Gill was still wearing his desert camo uniform, which indicated he was an airborne qualified member of the U.S. Army. He still had his backpack which was loaded with Kashmir scarves for the hometown ladies—though I think they are called something else in Islamic countries. Gill is fit, slightly over fifty, belongs to a National Guard transportation unit, and returned from a year in Afghanistan today.
I’m a driver—drive everything, chiefly a H…. [I did not get the spelling of this tank hauling truck] with forty-eight wheels. We use it to haul Abrahms [main battle tanks]. The roads are for shit over there. There is one half asphalt road, the rest are dirt roads and goat tracks—up and down, up and down, up and down.
I tell you, if you have a kid who needs a car he can’t ruin, get him a white Toyota Corolla—that is all they drive over there and they keep them running forever. You would not believe the shit they pile on their vehicles. I’ve got to use twelve straps as per regulation to move a container. They use two and it’s hanging off the back end of a pickup truck so far that the thing is doing wheelies. The driver can only steer when the front wheels hit the road—bing, bing. Bing—steer, bing, bing, bing... I’ve seen a truck hauling a truck, a bus on top of a bus with a car on top of that!
I’ve seen a forty foot container on a pickup! I’ve taken hundred-and-thirty ton loads over bridges rated for ninety tons. But the craziest thing I ever saw was this Toyota Corolla, the guy hunched over in the front seat winding it out over these goat trails. They pile so much stuff on the thing—adding a little over hang with every layer until the stuff is almost touching the ground, and then tapering the load back all the way to a point—that the whole thing looked like an onion twenty feet tall! And that guy is driving this basically in an off-road four-wheel-drive environment. I can drive brother. But those guys, those guys can drive better than any of us.
We were stationed in the South but ran all the way to the Pakistani border and up to Kabul. We were surrounded by poppy fields. No way could we smuggle or use any of that stuff. You come back in off transport or guard duty and you get the search, the scan, the rectal scan, the dog check. Now the guy that owns the fields, you want him to have a good year so his two hundred boys all get paid and are happy. Right, if he has a bad year and there’s no money—that shit is not good.
My pay was good, four-thousand a month. But the private contractors! Wow, those dudes, for doing the same thing I do, get twelve-thousand a run. They haul in food and fuel just like us and get twelve thousand for making it. I get four thousand for doing that shit all month long—about fifteen runs—and I don’t get to drink.
The Italians had a bar on base.
The British had a bar on base.
The Canadians have a bar on base.
Us Americans! We’re the punishment detail—play video games pal. It sure is sweet to be home.
I have heard that all throughout these wars in the 'Levant'..No alcohol for the American soldiers in these places. That is BEYOND treason.
Even the vile and money obsessed British gave their cannon fodder rum and 'india pale ales'!!!!!
It is interesting that only the U.S. among western military interlopers respects the Islamic alcohol prohibition. During the Raj the Brits didn't care at all about Islamic, Sikh and Hindu dietary restrictions, and that ended up resulting in the Sepoy Mutiny—a total bloodbath.
The U.S. Military’s alcohol ban has less to do with Muslim sensibilities than it is a return to America’s Puritan past. The Muslims are merely a convenient excuse. Yes, the American ruling class are still Puritans. They are no longer Christian, but they still possess the same distain for vice and the same desire for perfection as their Christian Puritan ancestors (“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mathew 5: 48). Perhaps even more so, since being secular progressives they believe that perfection is only a matter of devising the correct government policy. Originally the alcohol ban (General Order One) was instituted during the Gulf War of 1990-91 in deference to Saudi Arabia. What American military leaders subsequently discovered was that when American servicemen were forced to abstain from intoxicating liquors there were much, much fewer accidents and incidents of misconduct. In fact the U.S. Armed Forces had fewer personnel killed during the Gulf War than it did in a normal peacetime year, since besides having to abstain from alcohol, they were also not able to drive their privately owned cars and motorcycles. This all came as a pleasant surprise to the leadership and so, as a practical matter, General Order One was seen as a great benefit to the troops. Thus alcohol bans came to be a feature of all subsequent U.S. military operations, from the Bosnian peacekeeping force to the current Global War on Terror. Why do other NATO Armies, such as the British, Canadians, French and Italians not have a problem with drinking on deployment? That is a mystery for certain. But we know from experience that American servicemen all too frequently are NOT happy drunks, rather they are inclined to be angry and combative drunks. A very small but ever present minority of American servicemen have shown an unfortunate propensity to commit serious crimes while under the influence of alcohol, such that their leaders have little incentive to provide ANY of the troops with intoxicating beverages. Further, our society is much more litigious than it was some 40 years ago; everyone is afraid of being hit with a ruinous lawsuit. Thus leaders at every level are eager to avoid blame for allowing bad things to happen. Every crime committed by American servicemen gets intense scrutiny from the Media nowadays, always making things look worse than they are. In my estimation, the young people in the Army today are much better behaved than the soldiers we had when I first joined back in the 1970’s. You wouldn’t believe the criminals and idiots we had in the service back then! Regardless, the military’s leadership today is even more risk adverse and more sensitive to anything it might feel reflects badly on the service. Now our modern politically correct American military resembles Cromwell’s New Model Army. There is no drinking, gambling, smoking, pornography, swearing, drug use, soliciting prostitutes or making sexual propositions (at least to females it would seem). On the other hand, this new PC military has become hostile to traditional expressions of Christian faith.
Jeremy, that was excellent!
I remember how dysfunctional many of the guys I knew were in the cold war military. Both my brother and my father became alcoholics while stationed in Germany, because they had nothing to do but drink. My brother told me stories about NCOs getting them drunk and having them sign reenlistment papers...
Considering the high moral quality of the young people who I coach, who are going in and coming out of the current military, I share your view of them being better behaved then those of my generation. let us not forget the 10,000 GIs who stayed behind in France after WWII as gangsters!
Recently researching my early American colonial fiction I have come to an understanding of the Cromwellian experience as having left some toxic residue on these shores, and think that your critique of our current godless puritan leadership is spot on.
I have just read Seal Team Six, in which author Howard Wasdin states that it is not desirable—from an operational, humanitarian, of PTSD standpoint—for a sniper to operate without a belief in a higher power, lest he mistake himself for God. I am paraphrasing him, but he made a compelling argument, which is reinforced by the number of times he declined to take a shot due to his Christian conscience, only to find out that the target was a mistaken hostile, not an actual one.
Thanks for the clarification Sir.
You’re welcome James.
Like the man said, “I used to smoke, drink and swear for no reason at all. Now thanks to my job, I have a reason.”
I must confess I had to chuckle at reading your statement that both your brother and father became alcoholics while stationed in Germany “because they had nothing to do but drink”. Oh yeah?
It might surprise you to learn that the Army spent millions of dollars back in the 1970’s providing wholesome recreational activities for our soldiers stationed in Germany. Everything from wood-working and sports (including boxing) to weekend travel tours to subsidized ski trips and hunting trips. Regardless, the majority of our soldiers were uninterested in such pursuits. Instead they much rather preferred to spend their free time partaking of the pleasures of the flesh that German society offered in abundance in those days: inexpensive beer and wine, prostitution, strip clubs, pornography, and gambling. And it was ALL legal! You could even buy amphetamines and barbiturates over the counter in German pharmacies. Afghanistan hash, though illegal, seemed to be peddled everywhere the troops were. The German ruling elite has a much different “weltanschauung” (world view) on vice than our Puritan American ruling class. Germans do not promote perfection in private personal conduct, as do our American Puritans. Germans always believed it was necessary to make vice legal and available to the masses in order to provide an important social safety valve. The Germans believed that if people weren’t allowed to get their freak on in some legally allowed way, they would be prone to act out in more disruptive and chaotic ways. Even German Theologian Martin Luther taught that one should not be TOO good, least one provoke the Devil into tormenting him. Luther said, “Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ!” Whatever it was though, the German’s would insist it be done in a neat and orderly fashion. On the flipside, the German people are very much into health and self-actualization and German society offers numerous cultural actives for improving one’s mind and body. For example, if you couldn’t afford to do anything else on a weekend you could go “Volksmarching” and take a 10 or 20 kilometer hike on a marked course through picturesque countryside, after which you got a trophy of some kind. Over time you could keep track of your mileage in a log book and earn badges showing how many kilometers you hiked. And while volksmarching you could still get your fill of bratwurst and the best beer made on earth, made in accordance to the “Reinheitsgetbote”, the beer purity law of 1516!
Anyway, I suspect that your father and brother just might have passed up on some opportunities to go places and experience things. However, I AM sympathetic to their plight. I understand how it easy it is to develop self-destructive habits in the face of such unaccustomed temptations, as existed in Germany.
My father, who ended up being an Alcoholics anonymous leader for over 35 years admits to having been totally seduced by the quality and quantity of the beer. He was in a regular infantry unit in the late 1950s.
My brother was in the 82nd in the early 1980s and spent time in Italy, where he boxed. He loved West Germany and got into some great brawls there. Unlike me he was very handsome. His clearest memories were 1. loading up over 200 pounds of ordinance on his back [he weighed 115] and waiting on the tarmac in Italy wondering if his back was going to snap when he jumped into Beirut. This was the day the marines got blown up in Lebanon. 2. cold weather training in the alps when the outdoor urinal iced over many feet thick and they had to clear it with ice choppers, 3. dog shit smeared on the streets in Venice, 4. going on drinking runs as if they were military missions.
I love your military info.
Well in that case Casey,
I'd like to dedicate this performance of “Salute to a Switchblade" by Tom T. Hall to James’ Father and Brother.
youtube.com/watch?v=3WzbefdGyqk
Welcome home soldier.
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy.