Woke up at about 2AM this morning and didn't go right back to sleep. Flipped some channels instead, and came across a conference with Major General Richard Mills, regional commander for the Marine Corps in Afghanistan since 2010. He oversees 30,000 U.S. and coalition troops in Helmand Province. The segment was about his experience there. Since this show was all talk, I turned the sound up for once, then I looked him up on the web and here's what I found out.
He's from Huntington, New York, graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a BA in political science and a minor in history, and was commissioned in 1975 as a Second Lieutenant via Officer Candidate School.
The reason I'm writing about him is, while most folks I hear about in the news put down the military as oafs and heathens, and huge numbers of youths today think folks in uniform are society's dregs, the more I learn about these dedicated warriors, the more I admire them.
While the forces in the Middle-East are tasked with military objectives, it's not until you learn all their responsibilities that you realize the enormity of their jobs. Because, aside from whatever fighting may be involved, which is extremely difficult and of great risk by itself, they must also become expert in the culture of their surroundings.
So, while General Mills was commanding his forces, trying to win a shooting war, at the same time he needed to consider those civilians whose lives were being disrupted by the events. Beyond that, he also had to take steps to see that the population's needs were either satisfied or eventual solutions were put on the right tracks. And as he mentioned often, those needs were usually basic yet critical in the long run, most often coming down to health, rehabilitation, education, employment and extremely importantly...women's rights which barely exist. He faciltated that by tasking numerous female miltary from his ranks for interfacing.
So, without rewriting the whole interview, I simply wanted to mention that I think it's shortsighted, foolish and frankly, immature and outright stupid to simply write our military off as mindless, robotic, thugs because that's 180 degrees polar from the truth.
To illustrate my point further, I suggest looking these folks up like I did. I think you'll find their resumes and achievements quite impressive. And, beyond that, I think you'll conclude that those looking out for our safety and welfare in uniform are in the best of hands, the top of our miltary command.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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