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Edited on Sat Nov-18-06 02:16 PM by shadowknows69
"They pull me back in"
-Michael Corleone
Yeah I liked Godfather III so sue me.
And yes I said the last one was going to be my last column but fate works in odd ways and as someone who has writer's block more than I have words I'm a slave to my brain when my fingers want to work. Here it is. Another small one coming soon.
Love American Army Style
If the statement “A man who has himself as an attorney has a fool for a client” is true then anyone who seeks marital advice from a cab driver at 3AM must surely be also, but we do what we can. I was “marriage counselor” tonight but it afforded me a chance to get one soldier’s views on a few things concerning the war on terror.
I picked up this soldier in town in the wee hours and almost immediately after we got through the destination formalities he proceeded to pose his problem to me.
“Is it always best to be an honest man?”, he asked me, clearly deeply pondering the question himself.
I gave sort of a half shrug and said, “Honesty is always the best policy I guess, that’s what THEY say anyway right?”
“Yeah but it sucks because the girl I just left is a really amazing person, but the problem with that is I am a married man and I need to be honest about that. Here’s the situation. I’m from Germany originally, spent my first 22 years there, Army brat. My wife is German and I was even a member of the German military before I joined the U.S. Army.”
“Before I made the switch we had the conversation about the possibility of me not being able to be stationed in Germany permanently but she still encouraged it, but now that I’m stuck in the states she won’t move here to be with me. I understand she has a great career there and everything but it’s so hard. I see my wife like three weeks a year for the last two. She said she might come to stay with me for three months before I deploy again but now she’s not even sure if she can. Now the problem is I’m really starting to get close to this girl and there’s this real chemistry but, we haven’t done anything, I do respect that piece of paper that says I’m bound to someone else but my marriage is so hard. Believe me when I came back from my last deployment I could have gotten plenty of pussy but I didn’t.
“I don’t know if you’re religious or not. I am somewhat, I don’t believe in a devil usually but I feel like I’m being tempted by him now. It’s like God, I love you, why are you putting your child through this?”
Finally able to attempt to contribute to the conversation I responded, “I do believe in stuff like that and I guess I’d say that in the grand karmic scheme of things you being honest to this girl, and yourself, will probably be a good thing. Maybe when you tell her you’re married it won’t matter to her or even to you at that point. If your marriage is an impossible situation for you then you should let your wife know and see if you two even want to fix it and then go from there.”
I related a couple small personal anecdotes but told him that I didn’t have much of a frame of reference on what an impossible situation that must be, the distance and the time apart, It’s only natural he would connect with someone else with similar qualities to his wife and apparently this girl he met in Northern New York did. She was also from Germany and from a town near to his boyhood home. I just told him that when things are brought to a head then things should be laid on the table or the parties involved are just left in a terrible limbo. The question I think most on this man’s mind was is fate trying to tell me something? Have I found my soul mate? Who among us hasn’t asked that question?
There was a sudden pause in the irresolvable conversation and unintentionally my “war reporter” mode kicked in.
“So you must have an interesting perspective on the army having been in two different ones. So what would you say the biggest differences between the German and U.S. military are?”
“The German military is a bit more liberal. They’re hard and disciplined but they don’t sweat the little bullshit things”, he replied, I wasn’t sure what he meant exactly.
“Probably the biggest difference is I think the German army trains soldiers to be more self-sufficient where the U.S. strategy is more very strictly unit based. German soldiers tend to be more independent minded.”
This surprised me coming from a U.S. soldier given the whole “Army of one” slogan but he seemed to think the Germans had an edge up on us in that respect.
We touched on the war in Iraq briefly and when I mentioned he might not like my political views on that he emphatically said he wanted to hear them. I said I thought we really shouldn’t have gone in the first place.
“I agree with you 100% brother. There weren’t any Iraqis on the planes that hit the towers. We should have invaded Saudi Arabia.”
I have to interject with a small statement on the feeling I get when one of these guys calls me “brother”. I know it’s almost an offhanded comment to some people but to these guys it is such a term of respect and so important to them that I feel unworthy of it. It is also the moment when I know I have their respect and they know I’m not the enemy. It’s a term we should all use more except where sister applies, of course. I think it really puts it all in perspective.
I told him I was meeting a lot of troops who didn’t necessarily believe in the mission anymore but obviously were still trying to do the job with honor.
“They believe in the mission but they’re probably like me. For me the mission is my brothers.”
I told him I understood. I told him that I hoped everything worked out for him and that I hoped he knew that people like me who are against the war do still love and support our warriors. I told him that I hope him and his fellows knew there were still some of us who cared about them and that despite the fact that it seems like half the country have forgotten that they are out there sometime that there are some of us always watching.
He shook my hand and with what could have been tears in his eyes said, “Thank you brother.” The ride ends. I wish I’d learned his name. I hate this fucking war. Always tip your cabbie.
Shadow out.
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