Military Musings- Part Two

Part One can be found here.

*Different Jobs- Just like any large corporation, in the military different people are trained to do different jobs. Not everybody is in the infantry, a tank driver, or one of the troops who leads the way into battle. Many soldiers are in support positions. They cook the food, coordinate transportation of equipment & people, service the vehicles, and provide training to those who will at some point take over from coalition forces, in different jobs.

*Everybody is "in combat"- Despite the different jobs, everybody who is serving in uniform in Iraq or Afghanistan, is "in combat". Everybody is in potential danger. There is no front line or somewhere to get a guaranteed break from the potential danger. Whether you are a woman soldier stationed in country, cooking food, or a man who convoys into Iraq from Kuwait, you may very well find yourself in a dangerous situation when you least expect it. Vehicles crash & roll over. Convoys are ambushed. Car bombs go off. IEDs do not discriminate. The enemy our troops are fighting against is a faceless coward and doesn't hesitate to even aim at porta-potties with their weapons. They don't care if you are a man or a woman, a support soldier or one leading the fight. They don't even care if you are a fellow Muslim. If you are not "one of them" they will not hesitate to blow you up with a roadside bomb or IED or open fire on you. Everybody who has gone to Iraq or Afghanistan was potentially in the line of fire.

*Women ARE "in combat"- The fact I just mentioned means, of course, that even women, who may be in support jobs, have been sent into "combat" by coalition forces. Women may not have led the march towards Baghdad, into what would pop into most people's mind as Hollywood movie style war, but they have been serving in the current conflicts and have faced just as much gore and danger as their male comrades.

There are indeed women who are lousy soldiers, just as there exist men who are the same, but I personally cannot deny the reality that are woman in uniform who do their jobs well and have rightfully earned the respect of their fellow soldiers, both men and women, and the many Americans who do support them in their endeavors. Many of the best women service members are not feminists in the "life boat feminism" type of way, but are true egalitarians who shoulder the burden equally with the men they serve with. They work hard, do their best in their training, and are ready to have the backs of their fellow soldiers, and even lay down their lives, should that need arise. There even exist women who can pass PT tests not only by the standards for women, but by those for men as well. (Passing the test my husband must is a fitness goal of mine.)

Whether you or I "support" women in the armed forces or in combat is really a moot point & not something I will delve into any deeper than the bit I am about to offer, as they are already there and we have our right not to join the military, which at this time is still an all volunteer force. But with that said, I cannot speak ill of the women who have risen courageously to the challenge of service and are considered valuable members of their units. I especially cannot be ungracious to the women my husband has served with in the past and is serving with right now. To the women who have my husband's back, I do feel more loyalty than I do to my conservative sisters who might be upset by their very service. They are far braver than I could ever be and for this reason I deeply respect them, just as I do all men who take the oath of service and sacrifice for something greater than themselves. As the wife of a soldier, I selfishly want the best qualified person serving alongside my husband, no matter what gender or race they may be or what religious belief and political ideology they may subscribe to. The lives of my husband and everybody in his unit depend on people who are truly there to do their jobs and will not back down when the going gets tough. I am sincerely thankful to each and every person my husband has served with, no matter who they may be.

*Heroes and Demons- Not everybody feels like a hero for what they have done during their time with the military. Some feel like monsters and will likely hate themselves forever for what they have lived through and done. I recall a controversy from a few years ago, about a soldier who had a bumper sticker on his car that said something to the effect of "Forgive me God for what I've done". Many people were upset with him, people who had never done or seen what he did. In the patriotic fervor, it was not considered that perhaps he had to shoot or run over a child, bearing a bomb hidden in an MRE. Maybe he'd been backed into a corner and did something he'd never want to do. Whatever the case may be, he, like every other service member, is entitled to feel whatever he needs to in order to heal and live with whatever his experiences have been. For some, feeling like a hero may be it. For others, they need to regret what they have done and forgive themselves for what has happened. Whatever the case may be, a service member deserves the right to celebrate or mourn their service as they see fit, regardless of what others may feel about military service and the war.

*The Glory of War- I cannot tell you how many folks I've come across who do not appreciate that war is a bloody, terrible thing to live through. I don't fault these people for not understanding, but if I said I don't have concerns about their ideas, I'd be lying. Many inappropriate questions might come the way of soldiers, often spoken as you might ask me if I'd seen the latest movie.

"Have you ever killed anybody?"
"Oh cool! You went to Iraq?"
"Did you ever see combat? Was it like x-video game?"
"So, tell me about the war....what was it like?"

Many returning troops cannot talk about these issues with their closest loved ones, let alone with prying strangers and acquaintances. War is not cool and full of glory, but death and destruction instead. There are many experiences a soldier may not be able to talk about and share for years afterward. Many issues must be faced and confronted, in the soldiers own time and way, and people need to respect this. It's not your business to know what somebody has felt or seen over there and it could potentially be very harmful to a soldier to inquire about such private feelings and realities.

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My two little posts hardly do all of these issues justice, but I do hope they shed a little bit of light on questions people have shared with me. I also hope this might provide better understanding of the many challenges military life throws the way of service members and their families. War is not just a political matter to a minority in this nation, but our real lives. There are many Peapods out there, missing their daddies and mommies. There are many women like myself, dealing with life alone and whatever the Deployment Fairy throws out way on top of that. There are many families who are missing their sons & daughters, husbands & wives, mothers & fathers, brothers & sisters forever, for they have laid down their lives in the line of duty. And there are military members in all of the branches who for whatever reason have made the choice to protect the Constitution and do all that's necessary for this task, including the ultimate sacrifice, so the rest of us do not have to. I sincerely hope people remember the real human faces behind the war when they vote at the ballot box and make their decisions on important political matters. At this point in history, the United States is extremely fortunate to have an all-volunteer force, but this isn't always a guarantee.