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A Higher Calling

In a recent comment this statement was made about me:

No, instead you chose to go into the military where you became a belligerent warmongering conservative.

This statement shows a lack of understanding of the military and the people who serve in it. At the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing I will explain what military service means to me. The term soldier is used generically to represent all who serve in the Armed Forces.

There are few callings in life that fall into the category of “higher.” Most would agree that the highest calling is in the service of God. There are those who would agree that public servants have attained a higher calling. To me, one of the highest callings is the service of a nation in its Armed Forces. While many would disagree, few would question that it takes a special kind of person to lay his life on the line for people he has never known and will never meet. These are the selfless folks who rush into harm’s way so that people can sleep peacefully at night.

The Founding Fathers knew of the importance of the military and they wisely accounted for it in the Constitution. One of the things that the Constitution reads is that, “Congress shall have the power to raise and support Armies” (Article I, Section 8 ). The wise ole’ men knew that no nation can be truly free if it can not defend itself. There must be an Army, or Armed Forces, if you will, to protect that which we hold dearly. If these did not exist, neither would our nation.

People join the military to serve their nation. They give freely of themselves so that others may enjoy the rights endowed upon us by our Creator. They do not join for wealth or fame. They join to make life here a little better and to protect that which has been paid for with the blood of many brave men and women. When a person joins the military he gets trained in discipline, tradition, esprit, and team work. These folks are from all walks in life but the thing they have in common is a deep love of their country. The military does not train people to be belligerent or warmongering. The military is here to ensure the peace and lacking that, to secure our freedom.

I think that when men or women join the military they join an organization of people who have a long history of bravery and heroism in the name of brotherhood and freedom. There are few, if any, jobs in this world where a person is willing to lay down his life for those around him. There are few jobs where people serve selflessly for people who they do not know or will never meet. There are few jobs where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and that teamwork is the ultimate accomplishment in preparing for, executing, and accomplishing a mission. It was said that people sleep peacefully at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. This is very true. Without those nameless guardians we would live in constant fear.

The idea that soldiers are warmongers is patently wrong. No one prays for peace more than a soldier for it is he who must bear the burden of its alternative. There are some who actually like the sting of battle. Once you are in it you must, for survival’s sake, embrace the thousands of hours of training to ensure you are not carried off the plane in a box. Just as importantly, soldiers work to make sure their buddies do not suffer that fate. It is hard for many people to grasp this concept, that is, of placing other’s lives ahead of their own. Soldiers do that everyday for each other and for their countrymen. The flag has red in it to symbolize the blood shed for this nation. The blood of countless men and women has been shed so that those in this country as well as others may live in freedom.

An unknown author wrote:

For those who fight for it everyday, life has a special meaning the protected will never understand.

This is very true. The soldiers who have waged war know what life is about. They know how precious it is. They know that they might have to give theirs so that others may live but they also know that it is far better, as Patton said, “to make the other Son of a Bitch die for his country.” They know that they fight for everyone else’s right to talk badly about them, protest them, and spit upon them. They see elections as the result of their hard work and they feel satisfaction that they helped to ensure a way of life that is the envy of the World.

Perhaps I went off on a tangent with this one but I felt it needed to be said. I do not care what people say about me. This Dog has thick skin but to insinuate that the military produces warmongers does a disservice to all the men and women who serve this nation honorably. Perhaps the reason some people have trouble understanding this is because they are without honor themselves.