Originally posted by MrsFurby72:
TB, I totally agree with everything you said. The only problem I have is that if his son was a PFC, that means this guy has only been in for at least 2 years, or a little more depending on how long he's been a PFC. Now, as we have seen before, reservists have been called up to help in situations like this. He did say his son didn't join to go to war, but didn't flinch when he was called, so I got to give it to him there......IF that was true, but since the guy is dead, we won't ever know if he called mommy and daddy whining about having to get into this, but for ANYONE to say they didn't join the military to go war..no matter if you are active, reserve,or nat. guard..... is stupid. You join ANY branch of them military you should expect that.




I think I agree, but I'm not sure where I see your disagreement. I was in during Gulf War I and I did see soldiers who were given orders to the Gulf do things to prevent their deployment. For the ladies, pregnancy shot up, for the men, in the most extreme case, as self inflicted injury.

So I do think many join not expecting to go to war. Hey, people are often short sided. The recruiter certainly doesn't sell the potentially getting shot at as a benefit.

I made the conscious decision to enter the military to get an education with the knowledge that if we went to war, I may go. I didn't enter the military to go to war, but I agreed with a strong military defense of the nation, and was willing to go if called on, and if I got a couple of degrees out of it, bully for me.

I don't know if it is denial or just poor judgement, but many don't really expect to go to war.

However, this is simply a side discussion to the issue at hand.

But I can tell you one thing, as a Signal Officer in the Army, serving with a Pershing II nuclear missle unit, I was pretty sure that the Soviets would be gunning for me and my soldiers if war broke out. They certainly didn't want me to be able to recieve and deliver the launch codes, should they actually arrive.

However, I never shared with my mother, grandmother or sister that I would probably be a prime target on the battlefield. So in the event I was killed on the battlefield, I'm pretty sure it would have been a shock to my family.

TB

"Seems like our society is more interested in turning each successive generation into cookie-cutter wankers than anything else." -- Jato 8/24/2004