OK, well, I joined in 1998. I’ve been through Clinton, Bush, and, now, Obama. It’s much the same. In some ways better, in some ways worse. Your son never saw the garrison Army like I did. Now that the war is winding down, he’ll get his chance. I hope he likes working long hours for the sake of working long hours and doing all of those wonderful invented tasks NCOs come up with in order to keep Soldiers busy. My favorite was a First Sergeant who made his company flip over rocks in a rock bed b/c they were “too hot.” That kind of crap stopped in a hurry due to high optempo, deployments, and training. Now we’re getting back to stupidity again.
The cultural decay you all are foaming at the mouth to convince me of? I can only shrug my shoulders at it. The military is a subset of our national culture, nothing more. This country has been on the downward slide for a long, long time. Why are you so surprised/angry that some of it has wormed its way into the military? What did you do to stop it before it reached its current levels? Why did you fail me and your son?
Now, as to how bad it is around here. Well, let’s look at that. How long has your employer embraced homosexuals? I can honestly say mine just really started. Can you? While the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was still in effect, I could easily rattle off half-a-dozen homosexuals within 100m of my workspace. I spoke my piece to those who would listen, not that anyone cares what a Captain thinks, but the policy was repealed by people many, many levels above me. The net effect, so far, has been zero.
You people complain about removal of crosses and this complete B.S. about how we’re going to start court-martialing Christians. Frankly, the Chaplains I’ve run into have always been rather milquetoast or downright not religious. My Soldiers told me about their prior Chaplain who openly watched porn on their first deployment. But, when was the last time you saw a major organization open and close a professional gathering with prayer? We just did last month. Can you say that?
The military (Army in particular since that’s what I know best) has its issues, God knows I know, but these vain attempts to get me to resign my commission in outrage over “what has been done” are just stupid and childish. We’re still professionals doing a job, it’s that simple.
He's been doing this since 2005. I was doing similar invented tasks during my enlistment in the mid to late 70's, as did my older brother when he was a Ranger in the late 60's to early 80's. Same for my father when he was serving in the 50's.
. . . but these vain attempts to get me to resign my commission
I've not once suggested that you, or anyone else should resign from military service. My only issue is your claim that the military culture hasn't changed much.
For most of the rest of your current post, I completely agree. Well, except that I have failed you and my son. I'm an extremely small minnow in a huge ocean. The tsunami of cultural change that is taking place in the U.S., including the military, is too powerful for one extremely unimportant individual to have an influence over.
Frankly, the Chaplains I’ve run into have always been rather milquetoast or downright not religious.
This was not my experience when I served. Of course, the www was not invented by Al Gore yet.
But, when was the last time you saw a major organization open and close a professional gathering with prayer? We just did last month.
For clarification, just exactly what constitutes a "major organization" with respect to this? How many were in that gathering? Are you saying this mass prayer involved an entire base? A division? A battalion? A brigade? A regiment? A platoon? A company?
I work for a public school district in the Sacramento region of N. CA. That should answer a few of your questions. Despite the fact this is CA, and public education, you might be surprised to know there a more conservatives working in schools than you might of believed. I've had conversations throughout this past year with a good many of the people I work with who do not like what is happening to this country, and most of these have included comments on how God is being removed more and more from our lives by the government, and that this is much of the problem with our current societal ills.
Why are you so surprised/angry that some of it has wormed its way into the military?
Surprised? No. Aggrieved? Disgusted? Absolutely! Given who currently controls the political landscape of America, there is no surprise to what is going on.