thedrifter
02-18-09, 09:44 AM
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Hard times in war and peace
Gordon Dillow
Columnist
The Orange County Register
GLDillow@aol.com
I spent some time with my Marine friend Mac the other day. And I was reminded once again how lucky this country is to have guys like him.
I met Mac six years ago in Kuwait, when he and his fellow Marine "grunts," infantrymen, were getting ready to go into Iraq. He was a 28-year-old corporal then, a guy who had served a four-year Marine Corps hitch after high school in the early 1990s and then re-enlisted after 9/11, thinking that his country needed him. Which it did.
I went with Mac and the Marines all the way to Baghdad in 2003, then went back to Iraq with him in 2004. Since then Mac, who's now a staff sergeant, has become one of my closest friends. So when he came out from the East Coast to the Twentynine Palms Marine base for some training, I drove out to see him.
It wasn't an "authorized media interview," which is why I'm not using his name. It was just two old war buddies getting together at the staff NCO club for steaks and beers and to talk about the old days, and the days to come.
Like a lot of professional military guys I know, Staff Sergeant Mac figures that hard times are coming. And so do I.
There are two kinds of hard times for men and women in the U.S. military. There are the hard times of war, of course, with all the suffering and loss that war inflicts on military personnel and their families. But there are also the hard times of peace, or semi-peace, when the nation starts to turn inward, to focus on its own domestic problems, to wonder why we even need a military force, and to begrudge the cost of keeping one.
It has happened again and again throughout our history, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It happened in the 1930s, when the U.S. Army was smaller than Romania's, and it happened again after World War II, when military manpower was cut by 90 percent. It happened after Vietnam, when the U.S. military was unfairly held in contempt by many Americans, and treated accordingly, and it happened again in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
And if history is any indication, it's going to happen again now. With the war in Iraq winding down, with most Americans far more concerned about their mortgages and their 401(k)s than about Iraq or Afghanistan or the war on terror, with cries of "Health care not warfare!" already sounding out, it seems likely that lean times are ahead for the U.S. military.
I'm not just talking about cutbacks in big-ticket military items like bombers or missiles. Even though the U.S. military has less than half as many active duty personnel today as it had 40 years ago – 1.4 million now versus 3 million then – I suspect that in the years ahead the military will have to make do with even fewer bodies, fewer dollars, and fewer rounds to fire on the practice range.
Which is why guys like Staff Sergeant Mac are so important.
Throughout our history, whenever this nation has turned away from and shortchanged its military, there have been men and women who have stuck it out, professional warriors who have kept the military together. There's not a lot of glory or recognition in it, and not much money, either. They have faced and will face indifference and even hostility from many Americans. But they carry on.
As I write this, my friend Mac is in the field at Twentynine Palms, sleeping in the dirt, eating MREs and cold "tray rats," sweating in the day and freezing in the night, getting his grunts ready for their next deployment. Soon he'll say goodbye to his wife and two baby sons and head out to Iraq or Afghanistan or some other Godforsaken place that Americans seem to care less and less about -- and after that's over, he and our other professional military men and women will start getting ready to go again, whenever and wherever we decide to send them.
I hope I'm wrong on this. I hope that despite our many domestic problems, we won't neglect our military in the coming years.
But even if we do, I know that guys like Staff Sergeant Mac will persevere through the hard times of peace.
And because of them, we'll be better prepared for the harder times of war.
CONTACT THE WRITER: GLDillow@aol.com
Ellie
Hard times in war and peace
Gordon Dillow
Columnist
The Orange County Register
GLDillow@aol.com
I spent some time with my Marine friend Mac the other day. And I was reminded once again how lucky this country is to have guys like him.
I met Mac six years ago in Kuwait, when he and his fellow Marine "grunts," infantrymen, were getting ready to go into Iraq. He was a 28-year-old corporal then, a guy who had served a four-year Marine Corps hitch after high school in the early 1990s and then re-enlisted after 9/11, thinking that his country needed him. Which it did.
I went with Mac and the Marines all the way to Baghdad in 2003, then went back to Iraq with him in 2004. Since then Mac, who's now a staff sergeant, has become one of my closest friends. So when he came out from the East Coast to the Twentynine Palms Marine base for some training, I drove out to see him.
It wasn't an "authorized media interview," which is why I'm not using his name. It was just two old war buddies getting together at the staff NCO club for steaks and beers and to talk about the old days, and the days to come.
Like a lot of professional military guys I know, Staff Sergeant Mac figures that hard times are coming. And so do I.
There are two kinds of hard times for men and women in the U.S. military. There are the hard times of war, of course, with all the suffering and loss that war inflicts on military personnel and their families. But there are also the hard times of peace, or semi-peace, when the nation starts to turn inward, to focus on its own domestic problems, to wonder why we even need a military force, and to begrudge the cost of keeping one.
It has happened again and again throughout our history, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It happened in the 1930s, when the U.S. Army was smaller than Romania's, and it happened again after World War II, when military manpower was cut by 90 percent. It happened after Vietnam, when the U.S. military was unfairly held in contempt by many Americans, and treated accordingly, and it happened again in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
And if history is any indication, it's going to happen again now. With the war in Iraq winding down, with most Americans far more concerned about their mortgages and their 401(k)s than about Iraq or Afghanistan or the war on terror, with cries of "Health care not warfare!" already sounding out, it seems likely that lean times are ahead for the U.S. military.
I'm not just talking about cutbacks in big-ticket military items like bombers or missiles. Even though the U.S. military has less than half as many active duty personnel today as it had 40 years ago – 1.4 million now versus 3 million then – I suspect that in the years ahead the military will have to make do with even fewer bodies, fewer dollars, and fewer rounds to fire on the practice range.
Which is why guys like Staff Sergeant Mac are so important.
Throughout our history, whenever this nation has turned away from and shortchanged its military, there have been men and women who have stuck it out, professional warriors who have kept the military together. There's not a lot of glory or recognition in it, and not much money, either. They have faced and will face indifference and even hostility from many Americans. But they carry on.
As I write this, my friend Mac is in the field at Twentynine Palms, sleeping in the dirt, eating MREs and cold "tray rats," sweating in the day and freezing in the night, getting his grunts ready for their next deployment. Soon he'll say goodbye to his wife and two baby sons and head out to Iraq or Afghanistan or some other Godforsaken place that Americans seem to care less and less about -- and after that's over, he and our other professional military men and women will start getting ready to go again, whenever and wherever we decide to send them.
I hope I'm wrong on this. I hope that despite our many domestic problems, we won't neglect our military in the coming years.
But even if we do, I know that guys like Staff Sergeant Mac will persevere through the hard times of peace.
And because of them, we'll be better prepared for the harder times of war.
CONTACT THE WRITER: GLDillow@aol.com
Ellie