So, as we get
through another Veterans Day, I began to think about a former friend of mine
whom I went to Basic Training with seven years ago. He is no longer in the Army, which he got out
two and a half years ago and I believe was two years earlier than his ETS(End
of Time of Service) date. His time in
the Army was not a very good time for him, which I can totally relate to that at
times during my service as well, but as he got out he began to regret going
into the Army in the first place. I remember
his first anniversary being out of the Army, he commented that looking back
on it, he should've listened to the lyrics more carefully, talking about a song
from Metallica called Disposable Heroes.
However, despite all of this, he still trots around calling himself a
Veteran and takes advantage of all the benefits that come with it. I understand, his time in the Army wasn't
very great, as my time wasn't perfect at all by any means, but to literally
denounce his time by nearly saying it was a mistake to join in the first place
and then take the benefits that come with it is literally a double
standard. I experienced hearing from
Soldiers as I was in when they were getting out, telling me joining the
Military was a mistake and they should've never have joined, to begin with. You know, that's fine, everyone is entitled
to their opinion, but don't be going around saying that and then turn around,
parade to people that you're a Veteran and try to fetch all the benefits that
come with it. This kind of crap reminds
me of when I was back home before I joined the Army, I was talking to a lady
who's life was solely depended on government assistance, begin to tell me how
bad our nation is and we would be better off with a different government, not
to mention when I told her I signed up to go into the Army she thought it was
worst idea ever and so forth. I cannot
understand with some people, how you can hate a government that is literally
taking care of you because you can't do it for yourself for whatever
reason(sadly her reason was she was milking the system so she doesn't have to
get a job). My former friend is
literally sounding like this lady; "Oh, fuck the Army, I should've never
joined but gimme benefits from it."
Before we cut ties with one another, I used to try to cheer him up about
his time in the service, because despite the garbage you have to deal with on a
daily basis, just remember you are in the one percent of the US population to
have the guts to sign up and serve your country. The rest of the ninety-nine percent will
never understand that sacrifice, whether it was they didn't have to, medical
conditions prevented them to, or they just flat out said "Screw
That!", whatever the situation they are currently in. I joined at a late age because the option
was always kept in my back pocket when the situation I was in got extremely
bad, I had that to fall back to. And my
the situation at the time was in dire straits; I was laid off from working as an
accounts payable/receivable clerk for nearly a year, the town where I was
living in had no means of employment at all, and I was living with a friend of
mine which we both were living with hid dad who liked to hang out with drug
addicts so he can get his dick sucked, despite the fact these pieces of shit
would steal from him, call him names and even sometimes beat the crap out of
him. Me and my friend, along with some
other people including his older sister tried to change his father while I
lived there but nothing seemed to work.
As a result, when it came known his father wouldn't change and I did not
want to go back living with my father, which we got into a huge confrontation a
couple years before which led me to live with my friend, I decided to join the
Army. Now, after seven years in, and
will be separating shortly in the next few months on a medical discharge, which
is looking like a medical retirement, I have to say I am proud of my time in
the Army. Don't get me wrong, there were
tons upon tons of crap I had to put up with, but overall, I don't regret my
decision joining. As for my former
friend on the other hand, who had the gall to talk about on his crappy page on
Facebook about looking for IED's on roadsides while on a convoy because
"we" service members are trained to look for anything suspicious even
though he never went on a combat deployment, and South Korea is NOT one of
those, if you continue to say you regret joining the Army then do me and every
other Veteran a favor: STOP acknowledging you're a Veteran, don't go to the VA,
and don't try to pick up benefits because you served and hated it. You think you were the only one that had a
bad time in the Army? Everyone has who was
in, from the four-star general to the lowly private. But for some of us we look at the good times
we had while in the shithole, and realize almost ninety-nine percent of the
population don't have the balls to do what do or did. Remember that, I have fucking spoken!
The Angry Private
OEF 2010-2011 101st AB DIV
