You're Not in Kansas Anymore, Maggot!
The good, the bad, and the ugly of military life
Sergio Leone’s 1966 epic ‘spaghetti western’, The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Credit SoundCloud.
As I sat down to write this tribute series, I felt ashamed about how little I know about what really goes on in the military. I’ve had to go straight to the source (some of the many veterans in my family) and in a way that’s good because there’s no higher compliment we can pay another human than to ask about their lives and actively listen to their response. Today’s tribute is a simple acknowledgement that most of military life is NOT like what we see in the movies or media. Some of it is so much better and some of it is so much worse.
Let’s start with the basics. 50+% of a recruit’s time is spent ‘in the field’ as it were. Here they carry their lives on their backs, in packs. Inside this pack is their bedroom, kitchen, mess hall, armory, infirmary, and laundry closet to name a few. This pack can range in weight from 65+ pounds for field deployment up to 120+ pounds for combat deployment, in the Army for example. In fact this pack and the ability to carry it for long periods in harsh conditions require the single most important fitness criteria the Army has identified - stamina.
Army trainers have studied, changed, added, removed, and abolished fitness standards like a fickle feline (Source: APRT_WhitfieldEast.pdf, which is a 200+ page decades-long study of training). Funding, fitness revolutions (such as distance running and aerobics), and the like have all influenced the military fitness standards and strategies over time. Concerns for combat-ready fitness levels of young men began as far back as WWII, when they witnessed what was deemed to be excess casualties on the battle field due to ‘inadequate strength and fitness’ to navigate the realities of their first combat encounters. This article will not delve into the whys and what-fors but suffice it to say the fitness problem has gotten worse.
The Marines now have a delayed entry program (DEP) which is training before the basic training. This was developed to provide a base fitness level partially because Americans in general are so unhealthy their bones are weak and orthopedic injuries were disastrous during the rigors of their 12-week basic training in Paris Island, North Carolina. During this period they feed recruits Ensure, healthy food, and vitamins while building up a tolerance for the more demanding training to come. Look around at your local Walmart and tell me how many shoppers could even lift 50 pounds, none less carry it on their backs while running for any amount of time or distance.
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For the facts about the good, the bad, and the ugly I went straight to family sources from the Army and the Marines, two heavily frequented service branches in our family.
The Good
Danny (Army, Night Stalker)
“Camaraderie. You never make friends again like you make when you go to war. Even when not at war, those (military) friends last a lifetime. You never understand the good until it’s gone”
Russell (Marines, Vietnam)
“I liked everything about the Marine Corp. The structure, discipline, advancement opportunities. I would have liked to retire from there, but, all of my time would have been in Vietnam. Chances of surviving to retirement, not good. Even if they were the best ground fighting force in the world. I joined 4 months before I graduated from high school.”
Jamie (Army, Military Police)
“The good was the discipline it gave me to grow into the woman I am today.”
The Bad
Danny (Army, Night Stalker)
“All the things that ‘mankind’ brings to the military – training and camaraderie can only go so far. Humanity wears off the veneer of the new and you get to know the man (animal) behind the name tag. Murderers, racists, sexual predators, etc. It’s the dark disgusting underbelly that no one EVER talks about. Racism and sexism are atrocious in the military. In both Iraq and Afghanistan we were briefed on the ‘ether bunny’ – locals who got their hands on ether, used it to put someone’s lights out and then raped them. Women in the military, at first, were still looked upon as the ‘kitchen dwellers’. Over time everyone got used to the mix, but rape was a thing that happened - man on woman, man on man, and woman on woman were common. Not talked about, but just as horrible as anything you’d see on the 6 o’clock news. But the good can mean so much more in the long run. There was a meme about a girl who was praying for a savior and a paratrooper is on the way. This is the good stuff, it outweighs the bad over time.”
Credit: Pinterest
When I asked him about the greedy billionaire psychos running the military industrial complex, he said, “most of the time there is no visibility into that. I never knew what was going on in the civilian world until I was out. There is no time for any of that while you’re in. There were “asshole officers”. About 90+% of them were military-academy trained. Most came from rich families, not necessarily hardened by life. We had “mustangs” too. These guys started out enlisted in ROTC Army Reserves and became officers (Lt) when they graduated from college. They tended to be more of a leader than an officer. The officer had the credentials, but leaders knew how to motivate the men. Leaders fit in more. I remember ‘Casino Casey’, a lieutenant and a mustang. He was more of an enlisted man than an officer and told by the officers that he wouldn’t go far because he wouldn’t toe the officer line. He disregarded that and hung out with, went to bat for, and stuck out his neck for us like we were his kids. I don’t know, the bad and the good get mixed up. This is why we call history nostalgia, because we can’t go back and hold it up to a litmus test for accuracy, can we?”
Jamie (Army, Military Police)
“The bad was all the damage it did to my body.”
The Ugly
Danny (Army, Night Stalker)
“While they’re training us, they scrape open the wounds of old disasters to prevent the same in the future. Some of those stories will curl your hair. Recruits are taught about the disasters of the past - the bitter true history, not the gilded-lily history. It’s taught to us to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes. Look at the Tet Offensive. That shit was crazy.”
The Tet Offensive took place January 31, 1968 and was the simultaneous attacks by 85,000 Vietnamese troops on “five major South Vietnamese cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam.” (Source: Britannica Tet-Offensive). Attacking during the Lunar New Year holiday allowed communist troops to blend in with holiday travelers and surprise the US forces over the holiday. US troops didn’t know who was enemy and who was friend, which was disastrous. Thousands of US troops, South Vietnamese citizens, and communist soldiers were killed, many executed during the attack and siege of Hue, which lasted 24 days before being retaken by the US. This marked a media turning point in the Vietnam War. Journalists were covering Hue on the ground and their accounts of the battle turned the US citizenry firmly against the war.
Jamie (Army, Military Police)
“The ugly were the things we were sworn to never speak about ever again.”
In the final analysis, feelings vary widely about what makes military service good or bad. Like civilian employees, every human has their own experience which to them is sacred, golden. In the military lives depend on the performance of soldiers, who carry the hopes and dreams of their country and its citizens with them into battle, in their already heavy packs.
For the veterans in this crowd, use the Comment button below to share your good, bad, and ugly.
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Let’s chat in the comments. The more the merrier.
To any veterans who see this......Thank you, thank you, thank you for your service ❤️ 🙏
As a vet, i can share the good; I traveled to places I'd never be able to as a civilian, experienced what it means to be self-sufficient and grew up faster than I would have at home, and learned a skill that served me well in my civilian career. The bad;was that 75% of the time, my skill was wasted in the Army bureaucracy. Working in the motorpool or doing menial tasks instead of the job I was trained for in the medical field. The ugly; racism and crimes against women were indeed rampant. I had to fight tooth and nail to remain true to myself and avoid being demeaned by men. Most of my superiors were good ones, but there were those who tried to take advantage of my small stature and femininity. I learned what queer people were, I didn't know before, and how the world views interracial relationships. Hard, hard lessons that no one wants to talk about. Homosexuality was also rampant, however, I got along with everyone I met because I had a gay roommate, and we had an understanding between us. Let me be me and you be you and we will get along fine.