Sunday, March 3, 2013

Your in the Army now


well I joined up when I was 18 for two reasons. 1. as a feminist, equal rights meaning equal responsibility. In this country historically all equality in civil rights has been preceded by service in the military. So I wanted to do my part, when taking a stand for civil rights and equality, service counts. The second reason, because I was a dedicated hippy dippy lefty liberal. I suppose that may seem odd. You may suppose a person of my natural inclination would go peace corps not hard core.
One, for the philosophic reason, what ever you oppose you need to understand. For me the whole military mind set was such a foreign country I just had to try the venture. And thinking ahead to future arguments, knowing I was a hippy dippy liby lefty, I wanted to have the trump card to "If you don't love you country leave it." 'Been there done that, wore the combat boots, so shut the bleep up.'
Joining the Army so I could win an argument I might have some day, may seem a bit odd. All I can say is, I really hate to lose an argument.
I started out to be an interrogator. It sounded like a pretty cool job. Very James Bond ohh and a top secret security clearance, your 18 that's just tit's cool. So I went to fort Huachuahua in Arizona for the interrogation school. I quickly discovered that I had absolutely no interest in how many 9mm makaraof pistols Interrogation subject X may have in the 2nd motorized rifle platoon of the third motorized rifle company.
'hold on a minute here, James Bond never had to take inventory.'
Yeh I flunked out. Well what would expect with a gal who starts an interrogation with
'ok you know what? Don't talk to me, I don't want to hear it, I brought a book,' They kept me on longer then they would have another marginal solider because for awhile there they thought I was being very cleaver, getting people to talk with reverse psychology.
So anyway with this that and the other I ended up in water purification, and learning to run the water purification equipment was cool. I was the first female they had ever trained in the field. And no sooner then I had gotten all through training and my first posting in Germany, it was decided that water purification was too close to 'the battle field' for a female. So anyway between this and that I ended up answering phones and taking inventory.