Flags of Our Father's

Let me be clear on one point here. I have no idea, at least personally, what going to war is like. My eight years of military service has been neatly packaged in terms of crescendos , concerns over tempo, and andante sections and I have only fired my weapon at targets. Never another human being. With that being firmly stated let me say something else. I do believe that I know much more about what it means to go to war and fight for this country than everybody I'm around in my little world of suburban Denver. I know this because I have first hand experience with many who have been there and experienced it. I have shared a smelly tent, been trained in the art of setting up ambushes, and padded through forests at 2am with 60+ pounds of gear on my head, my shoulders, and on my back while listening to their stories of IED's, firing their weapons at real, living people, and the tragedy of losing their comrades. I've heard their stories, I've asked them questions, and their response always has one thing in common: it's tragic. It's tragic the way war tears countries apart, people apart, and the way soldiers come home to families that have often been stressed and stretched beyond repair.

Last night I watched the movie "Flag of Our Fathers" with my roommate's fiance. Though I have never loved Clint Eastwood, I truly found it to be one of the most insightful, truth filled depictions of what war is really about. I think one of the lines that struck me was when one of the main characters, fed up with the attention and misrepresentation that he had received for allegedly partaking in raising the flag at Iwo Jima said "I'm no hero. I'm just trying to not get shot." What war is about is one thing. What war is represented to our society to be about is entirely something different.

One of my friends is considering joining the active duty Army. Though I would be supportive no matter what he decides, I do believe his perspective to be a bit naive. He seems to have bought into the persona of soldiers running around and jumping out of trees with knives in their mouths and then coming out the hero in the end that seems to fill the average civilian's belief about a day in the life of an American soldier. I know he has motivation to join other than just the grandeur and illusion of fighting for our country like our grandfathers did, but I really just want to shake him and in some way persuade him of what I know to be true about military service. It's a lot of sitting around, and then comes one day when you're thrust into the middle of a situation of which you have no control. A situation where your main concern is just to not get shot. To shoot them before they can focus their front sight on your forehead. That is the real experience that I've talked about with so many soldiers who have been there and done that. Don't get me wrong, I have the greatest respect for them all. But I wouldn't wish any friend to live this life and I think, rather I know, the soldier's who have been there would agree.

Sure the true tragedy might be a life wasted behind a computer at a desk eight hours a day for the rest of one's life, but shouldn't the truth of what the military is be considered before ultimately signing away years of your life? Most movies are not the truth. Most recruiters are not the truth because they have a quota to fulfill. Maybe the more appropriate consideration would be, how best can I serve others and would sitting around all day until someone shoots at me really fulfill that desire?