Ranting again...

**Edited** I realize this is long, but I'd appreciate everyone sticking through it. This was important to me, I didn't go back and edit or proofread, because the post comes from emotion.

Let me start this rant by giving a few bits of background. My mom was a single mom most of my life, and worked her fucking ass off to take care of me. My (step) dad is a police officer, and taught me respect for the underpaid and overworked civil servants of our country. My first husband was a soldier (a shitty one but a soldier no less) and my husband is a trained firefighter/emt, but has re-enlisted into the United States Army. I know the sacrifices people make, especially those of a military family. Nate re-joined the Army knowing, without a doubt, he will serve in Iraq, he will have to be away from us, we will all sacrifice. Every soldier in the United States military knows that their duty, the job they are underpaid and overworked to do, comes with great stresses. It's not all peaches and cream. Also, and this is the important part, if you are a female in a "man's world" you'd better go balls to the wall and work your ass off. You DO have something to prove. You cannot say "I can do this" and then NOT DO IT! Do not sign up for it if you can't hang. There are women soldiers who are some tough bitches, they can out do any man, and aren't afraid to give it 110%. They are soldiers, through and through, and they deserve that respect. If a woman signs up and then pusses out, throws the "I'm a girl" card to get out of the hard work, she deserves to get her ass kicked. I depend on the soldiers in the Army to protect my husband in battle, to have his back if shit goes down. A girl who admittedly cannot even shoot straight is not able to do that. That is BULLSHIT.

Here is the site I'm talking about. When I stumbled upon it I immediately felt my blood pressure rising, because this "woman" is a disgrace to my sex, and a disgrace to the Army. I pondered how to deal with my anger at this pitiful display, since I'm a big believer in clicking that little X at the corner, or hitting the back button. Free speech and all that, this is the internet after all. However, I couldn't shake the words from my mind, the arrogance of this writing, and the insults to military families everywhere. What could she have possibly written to upset me so much? I'll break out a few "highlights" for ya.

This soldier and her husband are dual military, they are both enlisted soldiers. They are serving TOGETHER in Seoul, Korea. Let me tell you about the tours of duty in Korea. Seoul is the capitol of S. Korea, decent place compared to the rest of the country. This is not such a bad tour. Camp Casey, on the other hand, is on the border of North and South Korea, it's a scary and shitty place, one no one looks forward to going. She's in Seoul. Nate did his very first tour of duty in Casey. Her whining about her location was lost on me after hearing his stories. Also, my good friend Debbie's husband (who is currently in Iraq) just recently served 18 months in Casey. It's just as shitty and scary as it was in 1997 when N was there.

Part of being a soldier is shooting weapons. You go to the range, you practice and "qualify", you have to be able to perform certain tasks and hit certain targets. Not unreasonable, right? Especially not from a soldier who has been in a few years, this ain't their first rodeo after all.This wonderful "soldier" complained that she had to go to the range and fire, even though she had some "mystery neuro/muscular disease" and had been excluded from normal training for over a year. She was bruised and scraped from firing the big mean guns, and from dropping down to the ground for firing positions. They even made her use a black machine gun, which burnt her little hands. Oh, the HORROR!

Said mystery disease had also excluded her from daily PT (physical training) and PT tests. Her meanie chain of command was making her take a PT test, and didn't they know she was MUCH too fragile for that?! After all, she should be entitled to receive a paycheck from taxpayer's money without fulfilling ANY of the requirements of a soldier. Who do they think they are to ask her to train?! Speaking of training, she had to do NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical... think hazmat) training. I mean how frivilous, we KNOW there is NO possibility of an attack with nuclear, biological, oir chemical weapons! The NBC training involved wiping a charcoal based product on to simulate how one would act in such an attack. She got DIRTY. Someone call the ACLU, they made this soldier get dirty!!

Let's move on to how disrespectful and arrogant this "soldier" is about deployment and military life. As I said before, she is married to another soldier. The sad thing is she has been to PLDC (primary leadership development course) which means she is at least a sergeant. Her husband has not yet achieved that rank. The are due to go out to the field to train in August, which happens to be their anniversary. Oh, darn, they'll have to spend their anniversary training for war. Bummer right? Well, her husband is now going to PLDC for that month instead, and this means he's getting promoted. She will be in the field, with no way to contact him, while he is IN SCHOOL for a month. No way to say "Happy Anniversary, Honey!" Are you feeling sorry for her yet? Well, what about the thousands of couples who are separated for a year or more while the soldier is in IRAQ. I guess their plight of missed birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, BIRTHS, DEATHS, and other life events is trivial compared to her husband being (safe) at school while she is (safe) in training. Poor thing!!

Iraq. She goes on to explain how the peace keeping armistice mission in Korea is the same as the LIVE FIRE comabt missions in Iraq. Granted, in certain parts of South Korean Army operations (read: Camp Casey) there are some scares, missles overhead, etc. However, in Iraq, at this very moment, there are insurgents firing weapons at our troops. Live weapons. RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) IEDs (improvised explosive devices) AK47s, suicide bombs, and everything in between. We lose troops on a near daily basis, killed in action in the combat zones of Iraq. This is not happening in Korea, and the fact that she even tried to compare the two is a slap in the face to every soldier, every spouse, every family member, and every widow that has been touched by the Iraq conflicts. There is a soldier N knows who took a sniper shot to the face and lived, is back here to tell about it. Another who was hit IN THE MOUTH with an RPG that didn't detonate, and he lived to tell about it as well. These are the LUCKY ones, because most of us know at least one soldier who came back in a body bag. Most of us have been to the memorial service, the roll call and 21 gun salute for a fallen troop. I'd pack the bags for my husband in a heartbeat if I was told he was going to Korea instead of Iraq, because I would feel confident he would live to come home safely.

The complaints about the menial tasks, the boring, redundant classes, the field training, the PT? All lost on me. Those are the safe bets, I guarantee there are thousands of soldiers who would trade places with her RIGHT NOW. Still, I'm glad she is where she is, because she's not a good enough soldier to be trusted with my love's life, my children's Daddy, my SOLDIER. This is my thank you to those who do it right, who give it their all, even if it means their life. This is also my "Fuck you" to every enlisted member who shirks their duty, who doesn't give a shit about anything they promised to do. No one put a gun to your head and made you sign the paper. No one said it would be easy, no one promised it wouldn't hurt sometimes. You took an oath to protect America and Americans, and I take offense to your failure to do so.