by Joe Paradis

Created on: December 12, 2008

Why We Serve

I spoke with him for a few minutes, just before the play began. A nice kid, nineteen years old, Phil joined the Marines last year, after graduating from Londonderry High School. His dream is to be a fireman in a big city. Any big city. The Marines are giving him the training to pursue that goal. And he'll be honing his skills in a hot little spot called Iraq this summer.

Phil doesn't seem to be worried about what he might encounter in Iraq. He thinks he'll be fairly safe in a fire unit stationed along a runway somewhere. But he seems prepared for whatever danger may arise. That's how the Armed Forces train you.

I've heard that same sort of confidence from a number of young soldiers heading to the Middle East. They're ready to go. Willing to go. They believe in the cause of freedom. They may sing a different tune once they get into the mix, but they'll follow orders and do what needs to be done.

But then I look around at recent news and I'm a bit confused. Some of the families of the Army Reserve's 94th Military Police Company are angry that their loved ones, who have been serving in Iraq for 17 months now, are being extended. I can understand their frustration and can identify with it, from experience. Their lives have been disrupted by their loved ones' call to duty.

But we need to examine the reasons why any of us voluntarily chose to join the Armed Forces over the past 30 years, whether on a full time or part time basis. In times of peace, it's a fairly easy decision - you can't smell the danger right away. At the end of the Vietnam War and the beginning of the All Volunteer Army, some of us initially joined full time to obtain GI Bill education benefits. Others joined for the excitement, for the travel, for a job. Some would be wearing shoes for the first time in their lives.

In more recent times, many of the next generation joined the Armed Forces Reserves or the National Guard for similar reasons. That part time service provided a few extra bucks to cover the bills, perhaps a small pension after 20 years. Maybe some excitement, some travel.

No one really expects that he will be the one to don a flak jacket. To stare down the barrel of an enemy's rifle. To view a dozen dead bodies strewn across the deck of a ship. But we all were - and are - aware that, at any moment, we could be whisked away to fight a skirmish, a battle, a war. And we go without question. Because that's the real unspoken reason why we joined. To serve our country.

So as accountants, mechanics, nurses, and secretaries swap their work clothes for fatigues; as they put down their briefcases and pick up their duffel bags; as husbands leave wives, wives leave husbands, and kids leave their parents to head for dangerous parts of the world; as some of these fighting men and women are now extended in Iraq when they were expecting to come home soon, we are reminded of one grim reality. We all joined the Armed Forces. Not the swim team. Not a fraternity. Not a cushy blue chip company. The Armed Forces. A serious business, especially when trouble erupts. Guns, bombs, destruction, and death.

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines can be called on a moment's notice to go anywhere in support of their mission. And some don't return. That disturbs me deeply, because I have a son who wants to be a Marine. Like Phil. And I can only pray that these kids, and all who choose to sign up, do come home after they serve. Freedom is never cheap. And it involves personal sacrifice. Those who freely choose to serve need to know that, and prepare for it, up front.

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