“Momma Momma Can’t you See? What the Army’s done to me?’
“Used to Date the Beauty Queen. Now I date my M-16”
Those are Army cadences that I remember around Veteran’s Day. I offer this posting only as a thought on military service past, present and future.
Past… My dad got the proverbial “letter in the mail” (“go to war or to jail”) during Vietnam. That I am able to sit at and comment on this site is providence based in that my Nixon ended the draft the month my dad completed his physical and was set to go. For even someone of my generation, the idea of military conscription seems absurd, but it was not so far in the past.
Present… I am a disabled veteran (I use this liberally, it only means I get a check and can’t use one arm), and a VERY very very lucky one at that).I get to use my GI Bill benefits to fund my Ph.D. in Criminal Justice Studies. My time in the Infantry certainly had good times and bad. However, out of the service, I feel like I fill token slots on graduate school committees- they need a veteran, so your name came up (who knew?). Military service is seen as foreign, and that is difficult to compute with a nation that has always prided itself on “citizen soldiers.”
I think this is part of the resentment many veterans feel that they are seen as something of a Praetorian Guard- we pay you to fight for us, go to war and we’ll deal with the downside down stream.
Future… My nephew is thinking about enlisting. I do not want him to. On the one side, part of me knows someone has to serve. On the selfish side, I do not want it to be him. Perhaps this is me being wrong (it certainly would not be the first time), but I worry. I suppose that is what my parents felt when I told them I was going in. Life does end up a flat circle.