First - you really need to click this link and read Chuck's post that Fuzzybear linked to in the H&I. If ya do, this post will make more sense.
[Enters the auld, broken-down soldier]
Ruck up, Chuck.
You're channeling any Post Commander, Army of the Plains.
You're channeling LTC Henry Leavenworth.
You're channeling Captain Eisenhower, BG MacArthur, Colonel Marshall.
You're channeling the Lieutenant and his detail that were all that was left of the Continental Line. Guarding the stores at West Point.
I was 11 when my Dad went to Vietnam. I was the son of a career soldier throughout the whole period.
I lived through the vile calls to the house that my mother took while we were sitting in Denver, waiting for Dad to come home.
I saw the signs. I saw the mass demonstrations. I read the papers, watched the news.
We've got it good, in comparison to the active hatred and benign neglect our predecessors went through.
Oh, sure, it's not perfect, and in this media environment things seem universal that are not.
And this time, there's us, too. The Milblogs and our fellow-travelers. The other voice on the 'net, smaller though it is, taking the fight to the patchouli-scented pencil-necked sunken-chested geeks with stringy hair whose idea of risk is tagging a recruiting office, and who have the time to sit at a keyboard all day feverishly reading all sorts of carp, and then adding to it.
What I'm really saying is... t'was ever thus. And, *in balance* better this than the adoring worship of things military that served the Germans so well. Or Argentines. Or, fill-in-the-blank place run by a Man On Horseback. Which I know you weren't suggesting otherwise.
Remember, too - while the punks rant and rave... we're *still* members of one of the most trusted organizations in the nation. When our numbers slip, they drop into the low 80's.
Most of the organizations beloved of our detractors can't climb into the low 50's.
Go into any nursing home, Chuck - and there are lots of lonely non-veterans in them, too. I can't speak for where you are at - but the VA domiciliary here at Leavenworth routinely has more holiday visitors in it than do most of the local nursing homes.
And let's face another side of things - when we're in the news, the news is usually bad for someone. But we get to do the good stuff, too.
It sorta puts us between the fire services and the police. Everybody likes firemen. They come and save people and things.
People are usually wary of the police, because as often as not, when you see them - you are either doing something naughty, like running a stop light, or you've been mugged, or you just witnessed something like that, or, you're a bad person who needs arresting.
Us? We're in the middle, trending to the high side. We usually our jobs out of sight and out of country. Most times, we're doing what people think needs doing. But sometimes, what we do is just an ugly slog, and that can be a hard sell to PSP-generation attention spans.
Talk to a Vietnam vet, Chuck - see if they think it's as bad now as it was then. Heh. One of the reasons it's better now than then is because of their efforts - like all those guys at the Gathering of Eagles, and in Move America Forward, etc.
As for Toledo... that is a new twist. Americans aren't used to seeing troops training in their cities. We're somewhat conditioned (by the news if aught else) that large numbers of uniforms carrying rifles... is bad. Gunfire in the streets... is bad. Just watch your nightly news. So the fact that some people are upset by it isn't all that surprising. Okay, conducting urban warfare training in downtown Toledo perhaps isn't a good idea... But I'm betting there are places around that would love to host the training. But that's a different issue.
Get it off your chest, ruck up, and soldier on.
We're the rough men and women. And while we aren't always well used, we're Dispensible. Indispensibly so, until humanity no longer produces wolves. We're the sheepdogs. But some people can only see the wolf.
C'mon - next Milblogger Conference, this auld soldier will buy the first round.
[Exits the auld, broken-down soldier.]
17 March 2006: PFC Joel H Timarong from Moreno Valley, Calif. with Alpha Co. 1st Battalion, 36 Infantry greets a local Iraqi child while on patrol through the city of Hit, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. 1st Battalion, 36 Infantry is deployed with I MEF in support of Operation Freedom in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq (MNF-W) to develop the Iraqi Security Forces, facilitate the development of official rule of law through democratic government reforms, and continue the development of a market based ceremony centered on Iraqi Resurrection. Official USMC photo By Cpl Brian M Henner060317-M-9019H-096 (RELEASED)
Cross-posted to Milblogs.
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