For Future Warriors
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 8:10 am
I don't know if sharing this email is a good inspiration or not, but here it is. It is intended to be read at an appropriate age by the current crop of young'uns. I'd just like to share it with some of you. Feel free to disagree if you wish.
Memorial Day 5/27/13
To any and all nieces and nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews, cousins and relatives by blood or marriage:
There are a variety of valid reasons for joining the military: a sense of patriotism, adventure, training in various skills, assistance with future college costs, need for a job etc.
However other factors need to be carefully weighed before deciding to join. If you join during a period of active fighting, your life will be dependent not only on the conditions of combat in which you find yourself, but also on the good sense and judgement of your leaders. Good sense and good judgement are not always available. Some of the more dangerous situations develop when your leaders hold their ambition to be of greater importance than prudence. From George Custer to Hill 875 in Vietnam, many of our fellow citizens die uselessly, needlessly. Needless deaths are the mortal sin of military culture and these sins abound.
It was personally frustrating to me to watch some of the situations in the Afghanistan war because I saw mistakes being made that we had learned to avoid years before in Vietnam. The lessons of war are often not passed on to the next generation. The result is that people die needlessly. Just one example: not long ago a platoon in Afghanistan built a small base in a very narrow valley. At the bottom of the surrounding mountains. Inevitably the enemy attacked from the high ground and nearly overran the base. Good men died because officers failed to apply the most fundamental tactical precept i.e. hold the high ground. I understand that the platoon leader, company and battalion COs were all relieved. But higher ranking careers should have been terminated as well. In every tactical operation center was a map showing the deadly location of that platoon. Colonels and Generals saw those maps and thought........evidently nothing.
The wounds of war tend to be traumatic whether physically or psychically. This has been true of all wars throughout history. With modern explosives brains are shattered, multiple limbs are lost yet more of the wounded will live out their lives due to the skills of our trauma surgeons.
On foreign shores you will be exposed to bacteria and diseases that your immune system will be unable to handle. Of the 600,000 casualties in the American Civil War, more than half died of infections and disease such as dysentery. Vaccines prevent many of the big dangers but there are a host of things - parasites, strange bugs, and bizarre viruses which the medical staff will do their best to resolve with varying levels of success. The effects may be with you for years. [I acquired a fungus on my arm which took decades to get rid of. I had a form of hepatitis unknown to good doctors. They made their guesses and that is all they could do. Took more than a year to recover.]
A word about post traumatic stress syndrome. If you experience extended ground combat you will experience PTSD to some degree. It is impossible to avoid. When you see a fellow soldier who is gone in an instant, one moment talking maybe smiling and in a flash is a lifeless body you will be affected regardless of your outward demeanor. As long as there has been warfare (all of human history) there has been PTSD. After the American Civil war people did not have the words PTSD, but they used words which were astute: Soldier's Heart.
Never, ever, believe you will see combat in a war zone and then leave unaffected.
Political leaders will speak to veterans of "a grateful nation." Yes, there are many of our fellow citizens who are grateful for our military service even perhaps some politicians. Gratitude is a fine sentiment when genuine. But know this, if you wish to make a career of the military learn the meaning of the acronym RIF. Your recruiter will not speak of it. After every war there is a great Reduction In Force. Tens of thousands of excellent soldiers, sailors, and airmen will be dismissed from the service to achieve cost reductions. Sometimes they are just a few years from retirement. This is happening even as I type these words.
If you want to make a career as an officer your best bet is to attend a service academy such as West Point if you can handle its demands. This will save you from a RIF if you are a decent officer. If you received your commission through college ROTC or OCS you best have outstanding performance ratings.
I received orders to attend the Armor Officer's Career Course at Ft. Knox. Upon completion of the course I would have received promotion to Major. This forced me to make a decision, to stay in the Army and attend the course or not. I opted out and realized not many years later I had made the right decision as a huge RIF went into effect which almost certainly would have caught me.
Currently our badly wounded vets, after excellent initial treatment, are waiting more than a year to have their cases processed by the Veteran's Administration. They cannot receive the important financial and other support they need until processing. This is disgusting to me. If the nation, in its leaders, is grateful for their sacrifice then our wounded veterans deserve the very best service our country can provide them. If you were to become gravely wounded decades from now, how would you be treated by "a grateful nation?" I don't know. But you need to find out.
If the day arrives when you are considering a military career, think it through very carefully.
Memorial Day 5/27/13
To any and all nieces and nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews, cousins and relatives by blood or marriage:
There are a variety of valid reasons for joining the military: a sense of patriotism, adventure, training in various skills, assistance with future college costs, need for a job etc.
However other factors need to be carefully weighed before deciding to join. If you join during a period of active fighting, your life will be dependent not only on the conditions of combat in which you find yourself, but also on the good sense and judgement of your leaders. Good sense and good judgement are not always available. Some of the more dangerous situations develop when your leaders hold their ambition to be of greater importance than prudence. From George Custer to Hill 875 in Vietnam, many of our fellow citizens die uselessly, needlessly. Needless deaths are the mortal sin of military culture and these sins abound.
It was personally frustrating to me to watch some of the situations in the Afghanistan war because I saw mistakes being made that we had learned to avoid years before in Vietnam. The lessons of war are often not passed on to the next generation. The result is that people die needlessly. Just one example: not long ago a platoon in Afghanistan built a small base in a very narrow valley. At the bottom of the surrounding mountains. Inevitably the enemy attacked from the high ground and nearly overran the base. Good men died because officers failed to apply the most fundamental tactical precept i.e. hold the high ground. I understand that the platoon leader, company and battalion COs were all relieved. But higher ranking careers should have been terminated as well. In every tactical operation center was a map showing the deadly location of that platoon. Colonels and Generals saw those maps and thought........evidently nothing.
The wounds of war tend to be traumatic whether physically or psychically. This has been true of all wars throughout history. With modern explosives brains are shattered, multiple limbs are lost yet more of the wounded will live out their lives due to the skills of our trauma surgeons.
On foreign shores you will be exposed to bacteria and diseases that your immune system will be unable to handle. Of the 600,000 casualties in the American Civil War, more than half died of infections and disease such as dysentery. Vaccines prevent many of the big dangers but there are a host of things - parasites, strange bugs, and bizarre viruses which the medical staff will do their best to resolve with varying levels of success. The effects may be with you for years. [I acquired a fungus on my arm which took decades to get rid of. I had a form of hepatitis unknown to good doctors. They made their guesses and that is all they could do. Took more than a year to recover.]
A word about post traumatic stress syndrome. If you experience extended ground combat you will experience PTSD to some degree. It is impossible to avoid. When you see a fellow soldier who is gone in an instant, one moment talking maybe smiling and in a flash is a lifeless body you will be affected regardless of your outward demeanor. As long as there has been warfare (all of human history) there has been PTSD. After the American Civil war people did not have the words PTSD, but they used words which were astute: Soldier's Heart.
Never, ever, believe you will see combat in a war zone and then leave unaffected.
Political leaders will speak to veterans of "a grateful nation." Yes, there are many of our fellow citizens who are grateful for our military service even perhaps some politicians. Gratitude is a fine sentiment when genuine. But know this, if you wish to make a career of the military learn the meaning of the acronym RIF. Your recruiter will not speak of it. After every war there is a great Reduction In Force. Tens of thousands of excellent soldiers, sailors, and airmen will be dismissed from the service to achieve cost reductions. Sometimes they are just a few years from retirement. This is happening even as I type these words.
If you want to make a career as an officer your best bet is to attend a service academy such as West Point if you can handle its demands. This will save you from a RIF if you are a decent officer. If you received your commission through college ROTC or OCS you best have outstanding performance ratings.
I received orders to attend the Armor Officer's Career Course at Ft. Knox. Upon completion of the course I would have received promotion to Major. This forced me to make a decision, to stay in the Army and attend the course or not. I opted out and realized not many years later I had made the right decision as a huge RIF went into effect which almost certainly would have caught me.
Currently our badly wounded vets, after excellent initial treatment, are waiting more than a year to have their cases processed by the Veteran's Administration. They cannot receive the important financial and other support they need until processing. This is disgusting to me. If the nation, in its leaders, is grateful for their sacrifice then our wounded veterans deserve the very best service our country can provide them. If you were to become gravely wounded decades from now, how would you be treated by "a grateful nation?" I don't know. But you need to find out.
If the day arrives when you are considering a military career, think it through very carefully.
Probably turn Ft. Knox into an internment camp then?? 
