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InvisibleRipple
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The Average U. S. Military Man
    #1410985 - 03/26/03 07:48 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)


The average age of the military man is 19 years. He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country.


He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's; but he has never collected unemployment either.


He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away.


He listens to rock and roll or hip-hop or rap or jazz or swing and 155 mm Howitzers.


He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk.


He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark.


He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must.


He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional.


He can march until he is told to stop or stop until he is told to march.


He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity.


He is self-sufficient. He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry.


He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle.


He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts. If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food.


He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low.


He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands. He can save your life -- or take it, because that is his job.


He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay and still find ironic humor in it all. He has seen more suffering and death then he should have in his short lifetime.


He has stood atop mountains of dead bodies, and helped to create them.


He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed.


He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful.


Just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom.


Beardless or not, he is not a boy.


He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years.


He has asked nothing in return, except our friendship and understanding.


Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.





--------------------
The bus came by and I got on that's when it all began!


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Invisiblez@z.com
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Ripple]
    #1410999 - 03/26/03 07:52 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Amen.


--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

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Offlinemntlfngrs
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Ripple]
    #1411002 - 03/26/03 07:53 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!


--------------------
Be all and you'll be to end all

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Offlinefoghorn
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: mntlfngrs]
    #1411192 - 03/26/03 09:19 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

right on..

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OfflineFred Garvin
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: foghorn]
    #1411321 - 03/26/03 10:24 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Right on! Thanks Ripple


--------------------


The above statements are just the incoherent babblings of your friendly neighborhood Cracker!

Shur drinkin kils brane sells--but only the week ones!!

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InvisibleGabbaDjS
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: foghorn]
    #1411325 - 03/26/03 10:27 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

In Iraq and much of the middle east its mandatory to serve two years military service at the age of 16...

EVERYONE in the entire country has learned these things and it is a way of life for them...


--------------------
GabbaDj

FAMM.ORG             

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Anonymous

Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: GabbaDj]
    #1411544 - 03/26/03 12:16 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

the day my country forces me to join the military is the day i die fighting back.

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OfflineAngry Mycologist
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Ripple]
    #1411592 - 03/26/03 12:37 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Quote:

He never really cared much for work



Nor human life. 

He was told he was going to get $80,000 for college, not lead a pre-emptive attack against a third-world country.

He may have been raised just like every other child in the world, where war has been glamorized for centuries. 

He will find that war is nothing more than a game of "Political Chess", using humans to take the place of pawns.  The elected officials sit safely in the back, shouting orders.

In the end he will only realize what every other dead pawn has realized, that war is not about "kickin' someone's ass", it's about human violence and arrogance.  It's about futility.  It's about darwinism and the human species running around in circles chasing it's tail.

When he comes home from war he may reap the benefits of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and possibly suicide.  He WILL remember the many dead faces of friends and foes, staring into blank nothingness, warning us about future predicaments without moving a muscle.

The proverbial question, "Why?" drifts across their faces for all eternity.





:frown: 


--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

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Anonymous

Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1411721 - 03/26/03 01:34 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

well said

i wonder when war will be seen as the UNnecessary evil that it is.

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Offlinemntlfngrs
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ]
    #1411866 - 03/26/03 02:35 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

When you go to heaven where no evil exists. But then, even heaven and hell are in an eternal battle for mans soul aren't thay.


--------------------
Be all and you'll be to end all

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Anonymous

Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1411887 - 03/26/03 02:40 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

I enjoyed your post just as much as Ripple's although I disagreed in part with both.

Let us never forget the words of General Douglas MacArthur to the graduates of West Point Academy, May 12th, 1962.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

So let us pray for peace.  But never, peace at any cost. :frown: 

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Anonymous

Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: mntlfngrs]
    #1411915 - 03/26/03 02:50 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

When you go to heaven where no evil exists. But then, even heaven and hell are in an eternal battle for mans soul aren't thay.

no, the only heaven i want to be a part of, is peace and freedom on this earth.

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Offlinemntlfngrs
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ]
    #1411926 - 03/26/03 02:54 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Better get confortable.


--------------------
Be all and you'll be to end all

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Anonymous

Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: mntlfngrs]
    #1411966 - 03/26/03 03:05 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

quite the contrary, there is a lot of work to be done.

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Offlinemntlfngrs
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ]
    #1411993 - 03/26/03 03:14 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

An eternities worth!


--------------------
Be all and you'll be to end all

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InvisibleCracka_X
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Ripple]
    #1412042 - 03/26/03 03:29 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

true dat


--------------------
The best way to live
is to be like water
For water benefits all things
and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
and even cleanses those places
a man is loath to go
In this way it is just like Tao        ~Daodejing

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OfflineAngry Mycologist
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ]
    #1412240 - 03/26/03 04:53 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Quote:

the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.



I can only hope that most soldiers are of this mindset...


--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

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OfflineToxicManM
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: Angry Mycologist]
    #1412364 - 03/26/03 05:57 PM (21 years, 8 days ago)

AngryMycologist, I suspect you will find much you like in this tract by Lt. Gen. Smedley Butler (retired) of the US Marines. He wrote it in 1935.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Nor human life.

Having said that, I will disagree with you on this statement. I served for 6 years on active duty in the Marines, and I can tell you from first hand experience that the people who are going to be the ones who will do the shooting are among those who least desire it. I was fortunate - I was never shot at, nor did I ever need to shoot at a person. But I cannot imagine that any of our people serving in Iraq find any of it glamorous. Every person I know who served in combat has a higher regard for human life than pretty much anybody else.

The people in our military who are serving in combat deserve our highest respect and support. They find themselves in situations beyond the imagination of those of us who have not.

If we disagree with the fact that a war is underway, the primary place to direct our loathing is on the politicians who give the orders. They are the ones who dictate if, when, where, and how a war is fought. The secondary place is those institutions who campaigned for the war. If you disagree with a war, remember who wanted it and hold it against them.


In the meantime, let us hope that there is a minimum of deaths and that peace breaks out soon. Right now, that doesn't sound too likely.


--------------------
Happy mushrooming!

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InvisibleRipple
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ToxicMan]
    #1413018 - 03/27/03 01:45 AM (21 years, 8 days ago)

Well said ToxicMan!


--------------------
The bus came by and I got on that's when it all began!


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OfflineAngry Mycologist
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Re: The Average U. S. Military Man [Re: ToxicMan]
    #1414396 - 03/27/03 12:04 PM (21 years, 7 days ago)

Quote:

AngryMycologist, I suspect you will find much you like in this tract by Lt. Gen. Smedley Butler (retired) of the US Marines. He wrote it in 1935.



I thank you very much for that link. I've read most of it and have bookmarked it.

Quote:

If we disagree with the fact that a war is underway, the primary place to direct our loathing is on the politicians who give the orders. They are the ones who dictate if, when, where, and how a war is fought. The secondary place is those institutions who campaigned for the war. If you disagree with a war, remember who wanted it and hold it against them.



No doubt, I'm in complete agreement with you here. I didn't mean to offend you when I stated that soldiers have no regard for human life. Now that you've responded to my post stating your military experience I feel better about what you say represents most of our soldiers. I've never been in the military nor war, so I don't know how many think this way. My first comment is directed towards many people I've known personally who have enlisted in order to "Kill the towel-heads" (Their own words). These are the type of people I've seen enlist lately (Friends, friend's family members, friend's friends) and are the type of soldiers that I feel display arrogance and disregard for human life.

I can only hope that most of our soldiers are as you say they are.

Peace.



--------------------
The proper penalty of ignorance, which is of course that those who don't know should learn from those who do... - Plato

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