Do we need a different army to quell the spread of “isms”? To bulwark collapsing dominoes? To reverse terrorist recruitment? To erase nations’ beliefs that they must stockpiles weapons of mass destruction to protect themselves from their citizens and bigger nations?
Are ammo magazines needed more than do-good development teams? Could America’s World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposal build that army?
It was one of those Christmas parties that pop up at this time of year. Eric and I started talking about how Bill Clinton could work a room like no one he had ever seen.
Eric was born and raised in Arkansas, in a family with a decorated military history. Far down his family line his ancestors had served and worn uniforms. It was all documented in black & white family photos taken in an era when such photos often took ten-plus minutes to produce.
Now, Eric was a bi-focaled Alternate to the California State Democratic Party Convention. At 18, he had been a clear-sighted, gung-ho, patriotic American who enlisted for Vietnam.
"My commander directed me to lead my squad on a lead patrol and I refused," he told me about his experience in the war. "There were nine of us left out of my 13-man squad. He wanted us to go down the river valley as the lead. He was fresh out of the academy and explained why it would work. I said, 'With all due respect, sir, I've been around here a lot longer, and I know if I take my men down there none of them will come out.'"
"Did you take them down there?" I asked.
"No, I refused. They busted me from squad leader to PFC [Private First Class]. They were supposed to send me for six months of solitary confinement, then six more months of the brig, and bust me out.
"As it turned out, because of the amount of time I spent in Vietnam, I ended up leaving as a sergeant. I was a sergeant working for the Pentagon when Saigon was falling. We were watching the fall unfold on screens. As I reported the fall to my commander, he looked at me and said, 'Let's have a beer when it's done....' We put on a helluva drunk that night."
"I'm surprised they didn't just bust you to PFC and send you with your squad down the river."
"No, it would've been detrimental to the discipline and morale of the team. So they busted me and sent me back."
"Did another squad go down?"
"Yes."
"Did they come out?"
"They were all killed."
After a pause, he continued. "You know you go there all patriotic for your country. Knowing your country is right and you're patriotic for it. Then you're there and none of that matters. The only thing that matters is the guy on your left and the guy on your right. Can he give magazine ammunition when you need it...? The only thing that matters is the guy on your right and left. Can he pass you ammo? And it doesn't matter whether he's gay, black, or smells bad."
"Were you a team guy? Did you play on athletic teams when you were young?"
"No, I wasn't athletic at all, kind of puny."
"Do you think being part of a team is part of the allure of joining the military?"
"Well, there were a lot of jocks in the military."
"I mean, for the jocks and for those who haven't been jocks, is part of the attraction of being in the military being part of what you believe is a good team? Like when you play for a good team, you love being part of it."
"Yeah, that's an attraction early on. But after you're there awhile, you realize the war's bullshit."
"Of the guys you served with, how many do you think believed the war was bullshit?"
"Ninety percent."
"Do you have kids?" I asked.
"No."
"Cousins, nephews, family members who served?"
"Two cousins served in Iraq."
"Did you talk to them?"
His eyes seemed to flicker and glanced to the side. Then he responded. "Yes, their mother wanted me to talk to them.... It was too late when they understood what I was talking about. The youngest returned in a coffin. For his funeral he requested, and we played, Jimi Hendrix's National Anthem from Woodstock.
"A PFC soldier turned to his partner after it was played and said, 'That was disgusting!'"
"I went up to that soldier, looked him in the eye, and said, 'He can damn well get played whatever he chooses. He died for his country.'
"He replied, 'Okay.' And I said, 'I'll take a Yes, Sir, since you're talking to a sergeant, private.'"
Why is it that the teams in which we keep investing trillions build skill sets that rely on "passing ammo," which destroys good will, makes enemies, cripples, and scars?
Don't we know how to make heroes another way?
Why don't we invest billions in skill sets that "pass shovels, seedlings, hammers, books...?" That create friends and erase dangerous "isms"? And then bring home those who provide those services healthy and proud?
The Army's first 2004 study of our soldiers who served in Iraq found that one in eight returning soldiers suffered from PTSD. To get the full terrible import of those stats, you have to remember that about 60% of those with symptoms failed to seek help.
Lately, you may have heard some networks report that 20 veterans commit suicide each day. However, that number relies on data from only 21 states representing 40% of the populace. California, Texas, and Illinois are among those whose statistics were not counted.
We Have To Change, and the Model for It Already Exists!
Such statistics should surely wake us up to the need for change. Instead of continuing to overburden a small segment of Americans with futile military service, isn't it about time that more Americans served their country by providing peaceful, cost-effective services that build skills and address genuine social needs?
What we need is an expanded national service that creates sustainable and healthy communities and can help build a more peaceful world that will require far less traumatic engagement by our soldiers. Fortunately, a model for such a service already exists.
The American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposal would make of the AWSC a broad umbrella authority under which 21 million Americans over the ensuing 27 years could choose to work for such organizations as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Doctors Without Borders, Head Start, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, effective local non-profits, and in-need schools.
This kind of cost-effective national service could help to temper the ravages of climate change, benefit our overburdened soldiers, keep us out of dumb-into wars, and reduce the heavy memories carried by once and future gung-ho soldiers from wars that "90%" of them perceive as "bullshit."
Learn more and help make it happen at www.worldservicecorps.us/
