At what point does military worship become dangerous?

[DissidentVoice]

81. OK, then, from the point of view of a former ANG Airman

First off, I wore stripes. I did not wear brass. What I did in other services could have qualified me to hold Warrant Officer grade, but the Air Force doesn't have WO's.

I was no hero. I did not see combat. I showed up, did what I was told and got a piece of paper with the words "Honorable Discharge" on it.

I worked in C3I - Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. I was in a unit that was primarily NORAD-dedicated, working in partnership with the Royal Canadian Air Force to defend North America. Although NORAD units were not immune from overseas deployment, our primary focus was defending the North American continent. That was part of the appeal for me - defending State, Nation and helping our Canadian partners. I certainly didn't want to see Tupolev-95's in our skies.

Yes, when you get to Basic Training, you get a lot of Basic Bullshit from the Military Training Instructors (AF version of drill sergeants). Some of them are actually instructor/mentor types and some of them are just assholes (those words are a direct quote from my recruiter). Mine was mostly an asshole. The process is meant as "shock treatment" to acclimate from a civilian to a military mindset, but there are those who throughout the whole process are able to discern the useful knowledge (teamwork) from the bullshit (becoming a "killing machine&quot . Others don't. The ultra gung-ho types I usually kept my distance from. Officers...you salute the rank, not necessarily the person wearing it.

The vast, vast majority of enlisted/NCO/officers I knew treated it as a job we had to do. Alright, the fighter pilots in my Wing were like fighter pilots everywhere (How do you know you're in a room with a fighter pilot? They'll tell you.) who lived, eat, breathed and shat what they did, even though most of them were airline pilots in their civilian jobs.

Yes, the USSR collapsed under its own overburdened military weight. Afghanistan was the straw that broke the Bear's back. However, I thank God that there was a man like Mikhail Gorbachev who could have the humility to notice this, rather than a Brezhnev or an Andropov who would have used that collapse as an excuse to make a strike against the Western world.

I don't think those who join are under any illusion that it's a job like one on civvy street. You live under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). You can get killed, and you can be called upon to kill another human being. From my point of view, that was a frighteningly sobering possibility. It sure as hell wasn't one to get excited about.

OK, you could say that because I was Guard and served in peacetime that I don't know what I'm talking about, and maybe in comparison to the way things are now I don't. However, there are times when a military member can be directly involved in saving a life...maybe YOUR life. What if your fishing boat capsizes in the Great Lakes? The Coast Guard will do whatever is humanly possible to save you (yes, the USCG is a military service). Tornado, flood? The National Guard (usually the Army Guard) is at the disposal of a state Governor for humanitarian relief. However, the Bush years took a hell of a toll on the Guard/Reserve forces.

Several services have civilian, volunteer, unpaid noncombat auxiliaries to assist with the humanitarian work. The USCG has the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Air Force has the Civil Air Patrol. I have been a member of both and there are a lot of dedicated volunteers in those auxiliaries.

I don't worship the military, nor do I want to be worshipped because I was in the military. I don't think most military people do.

FWIW.