hold anything for many people today; a small, small segment of the population from certain areas go, and they’re really never home permanently.
I thank the people who served. I wish there more spread out among the population.
Are you calling for a draft, then? No, no I’m not. I doubt that even if there was one, many of the people drafted could pass required medical exams.
What would happen to Private Pyle today?
I’ve written enough for today. A bookmark on OD mentioned that it’s amazing that this is alreay a third of the way through. It is, I guess, but there’s still more to do.
As I as landing in Charlotte yesterday, during the descent, we were going through snow squalls. I’m ready for the cold weather.
And coffee. Which I’m going to go do now.