billybud wrote:A stint in the Corps would bring that stuff to a halt. At least 50 some years ago, in my time, the self was submerged and you were a disciplined cog of a fighting unit.
There was no "me"....
Basic Training learns you real quick ...
I enlisted in the National Guard back in 1996; was told I could not run all the way through the basic training, when I became diagnosed with Asthma that same year.
I was told that it was not legal to keep me, and part of basic was being put into the Gas Chamber.
The gas chamber is a room that has a controlled concentration of CS (orto-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile) gas, more commonly known as tear gas.
All recruits must go through it, some more than once.
You go in a group, and wait for the instructor to come around to you, asking you to state your name, rank and dog tag number.
I you fumble through your words, or forget anything, they tell you to stay, then proceed to go around in order to everyone else, until they come back to you.
Due to many adverse reaction of people who had respiratory conditions
[hospitalization and in rare cases, fatal], I was issued a medical discharge.
[which was otherwise ironic, since I was to be trained as a field medic]Off to college it was, for me.
[or more truthfully, back to college]In any case, what little I derived from the short stint I had, was "We" as a unit, with no choice in the matter as an individual.
What was best for me, was best for everyone else, once the directive was given. The only choice you have, is to follow the order that has been given you. You succeed, only if everyone else around you succeeds.
Elsewise, do it again.
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