So I am sitting here is some third world country waiting to actually go into Afghanistan and I am sitting at a coffee bar (yeah you heard me right) a fucking coffee bar. And I am futzing around on the internet and I was just pondering something as I look out over the 40 or so soldiers that are in here clogging the internet connection so I have to write this while my last episode of the "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" loads up.
So here is the question. Every soldier pretty much has a laptop, everyone has an MP3 player, everybody has external hard drives and cell phones and a million other little gadgets with which to entertain ourselves.
I want to know how the WWII or Vietnam or Korean War, or even the Gulf War guys would react if they came into a tent and they heard all the guys playing video games, talking on their cell phones, listening to music off of something the size of a credit card? I personally think they would probably be totally and completely amazed by the whole thing.
Let me know what you think, because I know I got a few old vets reading my bullshit here. And thank you for it.
In response to my man ABNPOPPA, first thanks so much for my welcome to the US Army, however I have been doing it a while and my welcome came courtesy of a rather large, and distastefully tempered E-6 at Fort McClellan, in 1998. (I still can't believe its been that long).
And yes, I always do what I am told. I wish I could say that I don't bitch, but bitching and moaning (as you know) is every soldier's God given right.
Someone smarter than me once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..." And then someone even smarter than that guy added, "and a whole lot of bitching!" So it goes.
So I think I am going to have a triple mocha choca latte and then I am walking across the street to the pizza hut for a slice, then maybe a massage at MWR. (I shit you not, this is all stuff I could do)
I think war is getting a bit soft in its old age. Or maybe I am just as hard as a coffin nail, but I could be wrong. I have been wrong before. (As evidenced by my 3 separate enlistment papers)
Well folks, Sometime within the next 2 days the REAL shit is going to begin. Hopefully, the buildup has not been for nothing. But we are going to see, and don't worry. I'll tell you all about it.
Later,
I love you mom...
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Oh, yeah, times have changed. I enlisted (Coast Guard) in 1972. Entertainment on the icebreakers was MWR movies (16mm) on the mess deck. A sheet hung in the middle was the screen, so half watched it frontways and half backwards.
ReplyDeleteYears later, into the National Guard, Infantry. Assistant OPS officer writing OPORDS. Computers? Nah. Stubby pencil. Carbon paper. Multiple re writes. OPORDS tended to be much shorter than today.
In 1999 I took my laptop to the field and doubled the Battalion's access to electrons. Still pretty primitive. The Maintenance section managed to watch the last episode of Season 1 Survivor on a black and white TV, pulling the broadcast with genuine rabbit ears.
Then, a couple of years ago in Afghanistan, pretty much how you describe it. Bad guys risk getting fried from all the personal electronics if they come over the wire. Good guys are used to being fried. And the HQ shared drives are full of music and movies......
Sigh, war just ain't what it used to be.
I think it would have been great to have had those things while I was in vietnam. But we did have 8 track tape players, reel to reel tape players and of course AFRS (armed forces radio service) but best of all we could buy whiskey for three dollars a bottle. Beer even cheaper. Thats why my generaion are all drunk asses. Ah, bu we love it. Hats off to you my friend.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early sixties my mother used to beg me to return her letters. I could manage maybe two a year. Now in my dotage I'm keeping track of you and many others and still holding down a productive full time job.
ReplyDeleteGo figure.
I used to be a member of a forum when "this little tiff", as you called it, started.
I posted a quote from a Soldier blogging from Mosul. One of the members; a WWII vet, went ballistic. He thought I was making it up.
When I responded that modern Soldiers had access to internet cafes he practically lost it completely. (Loose lips sink ships, etc.)
Anyhow, one of the serving military members on the site managed to finally convince him. But it took some doing plus pictures.
All in all, I suspect a laptop wouldn't have done much for Dick Winters during the Battle of the Bulge that proper winter clothing and sufficient ammunition would have done.
Stay as safe as you can Mud Puppy.