I am often amused at my friends who thank me on Veteran's Day and say that they'd have made awful soldiers themselves.
Like I was a good soldier or something!
I was not a good soldier. I will admit it.
I was the kind of troop who shined in the field and tarnished in the barracks.
It drove my tank commander and platoon sergeant nuts trying to motivate me.
The thing is, I have too much negative motivation about cleaning my room, mowing the lawn and picking up after other people.
Left to my own devices I trend towards nocturnalism. The Army is a decidedly morning person on post, but loves to play in the dark in the field. Which military environment aligns with my interests again?
A problem with a peacetime army is hardly any time is spent in the field. Even some of our "field" time was under normal post schedules; like almost all of gunnery.
A really hilarious thing to me, now, is the person I've become would be a far better soldier than the person I was when I enlisted. The irony that it's likely because I enlisted that I am this person is not lost on me.
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I still thank you. You went and therefore stupid and lazy kids like myself back in those days (well, still stupid and lazy, just no longer a kid) didn't have to. As bad as you might think you were, I can guarantee I'd have been 10 times worse. For most of the reasons you list and many, many more.
ReplyDeleteAnd I understand WHY you'd be a better soldier now than when you enlisted. It is called maturity. I also think that being a father has changed you in ways that probably help. I've not gained much of any of that over the years so I think I'd still be as lousy today as ever.
But it matters not for me... soldiering is not for old and broken down men, which is what I've become, and have little excuse for.