"The Finest Young Men You'll Ever Know"

Tired as hell...we slumped in our hard plastic seats...some trying to close their eyes for a few minutes under the harsh fluorescent light glare. Two hundred eighteen and nineteen year old kids. It was in the early hours of the morning and we'd been marching around in shabby formation in the several hours since arriving at Fort Benning. It was our first day in the Army. We were nervous and tired. Most had been awake for over twenty-four hours. The last thing we wanted was yet another "Welcome to the Army" talk in a lecture hall on more rules and regulations. But that's exactly what we got.

Some Major who was in charge of training schedules came bounding out on stage and went on about this and that. One of the few things I remember was one of his closing remarks about how all the guys around us would be remembered as "Some of the finest young men you'll ever know."

There were some derisive snorts...a few groans at what sounded so cornball at the time.

It took some years and some real experience to make me feel sorry I scoffed that night. (A lot of years, actually since I realize right to this day and will continue to do so. Damn...next month it will have been twenty years since that night. Twenty years! I'm getting old)

Going into the service was quite the culture shock...but I can also say honestly that coming out and going into the university world and later the civilian workforce was equally the shocker.

It's not easy transitioning from being a tool of politicians to a victim of office politics. One is important and the other is almost unbelievably petty by contrast.

There's a certain comfort in knowing that you can trust everyone around you...that your people will do anything for you...that everyone has a sense of duty to pull their own weight and do their jobs to the best of their ability. They are proud to be a member of the team and can't stand the idea of letting their comrades down.

And it's more than pride. At the risk of sounding cornball myself...it's love. How else can one explain things like kids only a year or two out of high school volunteering for dangerous missions so that the older, married guys with kids (guys with more to lose should they die) can stay back and stay safe?

Juxtapose that with the pettiness that can pervade the allegedly adult workplace (or even the blogosphere?) and I can say...at the risk of sounding like an ass...that most people I've encountered in the last twelve years just do not measure up. It's not easy to adjust to an atmosphere in which your coworkers will quite literally lay down their life for you to one in which people steal credit for your ideas and deflect any and all blame for their own shortcomings and mistakes (which is the annoyance that inspired this post...ahem).

This is probably why I haven't made any close friendships in the workplace (and only a few when in college). I think I hold people to this arbitrary standard of mine. Yet...it's a two way street. I feel like no matter how low I set the bar...too many people would fail to be able to reach it.

Maybe it sounds anachronistic to talk about things like having a sense of duty and of personal honor (although...on that other site...the word honor is tossed around a lot...and I suspect few people really grasp it and fewer really abide by a code)...but I like to think that they haven't totally disappeared.

I know some people still carry on this way. I know. I remember them.

Hearts and Minds

How often do you hear people say "Support the Troops!" with almost pious tones?

Have you ever wondered exactly what it is they do to show support?

I came across this post on Alt:

"Tomorrow (Dec. 1), I'll be at the MOA (Mall of America) to participate in the Largest Yellow Ribbon event at 2pm.
An 80ft. crane will take a picture of everyone in a ribbon formation and will send it to the troops overseas for support.
Hopefully it will be fun and the snow and ice won't keep people away. "

Sigh. Heart in the right place, mind in the wrong one.

At first...the silly, naive soft-headedness of this post made me angry. Much in the same way that seeing yellow ribbon bumper magnets on SUV's infuriates me (yeah, magnets, they don't even have the commitment for a sticker).

A photo of you by a ribbon? Really? And this will make the kid with the ulcers from worry...the exhausted kid...the scared kid....feel better...how? He went overseas to a war zone and he's going to feel better about his mission because you went to a mall?

Fucking stupid.

I got control of myself though...and didn't tear into this blogger. After all, their heart is in the right place. They just need direction and knowledge. And some common sense.

This is one reason I try to educate people. Folks obviously want to do something...they just don't know what to do. And all too goddamned often they wind up with platitudes and meaningless actions (fucking flag pins and magnets and nonsense like the above blog post)...and feel they've done something. People with the will, the desire and the means to show genuine support wind up wasting their time on some real silly shit. Then they feel like they've somehow accomplished something and the need and desire to help is alleviated. And a chance to really do something useful is lost.

I'd rather people send care packages of useful items. I want people to remain informed about veteran's issues so that when these kids come home they'll be well taken care of. I want people to take direct action if they honestly want to show support. Write to politicians, monitor military related legislation. Force the fucking suits to keep their promises to kids who take on a hard life to do things other people can not or will not.

Direct action.

Maybe I'll finish writing on this in another post. I can't decide whether I'm sad, angry, disgusted or frustrated right now.