I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class . She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter . She wasn’t crying because it had been her dream for me to go there . She was crying because she knew how hard I’d worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer . I was going to get that opportunity.
That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you’re a smart guy . You don’t have to join the military . You should go to college, instead.
I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won’t.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years.
In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years.
Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
These are unbelievable statistics.
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse .
Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military.
Taxes did not increase to pay for the war . War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You’ve lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you’ll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don’t understand.
They don’t understand suffering.
They don’t understand sacrifice.
They don’t understand why we fight for them.
They don’t understand that bad people exist.
They look at you like you’re a machine – like something is wrong with you . You are the misguided one – not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can’t understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that . Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you’ve given up.
You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform . But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
Thank you to the 0.45% who have and continue to serve our Nation.
Yep. One of the things I have a hard time with are the people who don’t understand that these kids are doing it of their own free will. Several people in my office still don’t believe that there isn’t a draft, that the military forces poor kids to join for the duration.
Goosebumps.
And almost tears.
The US Military continue to be an amazing assembly of our best and brightest. We are truly blessed as a nation.
Thanks so much for passing this on!
Look at what a bunch of “uneducated” 18 to 40 year-olds accomplish everyday in the military:
• They operate and drive carriers, submarines, battleships, etc that are small floating cities unto themselves. They work in efficient harmony, constant danger, unending stress. . . and yet look at how many actively seek to re-enlist.
• They staff, maintain and operate Air Force bases all over the world that ARE small self-contained cities. The Wing Commander, usually in his late 30’s/early 40’s is the mayor or city manager, Base Commander as the mayor pro-tem, etc and the purpose of these cities is to maintain, operate and fly the most sophisticated aviation machines ever known to mankind and do so with a safety record that is unparalleled.
• Army bases/posts/forts have the manpower, hardware and artillery to virtually wipe any city in the world off the face of the map, and the infantry’s heart and soul is made up of young men still in their teens.
When is the last time anyone has seen that kind of cohesiveness, efficiency and unit-integrity in the private sector?
I sure as hell haven’t and after leaving the Air Force and earning my degree, I started at the bottom and retired from a corner office–and worked on both coasts and everywhere in the middle.
In the military, if you f’d up, someone got hurt. . . or worse. In the civilian business world, if you f-up, you generally get promoted because to punish you would invite a lawsuit and “wrongful termination” or allegations of a “hostile work environment.”
Hostile work environment my ass. Try a pitching, rolling carrier deck, or up/downloading nukes on a B-52 or B-1, filing out the back of a C-130 in turbulent skies because you’re an airborne soldier and that’s how you get delivered to the scene of YOUR work environment.
Try a job in which you’re paid a fifth, or less, of what the same or a similar job in the private 8 – 5 sector pays and nobody is going to ever scream or shoot at you.
Hostile work environment my ass.
What’s hostile is the attitude too many of our great “academic” and political thinkers have towards those who wore the uniform, who wear the uniform, and who desire to wear the uniform.
There is where MY hostility gets directed.
Damn fine post, NFO.
–AOA
Amen
Passed this on to most of my email addresses.
I have always been in favor of the draft and mandatory military/public service.
Yes, we owe a lot to the 0.45% – AND their families.
Bless ’em all.
Amen, NFO! One of the teenagers in our church announced he was enlisting in the Navy the day after he graduates from High School. He changed schools this year so that he could join Junion ROTC. He’ll graduate in 2013. A number of us who are veterans hope we can watch him be sworn in.
Some of us understand the sacrifices made.
And those of us who do, are eternally grateful to those who made them.
Thank you all for your service…
I came back to the States after my first tour in the Southeast Asian War Games and discovered that miniskirts had been invented while I was gone. After my second tour I discovered that long hair on boys had been normalized.
Funny, though, I never did find men as high quality as those I left when an injury forced me out. Funny thing is, if I’d have been 18 in late 2001 instead of 1965 I probably wouldn’t have got in the Corps.
Let’s try this again, shall we? *grin*
Well written my friend!
But remember that this is a very old problem. It goes back as long as there have been people who were willing to fight for others who are either unable or unwilling to go in harm’s way to protect their fellow citizens.
Rudyard Kipling put it far better than I ever could.
Tommy
I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
Amen
Thank you, sir. And might I add, since we’re venting a little, my distress at our legislators who are considering cutting our retirement benefits as a way to curb deficit spending.
I’m just an old retired submarine sailor, but I know that ain’t gonna work!
MichigammeDave
Thank you Old NFO, and all of you. We are all, as a nation, in your debt.
I will say it again, Thank you for doing the job that I’m not able to do. I love my country and all of you for making such a sacrifice.
You know I have to put this out where the ‘others’ will read it and consider. ‘They’ just don’t understand.
DB- You are correct
Suz- 🙂
Eia- Amen
AOA- I’m gonna steal this and post it! Giving you credit of course!
Jess- Yep
WSF- Feel Free!
Tim/Crucis/drjim- Concur
Peter- I know how you feel!
Michael- I’m gonna steal this and post it! Giving you credit of course!
mmasse/michigamee- Yep, you’re both correct
Brigid- We did what we could…
Shallnot- You’re welcome
Earl- Thanks!
God Bless you and everyone that puts on a uniform and serves America.
Well said, sir.
🙂
My husband linked to this post and I followed (I typically trust his judgement on such things) and I grinned at the beautiful bird in your header. Though I mainly worked on EP-3s, our squadron still maintained a couple of P3s. I loved those old planes! I didn’t, however, love being the smallest in the Airframes shop when it came time to inspect fuel cells…somehow I always found myself “volunteered” for the job of cell diving.
Signing my Navy enlistment contract was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Ooh Rah!
Sean Rudman
CPL, USMC
Thank you for sharing. 🙂
A colleague of mine, a navigator in an ANG unit, found out on Monday that one of his squadron’s copilots took his own life over the weekend, five days after returning from Afghanistan. The funeral is tomorrow.
My friend has his own issues after 4 or 5 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. But this has hit him very hard. All I can offer is to listen when he feels like talking about it and run with him at lunchtimes to help relieve the stress. I wish that public at large had a better understanding of the situation.
May God bless these heroic men and women, The only true heroes in my eyes. I pray that this nation will wake up and return to the God based morals and principals that this once great nation was founded upon and elect a president who values our constitution and stands behind our great men and women who work and sacrifice so much for the love of this country and their fellow citizens. These men and should be paid and given the same benefits as the worthless, sorry politicians who expect the military to defend them. GBStokes
After leaving the Coast Guard to raise a family, everything I’ve done since then was to create wealth for the bosses, put food on the table etc. The service was the first and only important job I’ve ever done. Thank you NFO…. Well written. Bravo Zulu.
Thank you all for the comments!
Makes one wonder how Rumsfeld, Bush and Chaney and the rest of them sleep at night after what they did to our troops with those repeated deployments.JJO
I’d like to thank the Vietnam generation for making things better for me and the other .45%ers than what they had when they got back from their time at war.
Thanks for posting the article The .45%. Credit to the writer, Nick Palmisciano for the writing. http://rhinoden.rangerup.com/i-wrote-this/