On guard shift again, where every good blog is thought of, or bad one, I ran my fingers through my short hair and pondered. Many different questions are always scratching the surface, but today was slightly different. The threats of punishment sometimes more severe than the wrong-doing were as felt as the cool breeze that whipped through my small guard shack. No gloves, knee pads, or eye pro would surely be the end of me, and so I wore them just as I had every other time.
Lou was on one of his normal rampages, and obviously had nothing better to do with his time. He probably had spent most of the morning saying his name over and over again to himself, while relaxing in his hot tub, and making love to his face in the mirror. The standards that are set for those in the lower position are always to a higher level than those enforced on those who make the decision for it to be a standard. The old, do as I say not as I do-really kicks you right in the balls.
I find the hypocrisy of the entire situation preposterous to say the least. Here we are grown men, assigned to do one thing under the conforms of the military doctrine restricts our actions and gives us a heading for duty. We are grown men, or considered at least that, from the bottom private to the top general. Schooling is the only separation between the two individuals, and perhaps time. Time is the biggest factor that can separate me from you, and though time heals all wounds, it doesn't necessarily make you smarter. Time certainly doesn't make you less vain, or less hypocritical. I'll use Lou as my example.
The standards are the same, or should be at least throughout the ranks, regardless of rank or position. It's military doctrine that says this. Though, they are not. The constant failures from the top, the lack of discipline, the lack of responsibility for it, and the lack of accountability for it is staggering. The meat hammer reigns down on me, or you if we are out of uniform. If we do not adhere to the standards set forth. But when they are broken from the men above, those who preach it and enforce it, nothing is done. If your job is to pull guard duty, with knee pads and maxi pads on, you will do it, or you will be punished. If your job is to mitigate the risk of losing those under you's lives, and you do not do it, nothing will happen. You can even get men killed out of your negligence, your egotistical selfishness, and nothing will happen. It's all very sickening. Where's my barf bucket.
Someone loses their weapon and it's an act that is punishable as close to death as the Army can make it. You'd certainly rather be dead. You fall asleep on duty, and it's the same. Unless of course you have a high level of rank on your chest. You are given more responsibility at that level. Not only for yourself, or belongings, but for men's lives. There is no one above you to catch you, or enforce policy, you are supposed to on your own. It's amazing how that simply doesn't happen. After years of service, those simple rules are able to be broken. People have 'careers' to worry about. They have their Steelers game to watch, or more important issues, like their own health, or want or need. If you ran out of Diet Coke, but had water, or even other kinds of similar sodas, would you send your sons to go get some from the store, if their was a high possibility that they could be blown up, killed, or mangled? I would hope you wouldn't make the decision. But that decision, and one's like that are made on a day to day basis here. Because someone wants a small luxury, they send people under them to risk their lives for something the rest of us simply go without.
No one views that negligence or selfishness but us, the small fish. The big fish that could do something about it, even if they see it or don't see it, simply either do not care, nor want to hurt the careers of those who have done some time. Someone needs to answer. There needs to be some kind of fairness. Not because I want it, or because there are 800+ who feel cheated by the decisions of one or two individuals, but because it's the rules. It's Army doctrine. It's what's right. I'm coming home in less than two weeks. I am the new war vet, not the one that killed people and suffer their faces. I'm the one who was told to take shit, and eat it, and do nothing about it. We are pissed off, not just at the enemy that tried to kill us countless times, but at you Lou, and you Herb. You let us down. You didn't wear your knee pads. And unlike the absurdity of the minuscule restrictions and rules you enforced on us, yours were important standards. Important decisions. You failed us all, you failed yourselves, you failed this country and America too. And just like the rest of all you have done to us, you get the reward. You get the cheese, and we get the mousetrap.
Stay off the sprinting bench line...
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