Rant On!

What happened? What happened to the General Patton's, the Audey Murphy's, the Sergeant York's and the Chesty Puller's? What happened to John Wayne? What happened to the military of yesterday? The military they based movies like "The Green Beret's", "The Dirty Dozen" or "The Guns of Navarone" on? I don't think the young men and women are that different but society sure as hell has changed and now the days of the drunken, womanizing soldier are gone. That is truly sad, because it was the drunken, womanizing soldiers that won WWI and WWII. It was the sissy politicians that caused us to not accomplish our mission since. "Don't cross that line." "Don't do that." "Give that hill back." I'm sorry but it's war.

Soldiers train hard, work hard and play hard. Soldiers kill. Soldiers fight. Soldiers drink. Soldiers swear. Soldiers smoke. Soldiers fuck. These are not bad things they just embarrass people who choose to believe the world is a gentle, loving place. They don't get there are people out there that, regardless of how much love we show them would, at the drop of a hat, kill each and every one of them. They don't understand that because there are people like that you need people like us. They can't grasp the concept that someone who is willing to fight and die for their rights and freedoms could be such animals. Guess what! We are, but now it's politically incorrect to be that way. Society has become so touchy-feely they've forgotten the blood and guts it took to settle and establish this country, the pure, hard, animal drive it has taken to defend this country. They want the military when it's convenient. They want to see us on Independence Day and Veterans Day. They want to see us all spit and polished in the parades and they want us to come to their rescue when tyranny raises its ugly head. Other than that most of them would be happy if we were not allowed to socialize with "normal" society.

Soldiers can't drink in combat zones so now these poor men and women (most of who are of a legal drinking age) can't have a beer or a shot before they go into hell. They can't celebrate the return from a successful mission or celebrate they made it back from hell when they're done. Now they have a counselor to help us cope with the thought we just escaped death. Sorry guys, sometimes a good drunk is better than talking about our feelings. Let a soldier have a drink for Christ sake. Hell I've watched C-SPAN, I know we have alcoholics and drunks running this country. All the soldiers are doing is trying to relax a bit, forget about what they did and saw for a little while. Leadership by example Mr. Senator. As far as I'm concerned if you're in the military you should be allowed to drink any where and any time you want. If you're old enough to fight and die you should be able to have a beer when you're done with your mission.

Not too long ago if a soldier screwed up you pulled them to the side, and depending on the offense, you chewed them out or smacked them in the back of the head and all was well. Now if they screw up you can no longer just take care of something in house, you have to take judicial action. That's ludicrous. There is a time and a place for a good old fashioned "Wall to wall" counseling. The Soldier learned his lesson, the mission continued and it didn't cost the poor guy his rank or money for a stupid mistake. There's nothing wrong with chewing someone's ass if they screw up. You don't have to take legal action to prove your point.

Soldiers are not allowed to swear. I guess it might hurt the enemy's feelings if you call him a "cock-sucker" while you're plunging your bayonet into his chest cavity. It's sad to know a soldier could single-handedly save his entire platoon with nothing but his K-Bar and bare hands and instead of getting a medal he gets a Court Marshal because he called the enemy a "Fucking Bastard" and it insulted someone in his platoon. And God help the poor bastard if he utters anything about the enemy's race or religion. I just can't imagine the soldiers of WWII attacking the beaches of Normandy or the sands of Iwo Jima and being court-marshaled for calling the enemy "Japs" or "Krauts". I just don't see men like McArthur, Patton or Puller allowing this to happen under their command. Regardless of what the politicians back home had to say about it. But then again I can't imagine the politicians of that time coming up with these lame brained ideas either.

I spent the first four years of my long military career in the United States Marine Corps, with some of the toughest, gungiest (gungy: hard-core, dirty, mean) sons of bitches the world will ever know and I'd trust my life to any one of them. They drank, they swore and they loved to fight. These Marines would fight with each other if there were no one else to fight with. These men were hard; they would go into the depths of hell and drag the Devil out by his tail if ordered to do so but when they were done they were allowed to cut loose and release some of the stress that builds up when you know you could have died. Now, those of us that are still hanging around the military machine are "Old Soldiers" or "Salty Dogs" we are an embarrassment to what the politicians and the "Let's all hug and be happy" crowd are trying to turn us into. "No combat ready unit ever passed inspection. No inspection ready unit ever passed combat."
Political correctness has its place; the military just isn't the right one. I just don't see how it's possible to be politically correct when you're being shot at. You can't have a group of people trained to protect you at any cost, to include giving up their lives, trained to kill another human being, trained to do whatever may be necessary to secure your freedom and expect them to be socially acceptable and politically correct at all times. We can't just turn it on and turn it off. It doesn't work that way.

Society has two choices:

1. Keep its goddamned nose out of the military's business and allow the professional soldiers to do their jobs.

2. Keep two types of militaries at your disposal:
a. The one that is spit and polished and ready to march at your next inauguration/parade.
b. The one you keep hidden and only let out when you need to prove your might or have someone bale your dumb ass out of a jamb.

Well, maybe I'm just too old for this anymore. Maybe I should just pack my ruck and take that last road-march.

Rant off.