...if you are an efficient, logical, intelligent being
You know, I've thought about this for fortnights going on a millenia, and I'm so pent up with what my friend calls "aggro" (but I call it being pissed off). I'm so angry with the military for the way they treat their own people! I'm by no means a special case, but I have been compiling a tremendous list of things that the military has done to make my life extremely complicated and full of tension headaches. Consider this, if you have a moment:
On January 31st of 2003, I was involved in a training accident, which ultimately saw me being caught in a riptide and dashed upon the rocks of La Jolla. That incident was powerful enough to rip a swim fin in half, and tear my gear from my face, and in the process breaking my arm, bruising my ribs, tearing up my knee, and dislocating my shoulder. I had contusions so bad I still have lumps of scar tissue under my skin.
Flash forward one month: I am basically told that I need to take off my arm sling and act like I'm able to work my normal job in Search and Rescue so that my command can keep my billet filled, which enables them to continue to function on schedule. I gladly comply, but have to sign a waiver saying that I was 'fit for full duty'. During this time I was taking pain killers, of the Hydrocodone and Tylenol-3 family. A couple of weeks after THAT, I was training for a distance run, and found myself in agony, so I took some of my painkillers. The next day, a random urinalysis. During the testing, I was asked if I took any prescription drugs, and I said, "yes" and mentioned my prescriptions. I went on vacation a little later, and recieved a phone call from my divisional officer, saying that I was 'caught' taking prescription drugs unauthorized, and that I would face non-judicial punishment when I came back from vacation.
And, of course, I was tried non-judicially. I received 45 days of restriction, extra duty, and told that I would begin to separate from the military. I was told that I had a problem with prescription painkillers, and perhaps this would 'sober me up'. Never mind that I still had half of my pills left, and had taken risks on my own personal being to help out my command. Never mind that I was never told, once I declared myself 'fit for full duty', that I wasn't allowed to take those painkillers. Never mind that I had NEVER been in trouble in the military, not even written up for being late, and in fact had been decorated for going above the call of duty in a peaceful situation. And the kicker is this: once I declared myself fit for full duty, the window for clearing my system of my painkillers was 7 days, and I had my urinalysis on the 8th. ONE DAY killed my possible career.
And it went downhill from there. I fought the charges for ONE YEAR. During that time, I was subjected to meaningless work, after being stripped of my specialties and collateral duties. I was treated like a dog, because it was assumed that I would be leaving the military shortly, as in a month. But this dragged on for a year, with several hopes coming and going; always going higher and higher until reaching the political level of the higher warmongers. And ultimately, I was given 'concessions' of being discharged honorably. But when I found out, I was given one week to check out. Now, for those of you who don't know what that means, I'll give you a rough example: Move out of your house, change your job, find new insurance, find a new home, and know that you'll never return to where you came from. One week is all you are allotted.
And that is what I did. And I'm still paying for it. Because I only had one week, the military wouldn't pay for my move (which they normally do, provided that a notice is given at least TWO weeks prior). I wasn't able to sign up for transitional classes to help me find a civilian job. I was told that I had 180 days of carry-over insurance, only to find out that I am uninsured at the moment.
Let me pause to give you another slice of my story here. I have been trying to activate my insurance, only to have been given the run-around through Tri-Care, my command, DEERS, and my current ID facility. The end result was me walking into the ID facility (of which they wouldn't give me directions to since I wanted to talk to the person in charge). I demanded answers, and was given this, "no, I'm sorry, you have no health or dental insurance". I find out that I am entitled, but nobody will help me. My command refuses to talk to me.
And to top it all off, I'm still injured, but my check-out was so rushed, my military doctor said I wasn't entitled to any disability. I'm afraid that even in the future I'll become even more degraded, and will require some crucial medical assitance. All of this will have to come from another insurance source.
Oh, and my GI Bill, which I am entitled to, is not entered into the 'system' yet, and I don't have access to it, and I can't find anyone to help me out there.
My point is this, the military is a waste of YOUR tax money, a waste of time, and they are wasting lives (on the battlefield and off). And to point out another fact, the 'war' we are in is not a war, because it takes a declaration of war from congress. Reservists are dying in the middle of trying to finish college, while they have brand-new infants, new spouses, and clouded visions of what their jobs are. The UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) is ancient and out-dated, and still allows despotic leadership in certain commands. Politics are huge, and the little man or woman at the bottom, working incredibly long hours, are being lashed with the whip of responsibility, and NOT the pigs in charge.
I am a man of integrity, a man of honor, and I work incredibly hard to ensure that I do my job professionally, responsibly, and with pride, no matter where I am, and I was treated with direspect, ignorance, malice, and amateur abandon. Don't ever join the military, not because what I experienced, but because you will not matter to anyone else, only to yourself. And if you matter to yourself, then you should never feel the call of war or whatever the hell the politicos want to name it.
I still admire my peers serving faithfully, but they are still feeling the pain, whereas now I am free. I cherish my memories, but I would not want to bestow my experiences upon anyone. If you are an efficient, logical, intelligent being, stay out of the military. But this is only one man's opinion, of course, and subject to the whims of life.
p.s. If you think I had a hard time (or not), check out the news, and you'll find people like Yee, the chaplain, accused of espionage, only to be acquitted and then charged with looking at pornography on the internet and adultery (a career killer for chaplains). Or perhaps the army captain who 'assaulted' an insurgent while trying to find out about an ambush and/or impending attack on his unit. That 'assault' resulted in saving the lives of his people, while killing his career. Or maybe the two U.S. pilots who killed Canadian troops due to poor intelligence. One pilot put his guts on a tray and REQUESTED a courts-martial in order to clear his name. He was being issued a letter of reprimand, which would have ended his career but saved him from prison, while a courts-martial might have landed him a hefty sentence at Leavenworth. He still lost his career, but was vindicated in half-assed sense. The list is endless, and the people are real. Do your homework, and you'll find that your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and family are being thown into the blender, and nobody raises a finger to help them. Why? Because it's the government.