| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Who Says The Elite Aren't Fit To Serve? |
| 2008-03-18 |
| By John Renehan |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Based on his time in the military, I believe there is no more egalitarian (democratic, classless) organization in the world today. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.' Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. - Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3, W. Shakespeare |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-03-18 09:43 |
| #3 Yeah, the upper classes are often shocked to find that the military isn't full of bloodthirsty thugs. This is nothing new. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-03-18 07:25 |
| #2 He's elite only in his own mind. About the Army, I learned that it can be a hard -- and hardening -- environment, but by and large the people in it are just people. They are not uniquely tough by nature, though they become so through training and preparation and habit. And their toughness is leavened with a deep sense of common humanity -- a basic unquestioning take-them-as-they-are compassion rarely found in the "softer" cosmopolitan world of ambition and sophistication from which I hail. There are human beings in the Army! My kid was the one who found lost dogs for other people, came from a well-off (but certainly not elite) household, and shocked his mother and me by joining the Marine Reserves in 2000. At summer camp in 2004, he volunteered to go to Iraq and drove trucks thru 'meadows of mines' in Anbar. He's now about to finish college and is talking about law school. I doubt he'll be an ambulance chaser. Based on his time in the military, I believe there is no more egalitarian (democratic, classless) organization in the world today. I read Frank Schaeffer's book shortly after the kid went off to Boot Camp - Keeping Faith - and Schaeffer could not believe his elite son joined the Marines. He went on to write the book, "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" (which I highly recommend) and "AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country." which I have not read, but guess I need to! Still ... it was in the WaPo.... |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-03-18 06:31 |
| #1 "There will be more joy in heaven for one repentant sinner entering it than for a hundred justs." |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-03-18 03:15 |