Invitations and Choices

Opening up the mailbox these days can be an occasionally jarring experience. Just as I'm getting used to regular invitations from AARP to join that over 50 club, I recently noticed a letter from a different organization offering membership: the United States Marine Corps. Except it wasn't sent to me. It was addressed to my son, who just turned 17.

I examined the envelope. It was smartly designed and inviting to a young man beginning to think about his future - with offers of free gifts just for talking to a recruiter. It reminded me of an advertisement I'd seen for the Army almost 40 years ago in Boys Life magazine. I remember it vividly to this day. Nothing in the ad looked like the army. No olive drab. No tanks. No rifles. Just a full page ad showing twelve pictures of one guy kissing twelve different girls. "With the Army's delayed enlistment program, you now get 12 months to say goodbye." Hey. Sign me up. Except I was only 14, so those girls and the army would have to wait.

I can't say for certain that reading those pages led me toward serving in the military, but they probably helped. By 1982, my first year in college, I was on my way to becoming an officer and completed Army basic airborne parachute course.

I would go on to finish several programs of military training over the next 13 years. But something special stands out in my thoughts of that first school and those three weeks in the heat of North Georgia. I'd never seen anything like it before. All I remember of day one was green and yelling and sweat and a towering First Sergeant that didn't like the length of anyone's hair. I was hooked and though I switched from Army to Navy, I went on to serve in the military until 1995.

One thing that is striking about that Army ad from Boy's Life is that it would never get published today. Not with the political correctness running rampant through the military and Washington DC these days. There is a near pathological effort to deny the reality that males and females in close working situations develop bonding relationships that can go beyond military tasking or mission. Of course there are rules that prohibit this. But it happens anyway. Add in the off-duty time, parties and alcohol and you get what we have today. Much more opportunity for physical and sexual contact which will obviously turn into both real and falsely alleged assaults. What happens to senior officers who point this out? Who talk about a culture of "hooking up" in the civilian world that they see happening around their own kids? These officers and opinions are carpet bombed with expressions like "blaming the victim." U.S Senators, representatives and talk show hosts grow livid and see this as another battle in the so-called "war on women."

So what do I say to my own kids if they are considering serving in the military? I suppose there will have to be a good conversation there. Issues such as sacrifice, hard work, commitments away from family will be discussed. But also the topics of career choices, alcohol, fraternization, and ultimately, is this best for you?

I've thought about this a lot. Experienced several years around a military that is evolving to include females in many more roles. We are moving toward a day when they will be allowed in every combat role. At that point, we will have to decide that, as a nation, if the draft is again necessary, will we include women? In equal proportions to men? Will we really want to fight that way? My guess is the answer will be, no. The policies will change. Quickly- because there are enemies of America out there who will not go to war with the same equal opportunity theories that we are now obsessively embracing. They will simply want to see us die - in numbers that will be higher because we were less prepared that we maybe should have been.

I think less about the question are my son and daughter ready for the military, than is the military ready for them? Will the skills they need to survive a battle be effectively taught, or will time be squandered with instruction on "diversity appreciation" or "how to recognize and prevent harassment?" If and when they sign up and get a little time to say goodbye, can we all say to them that the training they get will focus on just two things: winning the fight and returning home safely?