Civil-military disconnect

I spoke with my sister yesterday, and it became apparent to me just how wide the gulf is between the military and civilian worlds. She wasn't aware, for example, that deployments are typically one year long, and expressed her surprise with a brief, "Wow, that sucks!"

I was kind of shocked -- like, "where have you been these past nine years? You didn't know this before?" I thought everyone knew most deployments were for a year. But the door swings both ways.

Even in the military, there's a big difference in behavior between those who come in when they're 18 and those that come in later. Those who've never known any other job tend to curse a lot, something that you just don't see too often in the civilian world.

In a sense, it's a shame that so many people say, "We support our troops," but don't spend more than a moment on a sympathetic thought or try to understand the experience. It reminds me of a short story I remember from high school: "The ones who walk away form Omelas."

Though we in the military pay the physical and mental price for your peace of mind, relatively few are troubled enough to sacrifice their comfort to learn about that exact cost. Our society seems profoundly uninterested in such drama.