On Sep 14, 9:55*am, "Robert Green" wrote:
"Kurt Ullman" wrote in

*"Robert Green" wrote:

stuff snipped



If you want to compare what's in the heart of people you don't actually
know
with what's in the heart of a person (and her friends) I know quite well
then be my guest.

* *Heck, that is what you are doing outside of a very small sample of
people your wife (who by your admission was in a non-combat role) knew.
A skewed sample at that.

You seem to have glossed over my ten year stint at the Pentagon where I
worked with O5's and up, most of who had seen combat in Vietnam, the GW1,
Bosnia and even Somalia and Korea. *Quite a few of the bird colonels I
worked with are now one and two star generals.

It's not possible to spend ten years there and not come to certain
conclusions about why people joined and what kind of people they are. *One
of the first things that happened when I was assigned there was to have some
of my new USMC friends *insist* on helping me paint my ailing parents'
house, even though they barely knew me. *That's just one reason why I find
the HeyBub's assertion so offensive. *I would call the the "motivating
principle" of almost all the officers I came in contact with was a sense of
patriotism and a desire to help protect America.

Maybe the kids just signing up to "kill them damn moose-lims" after playing
10 years of FPS video games think it's all about killing and blowing up
thing. *Even then they represent the lowest rung on the military ladder..
Most become a hell of a lot more realistic about war when they realize
there's no cheat for eternal life and no reset button to start over when
you're killed. *That wisdom usually comes when they are trying to repack a
buddies bowels back into his body cavity or some other similarly horrific
task.

I don't recall either you or HeyBub having a ten year stint at the Pentagon
under your belt, so I have to wonder where all your suppositions about what
makes soldiers tick come from. *My wife attended a seemingless endless
series of courses at the various war colleges, the National Defense
University and lots of other places under the Army's Officer Education
System. *That exposed her to many other soldiers from very different
backgrounds and with very different MOS's.

Overall, I'll agree that Civil Affairs Unit members have mostly other CAU
members as close friends, but that's not to the point of excluding all other
specialties. *Of her friends that I know well, one is a special operator
(who always likes to count the number of deadly weapons within his reach in
a house or restaurant), another a JAG officer and a third a range safety
officer. *Another good friend, a fellow civil affairs unit member died after
being stop-lossed, ending up blown to shreds by an IED on a "presence
mission" which translates into "drive around until you get shot or
exploded."

HeyBub made no distinction about "combat-related" billets.
* *Yeah and neither did you. That was sorta my point.

Sort of? * It certainly didn't come across. *HeyBub was pretty specific in
the wide net that his proclamation covered. *I've been equally specific in
saying that *not everyone who joins does so to kill and blow things up. *We
can airdrop and assemble a working, self-sufficient city anywhere in the
world in less than 72 hours. *Do you think those are all kill-happy
warfighters assembling those forward bases or engineers, combat support
personnel, cooks, truck drivers, comm techs, medics, etc?

--
Bobby G.

In the British Army, everyone is trained to use weapons. Even the
cooks and carpenters. I expect it's the same in Ameriaca.