Spc. Jennifer Fitts explains why she is a soldier and remains in the army.
Over the years, Ive tried putting it in plain words, with various degrees of success.
Im a patriot, yes, but its more than a deep and abiding love of my country and a need to give back to her somehow that keeps me in the Army.
Its not the pay; although for the first time in my adult life I am totally out of debt and living more than just barely above the poverty level.
Its not the education benefits, since I earned them after my first enlistment. The GI Bill is a lovely thing, but its not why I stay.
Its not the medical care necessarily, since as a National Guard member, I dont get many medical bennies when Im not activated.
Its the people the Soldiers. The good, the bad and the indifferent.
Its that human factor that reaches out, across backgrounds and educations and lives, and binds us together.
No matter how fragile those bonds seem, theyre still there and theyre everlasting.
This is no real surprise. Historians like James McPherson studying the Civil War have found a similar motivation. McPherson titled his book looking at why men fought in the Civil War, For Cause and Comrades. Looking at what the men wrote at the time about why they fought, he found that they were just as likely to have wanted not to let their buddies down as for more grandiose ideas. Stephen Ambrose in books like Citizen Soldiers and Band of Brothers also found out that men's sense of camaraderie was one of the strongest motivations in soldiers' minds during World War Two.
(Thanks to John Byrnes for the tip)
posted by Betsy (Newmark),
http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2005/08/spc.html