9:39 p.m. - Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002
Ms Leslie gets criticised by a good friend
HI Celena;
You are the last person I would want to offend, but I stand by my statements. Let's take a close look at them together:
Men who are attracted to danger enough to volunteer for airborne duty are either ignorant, immature or insecure.
or brave?
Braver than those men who did not volunteer for airborne duty? Braver than those who didn't volunteer for service at all, but who honored the call of their country, set aside their own lives and took up arms as their duty? I don't think so. I think that the bravery of these men was equal. Nothing about volunteering for airborne duty made anyone braver than the average serviceman... only more ignorant, more immature or more insecure. That's my point. Just because we wore wings, we felt justified in thinking we were more and better than others who also fought. That's an insult to their bravery.
Only those who remained ignorant, immature or insecure stayed behind, reliving over and over the experience of being, for once, �special� and �elite�. They make websites, march in parades, and search each other out, pining for those old days at the same time they are crying from the pain of having lived them.
you are stereo typing, just like those two, whoever they are.
Stereotyping? I'm not so sure. What reason do you suppose that those who volunteered for airborne duty have for celebrating their 'eliteness' by creating websites, marching in parades and searching each other out?
Please understand that there are some valid reasons for reliving war experiences over and over for many years. Mental illness, e.g. PTSD is one of them. Those with PTSD have not necessarily remained ignorant, immature or insecure. They have been injured by their experiences. But again, PTSD is not the exclusive domain of former airborne soldiers. There's nothing special or 'elite' about it. And those who suffer from PTSD, as a rule, don't make websites, march in parades or search each other out. Instead, we go to no small trouble to minimize, deny, and forget our experiences. It doesn't help, but we try.
Let's do an experiment. Ask your father how he came to be a member of the 101st Airborne Div. Did he recognize as a young man that the defense of democracy required him to be in the forfront of battle, and so, out of a sense of overriding duty, he volunteered to join that 'elite' unit? What about the others that you know? Ask them and see.
I am betting that they were more like me. I was all three: Ignorant of the true danger of service as an airborne infantryman, immature enough to see such service as somehow glorious and attractive, and so insecure about my manhood that I leapt at this avenue to prove I was a man. Ask them and see in what ways they were like me.
I like to think that in the thirty-some-odd years since Vietnam, I have slowly attained some higher level of maturity and security than I had back then. I know that I am certainly less ignorant of the danger I placed myself in when I volunteered to be a paratrooper. In my view, a mature person who has been through such experiences does remember them, and honors the memories of sacrifices made and friends lost. There's nothing wrong with that. Immature persons, on the other hand, honor their old units and the 'glories' of war; The battles and the numbers of enemy dead. They create websites dedicated, not to the memories of the lost friends and their own lost youth, but dedicated to the 'eliteness' of themselves and the units in which they served. This 'eliteness' remains their most remarkable acheivement, like the high school quarterback who could never move on.
We did not volunteer for jump school out of bravery or commitment to our country. We volunteered because it was a challenge, because it seemed glamorous, or because we had something to prove. None of our motives for going to jump school made us better, braver, smarter, more secure, or more mature than anyone else in the service. This pride we feel today about having been 'screaming eagles' is a false pride, fomented and encouraged by the military in order to encourage the next generation of immature, ignorant or insecure youth to volunteer in their turn. This keeps the military supplied with fresh, motivated young men who are willing to endure the maximum hardship and danger in order to keep alive the image that they are special. Those of us who retain that false pride for all these years just remain victims of our manipulation by the army.
Celena... note that I am a proud member of the veteran's web ring, dedicated to ALL veterans. I was a victim of that false pride for all these years, until the two gentlemen from the screaming eagles web ring did me the favor of getting me thinking. I was guilty of the stereotyping you accuse me of now for all those years. But no more. Today, I honor the sacrifices and commitment of ALL veterans, and especially of all those veterans who found themselves in combat. No longer do I consider this unit or that unit to be a 'cut above' anyone. We all fought together. None of us was special.
With all due respect to your dad and the other members of the VVets of the 101st association and warm wishes for all,
Leslie
- Mormon Boy born and raised
- Vietnam Combat Veteran
- PTSD Vet
- Husband
- Father
- Grandfather
- Transexual Woman
And you think YOUR life is confusing?
Try "Being Ms Leslie"
http://MsLeslie.com/
.
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