Over the years, I’ve tried putting it in plain words, with various degrees of success.
I’m a patriot, yes, but it’s more than a deep and abiding love of my country and a need to give back to her somehow that keeps me in the Army.
It’s not the pay; although for the first time in my adult life I am totally out of debt and living more than just barely above the poverty level.
It’s not the education benefits, since I earned them after my first enlistment. The GI Bill is a lovely thing, but it’s not why I stay.
It’s not the medical care necessarily, since as a National Guard member, I don’t get many medical bennies when I’m not activated.
It’s the people – the Soldiers. The good, the bad and the indifferent.
It’s that human factor that reaches out, across backgrounds and educations and lives, and binds us together.
No matter how fragile those bonds seem, they’re still there and they’re everlasting.
This is no real surprise. Historians like James McPherson studying the Civil War have found a similar motivation. McPherson titled his book looking at why men fought in the Civil War, For Cause and Comrades. Looking at what the men wrote at the time about why they fought, he found that they were just as likely to have wanted not to let their buddies down as for more grandiose ideas. Stephen Ambrose in books like Citizen Soldiers and Band of Brothers also found out that men's sense of camaraderie was one of the strongest motivations in soldiers' minds during World War Two. (Thanks to John Byrnes for the tip) posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:58 AM
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Over the years, I’ve tried putting it in plain words, with various degrees of success.
I’m a patriot, yes, but it’s more than a deep and abiding love of my country and a need to give back to her somehow that keeps me in the Army.
It’s not the pay; although for the first time in my adult life I am totally out of debt and living more than just barely above the poverty level.
It’s not the education benefits, since I earned them after my first enlistment. The GI Bill is a lovely thing, but it’s not why I stay.
It’s not the medical care necessarily, since as a National Guard member, I don’t get many medical bennies when I’m not activated.
It’s the people – the Soldiers. The good, the bad and the indifferent.
It’s that human factor that reaches out, across backgrounds and educations and lives, and binds us together.
No matter how fragile those bonds seem, they’re still there and they’re everlasting.
This is no real surprise. Historians like James McPherson studying the Civil War have found a similar motivation. McPherson titled his book looking at why men fought in the Civil War, For Cause and Comrades. Looking at what the men wrote at the time about why they fought, he found that they were just as likely to have wanted not to let their buddies down as for more grandiose ideas. Stephen Ambrose in books like Citizen Soldiers and Band of Brothers also found out that men's sense of camaraderie was one of the strongest motivations in soldiers' minds during World War Two. (Thanks to John Byrnes for the tip) posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:58 AM
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