pity - sorrow felt for another's suffering or misfortune, sometimes connoting slight comtempt because the object is regarded as weak or inferior.
The last few years seem to have been a race for politicians to express the most sympathy and pity for our service men and women. The poor soliders this, the poor soldiers that. We need better armor for our children - our babies are dying. More benefits for our troops. More medical care for our veterans. Our heroes deserve more, more, and still more. Whose sentiments are these, exactly?
I have seen and interacted with soldiers of all stripes, sorry-asses and bad-asses. I was in the infantry, which is comprised of more hardy souls than not, and eventually became mature enough to understand who was for real and who wasn't. Let me give a couple examples:
As a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I met and worked with military personnel from every branch. Sadly, one of the largest pieces of dung I've every worked with was a fellow Tomb Guard. We'll call him Staff Sergeant (SSG) Mack. This guy was a piece of work from the get-go. In order to become a Tomb Guard, you have to complete about seven months of training. It ain't easy either. Trainees, or "new-guys," have no authority even if they are a Non-Comissioned Officer (NCO). The reason is that if the new-guy fails training they are sent back to their previous unit and we couldn't have trainees in leadership positions being swapped out every month or so. The pass-fail rate is ridiculous...most new-guys flunk out in the first few weeks. So here's SSG Mack, a new guy, and he wants to be in charge. Well, this went against our normal procedure so he went to the Colonel (who was a politician in a uniform) and got his way. Since he was the authority (the Tomb Guard Platoon has no Lieutenant...the day to day activities remain the same and there'd be nothing for an officer to do) on his shift, of course he passed his training. It'd be like a convict acting as judge and jury at his own trial. So SSG Mack gets his Tomb Guard Badge upon completion of his training. (The Tomb Guard Badge is the least awarded badge or patch in the Army. Each one is numbered and, the last I checked, there have only been slightly more than 500 awarded since 1958.) So, he works at the Tomb for a few months and with the help of fhis buddy, the Colonel, creates a new job for himself: Assistant Sergeant of the Guard. The Sergeant of the Guard (SOG) was simply the platoon sergeant and did nothing but sit in an office from 9 - 5. The Tomb ran itself and surely didn't need an assistant platoon sergeant. Mack proceeded to make life hell for whoever had been against his little power grab but whatever, he was still an asshole. After a year as the ASOG, he decided not to re-enlist (we couldn't have been happier) and became a civillian. As a civillian, he created the Tomb Guard Association. All the old Tomb Guards joined, and like with any group of people, there were plenty of assholes like Mack. Mack and the assholes got together with the Colonel and he actually gave them a controlling say over what happens at the Tomb! A bunch of civillians with nothing better to do had been given authority over military matters! In my four years as a Tomb Guard, I saw the most prestigious post in the Army turn into the most manipulated military political tool. Thank you SSG Mack.
In Italy, I was privileged to have Sergeant First Class (SFC) Daniels for a platoon sergeant. I was a relatively new sergeant and he did more to develop my own leadership skills in a year and a half than any other influence in my life to date. SFC Daniels was (and I only use the past tense because I have not kept in touch) the absolute epitome of the American Infantry Non-Comissioned Officer. He was lethal and highly proficient with every weapon system employed by the infantry, his ability to manuever and employ a support-by-fire element was amazing, and he was spot-on logistically. Though he surpassed every expected area of his duty position in the field, his strongest suit was as a leader. Sure, he could kill an enemy with any of a dozen weapons systems and do so in the blink of an eye; but, above all, he was a professional. In Kosovo, when dealing with stubborn and sometimes belligerent people, he always remained calm and acted with the utmost respect. Respect for the other person, yes, but also respect for the notion that he represented, on a small scale, America. What an example he set for me and all the other troops. Always awake first, never late or unprepared for anything, and so very thorough in everything he did. And he knew how to train and teach people. His understanding of any given task was unmatched by anyone else. I learned what I could from Daniels (I'm sure it was only the tip of the iceberg) but what he taught was so superior and intelligent that when I went to another unit in Germany, I instantly became the Battalion-level instructor for Close Quarters Combat and Marksmanship. The man was always, always above reproach...he was never wrong. Like I said, the epitome of the American soldier and NCO. I remember screwing something up, not bad but bad enough, and he never once made me feel shitty. He never lost his composure but made sure that I understood the task, how I screwed it up, and how to execute it correctly the next time. What leadership! How many supervisors in the business world would have simply jumped down my throat? Another time, we had just begun a very intense, week-long field exercise. At the end of the first day, which was rough, I had slammed my already bad knee into a rock and could barely walk on it. There were another five days left to go and I was a squad leader at the time. It would have been very easy for him to think that I was faking the injury so as to get out of the rest of the manuever. He didn't, maybe because I had already shown him my true character, but he made sure that I had transportation back to the Aid Station and said that he was sorry I wouldn't get to go "play." He never made me feel like I had quit or that I should be ashamed. What a leader...I'd follow that man into Hell wearing diesel trousers.
The trip down memory lane was great but I do have a point. Of the two soldiers the I've described, which one do you you want guarding our nation? Think about that for a long minute. Okay, now ask yourself which soldier you would want to lead your son, daughter, brother, or mother into battle? Yeah, I know, that was obvious. But what isn't so obvious is which one actually wants and enjoys receiving the pity that spews from the agenda-driven media and Washington politicians?
All of this has been leading up to this statement: real soldiers, professional soldiers, the ones like SFC Daniels don't want or need your pity. They are hard men and women who take their job very seriously and don't need your emotional, sensational assitance to help them do it. They want you to leave them alone so they can protect you, their families, and the goodness that is America. These people have willfully volunteered to put themselves in harm's way for our sake; they are not the children and babies that so many talking heads like to paint them as. Sure, they have faults and there are areas that could stand to be overhauled; but, these people are warriors and if we leave them alone and hold back the pity that they don't deserve...they will ensure another day of our freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment