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ottarrus
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Posts: 192
Joined: Fri 15 Oct 2021, 14:11
Location: Tacoma WA

Saw one of 'my boys' today...

Tue 14 Dec 2021, 02:44

This is a post of a more personal nature. I'm posting here because there are a fair number of military veterans and armchair historians on this forum.
Mods, if this post is a problem feel free to delete it and let me know.

So I saw one of 'my boys' today.
I don't have children of my own, but I am the First Sergeant of a US Civil War reenactment company. Here in the US this is a very family-friendly hobby, and quite a few kids grow up in it. Well, one of the kids... well, now a 'young man'... in my company came home from US Army Basic Training this week and this is the first time I had a chance to see him. Thing is, he didn't make it through. This was no real fault of his own. He developed shin splits... shin splits that literally ran to his hip socket. As I have told him repeatedly, he didn't give up, he gave out. He went until his body had no more 'go' in it. Every single veteran I know saw people in their training units get 'chaptered' for one reason or another, including shin spits. And my trooper kept going until he literally couldn't walk. His unit was on a field problem, and he so immobile that they sent a heli-vac for him -- something almost unheard of while training in the US military.
And I have to give the Devil his due: the Army really did take care of him. He didn't get a 'medical chapter', this is kind of like failing the preseason physical in a sports team... you couldn't perform so the Army gives you a 'General' Discharge [which is in between an Honorable and Dishonorable]. They medically retired him... he gets 'Veteran' status, free medical care at VA, and if he can recover in 6 months he can reenlist with full seniority [which counts for pay in the US military].
But it's still hard to come home at Christmastime feeling 'in-between'... he didn't fail, but he didn't succeed either.

As for me, I'm doing my best to buoy his spirits. But even being in my mid-50's I just don't know how to do that very well. I HAVE told him that I'm proud of him, that he's got nothing to be ashamed of, that there are times when giving it your best isn't enough, and that not every single person ever reaches that point in life and that this is an incredibly valuable lesson. All of that isn't placating him or condescending to him. I believe it's true because I've been there myself. But it's hard for an old war mutt like me to see one of 'my boys' have to learn these lessons the hard way.
'Parenthood by proxy', I guess.

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