1,338 words, not half-bad for a night's work.
The New Army
It’s come to my attention that our Army, though said to be overpopulated right now, is letting anyone into its ranks. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in everyone having their opportunity to serve their country alongside their brothers-in-arms, but that’s as far as it should go. Being in training for only five months so far, I’ve come across so many people that I believe shouldn’t be here; People who managed to slip through the cracks of natural selection in the military. There are far too many “soldiers” that I pray I never have to stand beside on the battlefield. Perhaps it sounds like I’m just complaining because I simply don’t like certain people that I’m stuck around on a day to day basis. Though this may be mostly true (Yes, though out of character for me, I hate most of the people here for one reason of another… This career is making me lose faith in the human race) I believe that in at least 90% of these cases, I have legitimate reasons.
Let’s start back at basic training. This is where the survival of the fit and disciplined is supposed to occur. People come here as weak, pathetic, meager civilians and make the transformation to the highly skilled warriors that defend our country. At least that’s what I thought it was supposed to be. Instead, it is a 9 week hazing session to welcome anyone who shows up into the army’s ranks. Don’t get me wrong, I have more respect for most drill sergeants and some of the people that came through with me, this is just directed to those others who were never up to standard. Basically there are three different types of soldier who make it through basic training.
The first type of soldier is the only one that should truly be able to don the black beret. This is the guy that comes in and pushes himself to the limit; from the day zero “shark attack” all the way until he marches across the parade field nine weeks later. This is the guy that truly wants to be the best he can. He doesn’t take the easy way out and always does the right thing. I like to think that my close battle buddies and myself fit this soldier’s description. This is the only kind of soldier I really have any respect for.
The next kind of soldier is the brawn above brains and discipline type. These are the guys that are physically fit before they come to the army and therefore feel they can do whatever they want because they’re “better than everyone else.” These are the guys that never listen and talk down to or disrespect everyone. What do they have to worry about, a few push-ups? If you’re fit enough to handle nine weeks of getting smoked, it doesn’t matter if you have showed an ounce of decency or progress, you’re in. The soldiers that come in this way are great at tearing teams apart and causing problems due to lack of ability to follow directions. They’re the kind that are going to get many killed if they make it down range.
Finally we have my personal least favorite. They’ve earned the title “Sick Call Rangers” because of their actions. These are the guys who use the system against itself. Any time we knew there was a physically demanding task ahead; you could guarantee the sick call rangers would be up at the medical center for a fresh new no physical activity profile. These guys are good at what they do. I couldn’t believe that you can complete basic training even if you spend over half of it on crutches sitting at a desk. These rangers knew how to sell it too. One from my platoon would struggle to walk around even with his crutches, but when the drill sergeant wasn’t around, he would suddenly be healed of his ailments until the Sergeant returned. I have absolutely no respect for these people and really think they need to be put out as soon as possible. (If only the Sergeants caught on to what was happening)
As I stated before, I have more respect for most of the drill sergeants I’ve met than anyone else in the army. On that note, I have to point out that some of them have this problem where they’re more worried about making private’s lives miserable just to get a laugh than actually train them. There was one from my company that even went as far as to admit that he hated everyone there and couldn’t wait to get out of the Drill Sergeant gig. The entire time we were there, he basically smoked his platoon along with the rest of us at some points because he thought it was funny. He was the one drill sergeant I can honestly say I learned nothing from. During periods of instruction, he always looked and acted as if he was bored and just wanted to get it over with. Drill sergeants like this completely overlook flaws in their trainees to simply push them through and get rid of them.
Though I know it’s the complete opposite side of the point I’m trying to make, but I feel I should stop and express my gratitude for the Drill Sergeants that put their hearts into the job. I had the best platoon drill sergeants you could ask for. They set a standard and pushed us to reach said standard. They went above and beyond to bring us together as a team and even teach us things they didn’t have to. It’s their extra effort that gives me some faith in the future of this army. Hopefully someday I’ll have the opportunity to thank them for that, but that’s beside the point.
I thought things would be better once I reached my combat medic training, but I was far from right about that. Turns out the basic training I had come from was considered the best site for putting out “squared away soldiers.” For the most part, the ones that slipped though the cracked back at my basic were nothing compared to the ones from other bases. Again I have to point out that though this is mostly true; many of the other soldiers that came through still fit the profile of the first soldier I explained prior. Considering the combat medic is one of the most important jobs in the army, you’d think the standards would be higher. I can honestly say that if I’m injured on the battlefield and one of these future medics comes up to help me, I will tell them to keep moving in hopes that a medic I can trust comes along.
Some of these “Soldier Medics” (as we’re called) honestly have no redeeming qualities to them. It feels like we’re living with people who are (if not actually here to do the job they’ve accepted) cheating to get through the training, sleeping through instruction, or doing everything they can to get themselves kicked out but are stuck here because the army wants to keep them around for one reason or another. I can only hope that these soldiers either get out or start taking their career seriously before they end up coming face to face with a fellow human that’s dying and screaming for their help but they cannot do anything about it because they couldn’t do the right thing during training.
The vast number of people who honestly should not be here is astonishing. Hell I didn’t even mention the people that I wouldn’t trust armed with anything that could cause harm to themselves or another human being, I’ll save that topic for another day. This “new army” as everyone calls it is slowly being overwhelmed with this cancerous growth of (for lack of better words) ignorant assholes. With the army cutting over 49,000 soldiers, maybe the focus should be on weeding out those who really don’t deserve to wear the uniform.
Good read, I think the lesson is people are people; no matter the environment there will always be a few sour apples. As individuals, we need to pick out the good apples and ignore/discard the bad ones.
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