funny I am waiting to hear the star spangled banner any moment now
Sambusa: you paint a heck of a picture. All the military is on the front line and in danger every moment. There is only one person in my entire family who hasn't served atleast ONE tour of duty. My grandfather served 2 tours army and 2 marine corp, my father served 19 years USAF, cousins who served USMC for three tours and uncle who served 2 tours Navy. My dad and uncle were both enlisted during vietnam...
Do you realize out of all of us how many actually saw what the miltary considers enough interaction with combat to have it recorded? ONE, my grandfathher in Korea. Hell as a kid I remember the sirens at Cannon AFB and later I remember the codes at FT. Bragg, Boiling and Andrews. If 9/11 isn't proof enough that regardless of how many men you put in other countries, or how strong your military is things still can happen. Now the military has gotten softer, Combat may be getting to the fifth level of doom nowdays. (still floored over army stress cards btw) but don't fool yourself, not everyone will appear on CNN because they just took down an enemy sniper. And most that you do see, by the time they got there...the action was long gone.
People and military have changed, I remember when parents said, " the military will make you a man." Now they say, "sign up and get out so you can go to school." And then they write letters about how they weren't signing up with intention to see actual combat. How about we pay our soldiers TRIPLE their pay, tax it like a citizen, and then charge them regular rates for their health care, insurances, housing and everything else they get subsibdized and I bet they'll want their current pay situation back.
flame on
