It's all over the news that the latest Canadian soldier to be killed was not happy with military life. Apparently they were overworked and undersupplied, and he didn't expect that.
How does that happen?
I'm not saying this to get all blamosaurus on the deceased, I just think we need to seriously examine how it happens that someone enters the military without knowing it's going to be hell.
Did he somehow never get exposed to the fact that it's hell? Never saw a rerun of MASH or any of the war movies produced within his lifetime? Glossed over WWI in his history class? Or did he have the idea that it's hell, and then get talked out of it by recruiters? Or was he just one of those over-optimistic people who insists on looking only at the bright side of everything and brushes off the negative?
What kind of situation leads to a grown adult not expecting military service to be hell, and how can we avoid that in the future?
5 comments:
First, I have been commenting far more than I should these days. I hope I'm not becoming a bore. Uh, more so. Thing is you keep hitting on subjects that are near and dear to my heart. Or mind. Or whatnot.
Anyhow, I've just published a book dealing with PTSD in WWII. (Acronyms r0XX0r.) You'd think that, after a generation of men came back from WWI with shellshock and other verious mental maladies, and after reading just a line or two of Wilfrid Owen, no one would go to war in WWII not knowing it was hell; yet the strain and stress of combat led to many cases of LMF ("Lack of Moral Fibre", the official term for "coward") in the RAF and RCAF. And knowing that, surely no one went into Viet Nam without knowing that war... et cetera.
Here are a couple of explanations:
1. The guy joined up as a teenager (me too -- see the pattern?). Teenagers are excited to define themselves as persons, and to get approval from authority. They also think they're invincible.
2. There's no predicting the effect of the rare form of hell that is the military experience. I never had the misfortune of combat duty, and even for me, the first summer of basic training was a life-changing experience. And the difference was notable when I came back.
I say all this not to be argumentative, but because you've asked some good questions that have very much been on my mind lately.
Oh, and buy my book. (I kid.)
I'm not familiar with the Canadian military. Have a lot of reserve units been called up for combat duty?
Here in the U.S., I know plenty of National Guard members who are in the service for the college benefits and the friendships and the comradery. For many years before Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard was "one weekend a month and two weeks a year," pretty decent money and educational benefits for what it involved. Our local detachment is an engineering unit, so they would do earth moving and such. Outside of the uniforms, nothing especially military about it and the chances of them facing combat were pretty slim. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'hell of war' never crossed their mind. They were in it mostly to pay for college and to have some buddies to drink beer with after drill.
That's probably changed now that many National Guard units have been called to duty. Our local guys lucked out, they got to serve in-state as subs for regular Air Force people who were off in Iraq. But now when you join the Guard, you know there's a fairly good chance you could be in Iraq or Afghanistan down the road. There have been 15 North Dakota soldiers killed in the war, including several Guard members.
I have to wonder if many Canadian reservists, like this boy, have a view similar to the pre-war Guard members. Just kind of bored, enjoying the friendships and never really believing he would ever be on patrol for three weeks, undersupplied and in a heavy combat zone. Just a tragedy.
As an aside, reservist units are not called up for this kind of thing (I don't think an entire reservist unit has been mobilized since WWII). But individual reservists are able to volunteer to join a regular force unit and get sent on a mission like this. Many of my friends in the reserves served in Cambodia, Yugoslavia, and Somalia in the early 90s. Others joined the regular forces and will be in Afghanistan come September.
Interesting. I guess I don't really understand this guy's thinking then.
The article mentions that his second tour was completely different than his first. If the first one was mild, maybe he just assumed (or was led to assume) things would remain like that?
Can the reservists 'unvolunteer' from the regular forces? I would guess that carries a penalty, or at least a social stigma? But if he was that miserable, he probably was more of a danger to himself and the rest of his unit than a help.
if he was that miserable, he probably was more of a danger to himself and the rest of his unit than a help.
That makes extremely good sense, but I doubt the military would think that way.
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