posted @ 02:58...

I received a copy of Harper’s Magazine recently, in which the “AWOL in America” story appears. And now it’s time to respond.

First, the article is completely one-sided, just like Papa Ray said it would be. Not one person serving honorably in the military was included in the story. Not once did the writer mention any of the positive things about being in the military. As much as I hate certain things about the military, there are just as many great things about it.

One kid in the story whined that he refused to go from Reception battalion to basic training because “I heard they try to intimidate you and gang up on you.” Oh, boo-hoo! If that’s the worst thing that ever happens in his life, he’s lucky. Cancel that... He’d be very unlucky. Basic training (even the intimidatiion part) builds so much character into a person, many Soldiers often marvel afterward about what a lazy slob they had always been before.

And that comment was before the guy even got to basic training. My buddy, a fellow paralegal, went to basic at Fort Benning, where this particular young deserter was. My friend made the transition from the very same Reception battalion (30th AG). His experience at Fort Benning's Reception was much like mine at Fort Jackson: a whole lot of A) standing in line and B) waiting around. These two ingredients are ironclad fixtures in the military, and that's not going to change. But it's certainly not something to run away from.

The main idea of the article was pretty much this: "The military is evil for making these poor kids stay in who don't want to be in anymore."

I'm sorry, but these guys signed a legally-binding contract and made a solemn oath. We all did. Most folks believe those two things still hold some weight. They are adults. Based on my experience, I would add that they were asked repeatedly before they enlisted if they understood exactly what they were signing. They agreed that no one was forcing them to enlist.

One kid in the article said it freaked him out that much of basic training was focused on killing. If it weren't for US Soldiers killing the enemy, we would not be a free nation right now. The nature of the military -- any military -- is such that it must hire people specifically to kill, just like it hires them to perform legal services, or truck maintenance, or cooking. Killing is one of the things the military does. In fact, killing is what the military is usually known for. How can this kid be appalled at the focus on killing, since that's one of the primary things every Soldier is trained to do?

The most important thing to remember about basic training is something my brother (a Navy nuclear sub vet) told me before I went off to Army boot camp: The rest of your military experience will not be like basic training. The way things are in boot camp is not the way they're gonna be in your everyday life. If you can just make it through those two months, you'll be fine."

I hated it, like everyone does, and even after two years I'm fine.

posted @ 12:20...

A coworker made a funny comment today. Someone said to him, “Oh, you’re so evil...”

He replied, “I've tried being evil. I couldn’t be evil to save my soul.”

Just struck me as funny.

posted @ 12:23...

Smoked. Our duty day in the office is 0900 to 1900, a ten-hour day. I left last night at about 1915, while most of my coworkers had gone to eat. But since I didn’t receive clearance to go home, I got in trouble. This isn’t the civilian world, where quitting time comes, and you go home. Here in the Army, quitting time comes, and you ask someone if you can go home.

My NCO, who is actually a really cool guy, also didn’t like the fact that I spent a lot of time online yesterday. I had three different Claims reports to complete and email to certain people. I also had to make contact with some people whose unit just arrived and are taking over the Claims work of a unit who is leaving. This all had to be done online... but I was also writing emails and surfing a little. I admit that.

He doesn’t like to be the bad guy. Sure, he makes people do pushups like all NCO’s do, but he’s not one of those who will “smoke” someone just because he can. He only supplies punishment when it’s necessary. So this morning when he came in and immediately told me to get down and push, I was surprised. I didn’t know what I had done wrong. But the truth is, I spend a little too much time online when I could be working. So doing pushups wasn’t bad, physically. But it was humiliating and it got my attention.

posted @ 16:30...

Online banking is the way to go. Even when I worked at a bank, I couldn't really understand why customers would still show up in person, when everything you needed to do could happen online. But there were -- and still are -- people who either don't have access to the Web, or simply like the personal touch. And it seemed like these types of people were often one in the same. There was also the issue of cash transactions. Can't do that online. In the States, I hardly ever carry cash, since most anything we buy nowadays can be obtained with the handy debit card.

My bank has a new online banking tool called Spending Reports. They compile these reports based on where a customer spends his or her money. If I use my debit card at a grocery store, that transaction is categorized under "groceries." If I book a flight online, that one's categorized as "vacation/travel." A purchase at Old Navy falls under "clothing." At the end of the month we can go in and look at what kinds of things we've been spending our money on.

I'm not paranoid. I don't think the banks or the government are out to invade our souls with electronic surveillance devices or anything. I'm not looking over my shoulder for black helicopters. The spending reports are actually pretty handy for budgeting. But I wonder if the bank -- or other banks who do this -- are taking advantage of the data here. The practice is called data mining. It is conceivable that a bank could compile huge lists of the spending habits of their customers, and then sell those lists to folks who want to know.

The obvious benefit of data mining is targeted advertising. That is, targeted right to the people who are more likely to purchase a particular product. On one hand, of the junk mail I do receive, I'd rather have that which might more closely pertain to my life and spending habits.

On the other hand, junk mail is still junk mail.

posted @ 03:03...

Finally got some new pictures up. Enjoy!

posted @ 03:15...

As you may expect, there is a tool that lets me see a "keyword analysis" to find out what kinds of things people are typing into search engines right before they stumble upon my blog. Sometimes their searches are amusing, sometimes interesting. Here are some examples:

• boot shining techniques
• wayne newton high voice
• dangly thing at the back of your throat
• win the hearts and minds of the iraqi people
• ned flanders firefighter

Keep in mind, people find posts that were written up to three-and-a-half years ago... and in that time a great variety of things have been discussed. Sometimes it's funny to sort of eavesdrop on what people are looking for.

In other news, I found a neat radio station: www.effectradio.com
And here's a cool company I came across: www.antihellclothing.com

posted @ 06:04...

You know who one of my favorite radio personalities is? It's not Rush Limbaugh. It's not Dr. Laura. It's not Howard Stern. It happens to be Paul Harvey. And it's not just because he seems to be a friendly, non-partisan newscaster who has incredible longevity in the business.

Listening to him even now on the Armed Forces network brings back memories of my childhood. My mother would tune the radio to 790 AM every day at noon so we could hear his regular program, or "The Rest of the Story." Even at a young age, I enjoyed listening. It was always a little disappointing when the tractor commercials came on. That meant the program was over.

Alright, enough reminiscing for now... good day.

posted @ 18:30...

Here's another frustrating thing: Having the internet suddenly go down... while chatting with your wife... on Valentines Day. I know, I just went off about how I have no reason to complain, because Soldiers of yore had to rely upon the Postal Service for communication. But I was still disappointed.

I am incredibly sore... physically. Yesterday we did organized PT for the first time in several months. This is the most I have run in what seems like forever. Everything hurts, and I get to do it again in just eleven hours. Yay!

posted @ 22:45...

Finally got to talk to my wife. It was so nice to speak with her after so long. Chatting online once in a while is great, but there's nothing like hearing her voice. It's also nice to hear my son's little noises in the background.

For those of you wishing to send Soldiers phone cards, an AT&T phone card from the PX (AAFES) gets us a few more minutes than the ones from Sam's club, Walmart, or other places like that. AT&T cards are a rip-off anyway, but they have the monopoly on phone centers over here, so we have no other choice. Cards from AAFES are about the best deal you can get.

I still find it hard to complain, though, when I remember that this is one of the first wars in our nation's history in which Soldiers have been able to regularly make contact with their families. I know Papa Ray would agree, there was no Internet during Vietnam. And there certainly weren't an abundance of telephones. I'm not sure what things were like during Desert Storm, but I know they weren't nearly as convenient as this! And even that archaic system of document delivery, the US Postal Service, is faster than expected. It usually takes a letter only 10 or 11 days to get here.

I have my one-hour guard shift just 15 minutes from now. I didn't want to go to sleep at night, only to have to wake up and go in at 2:00 am, so I got lots of sleep in the afternoon. Hopefully that'll help. Then when I get off at 3:00, I'll try to get a few hours sleep before doing PT... Then I'll be going up to the other installation for my pointless weekly visit there.

posted @ 19:30...

I recently received the following press release from Harper's Magazine. I thought it might spark thought and/or debate. At the very least, it might be interesting. (Can you believe someone thinks enough of this blog to send me press releases?)

HARPER'S MAGAZINE TRACKS DOWN U.S. MILITARY GONE AWOL
The Why and How of Desertion Revealed in March Issue

New York-According to Pentagon estimates, 5,500 U.S. military personnel have deserted since the start of the current conflict in Iraq. The stories of the few who have spoken out publicly against the war are known, but what of those who have quietly returned home? What caused them to go AWOL? What consequences might they face if they are discovered? From September to December 2004, Harper's Magazine reporter Kathy Dobie spoke to such soldiers.

The resulting article, AWOL IN AMERICA: When Desertion Is the Only Option, which appears in the March issue, presents these young men as they relate their experiences in their own voices. We read about:

• Jeremiah Adler, 18, raised by a single mother in a sheltered community in Oregon, who joined the army to find a sense of "macho-ness" only to find his fellow soldiers' zeal for killing to be more testosterone than he had bargained
  for.
• Clay (this name and the following have been changed), 23, who was seduced by a recruiter's promise of big money, then disturbed by the strong desire to kill he felt during training. "I started to see the process within myself, that transition from civilian to mindless killer. It scared me," he tells Dobie.
• Matt Burke, who served four years of active duty, then signed up for the Army's Officer's Candidate School. A knee injury got him kicked out of OCS and sent back to regular duty to serve out the rest of his contract, despite the fact that he was told by the recruiter that in such an event, he would be discharged. Burke was court-martialed and served one month in a county jail.
• Jason Lane, 19, who is a Marine currently in military custody. Lane fled to the Virginia woods; the final straw in his decision to desert was the 24-hour walking post he was assigned to while suffering from a swollen, infected leg. Dobie accompanied him to Quantico Marine Base when he turned himself in.

AWOL IN AMERICA looks at the many reasons why soldiers are willing to risk tough consequences (made even more severe after 9/11) to get away. It explores the psychology of the deserter as well as the psychological war the military must wage on its recruits in order to turn them into killers. It also provides a practical guide to desertion. AWOL IN AMERICA illustrates many aspects of a desperate situation - from desperate recruiters telling lies to meet quotas, to desperate young men hoping to find a purpose in the U.S. Military, and who, eventually, become desperate young men who must get out, no matter the price.

posted @ 11:03...

Holy crap... I just got a ton of visits on here from people who were doing searches for "starbucks email hoax." We're talking, like a hundred plus. Maybe more by now... weird.

Here's the original post.

posted @ 10:36...

Super Bowl Ads

If you get a chance, check out the Anheuser-Busch ad (in case you didn't actually see it when it aired). My eyes produced tears as I recalled my similar experience in the Atlanta airport while on leave. I probably don't need to describe everything, since the ad does it justice. But wow! What a feeling... to have all these strangers clap and cheer as we made our way through the teminal. I fought back tears all the way through the airport.

I feel appreciated every time I receive an email or a blog comment from people like this. I feel appreciated when my family & friends thank me for serving and tell me their proud of me. But those people at the airport, who don't even know me, really blew me away. It felt like a visual and audible manifestation of what all the emails, blog comments, and patriotic songs are trying to say. I finally got it.

posted @ 17:08...

I love how hand sanitizer evaporates quickly, because a little bottle of it came open recently in the pocket of my DCU top, and got all nasty. But an hour later my pocket was dry…

...and presumably germ-free.

posted @ 08:19...

It's happened again... sailing along without much to do, and boom! Not hit by a bomb or mortar or anything, but by tons of work. During the elections we couldn't do much. We couldn't travel to the Claims locations, my boss was gone, and I was able to sit around not doing a whole lot. Now I'm playing catch-up for everything I wasn't able to do during the slow time. But in the interest of keeping something new on this blog, here I am. There's an unwritten law in Web publishing. If your website fails to consistently offer new content, then readership and visitor counts will dwindle. Unfortunately, the people who don't stop reading are those who worry I might be dead or injured. Nope! Alive and well... just really busy.

I doubt I'll see the Superbowl, since it'll be late tonight when it comes on. They are allowing everyone to have two real beers tonight during the festivities. Not much into beer anymore, personally, but it's kinda neat they're making an exception to CENTCOM General Order 1A for the Superbowl.

Oh, and folks are calling me "Specialist" now. I asked if I could just put the rank on, since the promotion was automatic as of 23 January and I didn't want a pinning ceremony. My NCO said it would be okay, but he asked, "You sure you don't want a ceremony?" Why would I want to interrupt everyone's day to go stand in a formation and watch while they pin rank on my collar?

But the Army loves ceremonies. If I get a Purple Heart, then yes: have a ceremony and take pictures of my bandages. If I win a bronze star or something, sure: have a ceremony and send my name to the newspaper back home. I just don't see the point of having one for this promotion. It's not like I did something special. All I did was stay out of trouble for two years.