Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42514
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42514
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have heard of some American military soldiers in the field keep blogs, you might search for them. Although I heard they shut that down a few years ago for soldiers in combat zones.

I was raised in a military family (my father served 20 years and retired) and in the US military myself for two years after high school (12th grade in the USA) (primarily to be eligible for the GI Bill, which funded my early college career).

I know you weren't asking "what was it like," but that might be the easiest way to explain the differences.

Boot camp was intentionally strenuous, demeaning, trivial and stressful. I knew that going in, put my ego and logic aside and made it through. For example, I understood as it was happening why I was getting yelled at for not cleaning the cap on my toothpaste or making the corners on my bed perfect 45 degree angles (with a stretched blanket that refused to cooperate).

Idiotic and pointless exercises, but the **intent** is obviously that in some situations you follow orders you don't understand or think are stupid when they are in reality not stupid; the military is not an exercise in forming a consensus on important goals. The soldiers are necessarily expendable pieces that need to follow orders without argument or debate.

That is what boot camp is testing for, and expelling people for if they do not submit. So while IRL I don't do anything just because somebody in authority told me to do it, I treated boot camp like a miserable game I had to play in order to serve my two years and earn my years of pretty-much-free college.

In actual service, I was not in the field, but in a computer room for two years, dealing with code and weather prediction for flight plans. My experience there was NOT collegial; rank matters, even among the non-commissioned. My supervisors were "sergeant," "master sergeant", "lieutenant", "major", etc, with a last name. I was called by my last name, without a title. Fine distinctions like "first lieutenant" and "second lieutenant" or intermediate forms for "sergeant" were not used.

That said, though titles were used, within ranks cursing was rampant. F--cking this, this piece of sh-t, balls deep motherf--cker, c--cksucker, all f--cked up, etc. Never cursing **at** someone (especially a superior), but profane language. Less so (but not absent) amongst officers. Less so (but not absent) amongst female soldiers.

Day-to-day regulations did not matter much, other than basic grooming and dress. And being on time. Lunch hour was **one hour** , Arriving at 8:00 AM did not mean walking into the office at 8:02 AM, and the end of the day at 5:00 PM did not mean walking out at 4:55 PM. Although most people just watched the clock for the last twenty minutes, it wasn't a slave camp. More like "the schedule is the f--king schedule; if you want to stare at the wall and write a book in your head for the last hour, fine, but you don't leave **my** f--cking office until 5:00."

My barracks in boot-camp were wood buildings; on station I lived in a cinder-block and steel barracks, I shared a 12x12 room with a fellow computer nerd. Rooms were inspected about once a quarter, with warning. Nevertheless, in my time there, three people were dishonorably discharged for having marijuana in their rooms. Or for being stoned idiots, since these were **not surprise inspections.** One person was written up for making candles in their room. Not lighting them, casting them in molds and selling these character-candles at a flea market in town on the weekends. (I personally thought that a harmless enterprise. Perhaps a minor fire hazard, but no more so than the other hot-plates most of us had, and were allowed.)

My father's experience in the military was less harsh. He was never an officer, but a high-rank of sergeant. He had an office job his entire career, he worked up to manage a staff that **planned** staffing for new military facilities of all kinds. For example, I remember him working on a new hospital; he was part of the team that determined how many doctors, nurses, techs, janitors, cooks, accountants, medical equipment maintenance, buildings and grounds maintenance, plumbers, electricians, whatever, every job in the hospital, what ranks occupied each position, the command structure within the hospital, all of that stuff. Everything to do with people, employees, civilian contractors, etc.

For him I think the atmosphere was more collegial; but he still referred to his boss as "major", "colonel," etc. And he was ten or twelve ranks above anything I achieved.

Original score: 1