The Broken Soldier

There’s this group that asked me to join it a while back.  They found my site, and thought I could be of use to them.  I get news letters from them every now and again.  They’re holding some sort of summit or something, and they’re looking to form “sub-committees” to generate discussion topics.

Truth in recruiting is one of their favorites.  To my chagrin, they tend to focus on recruiter fibs that if an enlistee is dumb enough to believe he or she should be hammer-of-truth punished for their stupidity.  “If you enlist in branch X, under MOS/AFSC/etc. Y you can’t be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.”  Again, if you believe that, you deserve a date with the hammer.  I mean shit, when I went through basic, even the folks who barely eked out the minimum ASVAB to enlist were capable of cleverer lies.  Take this idiot named Land as an example.  Bare with me.  “Yo, my job’s like a combination of a brain surgeon, a general, a jet pilot, and like Rambo.  But yo, if you see me at my duty base, and I’m like pickin’ up doodoo, it’s cuz I ain’t reached my 5 level yet.”  So okay, I’m exaggerating, but barely.

I’m wondering, especially after asking me to participate, why they don’t speak to more believable lies.  Such as those about how well reserve component members are taken care of when injured in the line of duty.  “Yeah man, you get hurt, you get medical and pay and allowances.”  As though these things are automatic.  Yeah.  Had I known the truth, the realities of the risk I was assenting to, I would not have enlisted.  Why this group has chosen to focus on extremes rather than on substantive matters I can’t say.

I’ve included a pic of my lower back with this post.  My friends and neighbors were eager to see it.  I tell them I elected to have my butt crack lengthened by 8 to 10 inches instead of back repair.  Chicks in New York are paying top dollar for that sort of thing, and I got it for free.