Your tour of duty is done...

[Steven]

it does irritate me however, to see so many (seemingly) angry voices crying out "this is not what I signed up for!!!" when in actuality, yes Johnny, this IS indeed exactly what you signed up for.

it was made clear to us at the vey beginning, that the military has the right to re-write your contract, and that you are in essence - government property.

We knew the drill. We were not drafted. We signed up. We were then introduced into our "general orders" - Dark, you remember this. SO do some of you who have recently come home from Iraq.

You are taught to pro-act under high stress as opposed to react. You are trained to defend, repel, assault and kill. You are never taught to just wound someone or appeal to their sense of scruples or social awareness. You are assigned weapons, and consistently upgrade those skills, and in many instances, are taught and assigned several weapons. You are taught how to set up and detonate explosives, and the lethal claymore that vaporizes everything with its billions of steel BB's flying thru the air like a death curtain moving forward. YOu are lined up and innoculated as the powers that be see fit. You are pushed into staying in prime physical condition and penalized when you cannot maintain this training. You drill constantly. You go on alert and move out to the field, constantly.

none of this, is so that you can have a college degree. Or get a loan to buy a house. Or save up enough money to put down on a farm.

those thigns might come to you as an end result of duty served - but the governments main interest is in utilizing you in warefare. YOu are part of the war machine. That is the only reason you are there. to fortify the machine. The machines fuel is the soldier. Not the political protester. Not the armchair philospher. Not the jaded musician or the passionate yet inexperienced student. And not the angry veteran either, although all of yrou voices are legitimite and deserve an audience.

the machine itself is a neccessary evil.

everyone who protests and curses our leadership and the military itself is able to do so without fear because of the very war machine and leadership that they curse.

Lime most of you I have mixed emotions on our present state of being in the middle east and elsewhere. But I'm also sympathetic to the soldiers on the line, and at the same time I'm concerned with the lack of patriotism and personal fortitude of those we are now drawing from generationaly in order to train to become soldiers. There definately IS a difference in the types of soldiers between the 70's and 80's, and in my generation versus the technologically advanced soldier of today. The types of stress are also different. Yet the machine itself never changes.

[Steven]

A volunteer force is far more affective than a conscripted force. Unity of purpose in an army is far more important than the weapons they carry or the training they receive.

I was 17 when I joined. I read and understood my contract. Then again, I joined because I felt it was my duty... not to pay for college. I'll say it again, if you don't want to fight in a war.. don't join the military. If you do join, don't bitch when your told you actually have to live up to your end of the deal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...loved this post.

I too was 17 when I enlisted.

Turned 18 in Boot Camp.

I also joined for personal reasons as opposed to potential material provision.

And I too - was told and understoo at the very beginning - that the final say so is that of the government - I was to be re-assigned at any opportunity that they saw fit.

None of this stuff is new. Re-assignment. Change of M.O.S. Tour extensions. All of it - its always been this way, nothing has changed except the technology and the value systems of the young men and women enlisting. There is no new enlightenment here. Nobody's pulling the wool over your eyes.

It costs to be a soldier.

[Steven]

If I get called back up, oh well. If I get called up after I am out of the Army, oh well. I don't believe in the theory of "Once a soldier, always a soldier."  I believe that this is a job that is never done until your dead.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thats what I meant by "once a soldier always a soldier". Your potential value to the machine is only truly over once your a depeleted resource.

its been 19 years since I walked away from the military. But I am far from a depleted resource. And I'd rather not ever get called back, nor is that a very realistic worry. Unless we were invaded at home. But if I was ever recalled, it would be my duty to respond with my best effort.

[Steven]

Unless they change the rules... they could draft you up to 45 years old

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

exactly.