An American Way

                  Every so often I get a chill when I walk through the meat isle, and gaze upon the various slabs of tasty succulent meats and recall coming back from my first deployment in 2006, I looked upon the chilled bloody slabs as I do now—I felt tears roll freely down my cheeks, while keeping a stern face under my maroon beret. It was when I started to shake as an officer snatch a steak or two from the stretched out cooler in my flanking peripheral view—I had to break myself out of whatever I was in and rub out my eyes and face as I tried to play it off. You see, you rarely take the literal implications of common statements like “Life and Limb.” Usually, in the after-the-fact moments of clarity, in a more stable and sane world, you start to be grateful of your lucky nine lives.

                  Piecing together fragments of your own precious history and logically find reasons for putting your life on the line for patriotic principles is an enigma that will baffle me for the rest of my years. My latest best guess for enlisting ‘life and limb’ principles was pride. I had the privilege to help the unfortunate by way of organizations of such missions, i.e. YMCA, AmeriCorps, CampHill, Legion of Mary, etc. for serving the young, the developmental disabled, the elderly, the fundraising for these non-profits, etc. I might have assumed that I should enlist considering that I developed a small string of accolades in helping noble causes. And so blinded, by pride, I signed my life away into the brotherhood of war—it was that easy.

                  Previously, I was desperate to find a solid financial solution to my school debt. Volunteering would forbear my loans and I would earn an education award but that wasn’t enough. I was bouncing from one low paying job to the next and to be honest, I didn’t want a job… I wanted a career. Enlisting to the US Army was the ultimate tactical move to build a strong financial foundation and experience my own independence from my mom’s regime (ha-ha), but I digress. The lower enlisted brotherhood didn’t take nicely to the older peers AND college graduate Asian brother like myself that they have to support. We all have our quips but after a year or two, things didn’t get better for me, rather, it got worse. I can’t say I didn’t have good Ol’ times with my peers in the Army but it was overshadowed by conflicts. So, I feel strongly that there must be some kind of change throughout the military, I’m sure other veterans would agree.

                  When deployed to Iraq, I would read the Stars & Stripes paper and find various wartime images, I came across an image that really spoke to me and invigorated my faith in my military mission, even after being exposed to the overflowing of negative military responses and soldiers being wartime fatigued. The depiction was a Staff-Sargent completely exhausted, passed out on a chair after a mission, tightly cradling a small sleeping malnourished Iraqi child who lost her entire family in a gunfight. That little child felt safe enough to fall asleep in this stranger’s arms. That picture haunts me to this day; I ask myself, “…Have I done enough?” I wanted to be that Staff-Sargent helping the helpless. It reminded me of all my good buddies who volunteered with me in AmeriCorps, YMCA, Save the Children, Camphill Communities—they all cared as much as I do to make that much of a difference; we worked tirelessly and passionately around the clock. And all the volunteers that I came across were college educated, as well as heavily in debt! It would be ideal to merge the two worlds together. Rather than molding high school graduates who are easily recruited from lower middle class / poverty areas, it would be ideal to pitch to college GRADUATES who seem to not find the right job/career, even after a college education. Give these college volunteers what they want… an incentive to make a real significance to the nation and the financial help they need to build a solid future.

                   What I am saying is that the US Military should consider expanding its mission strategies to a more humanitarian aid effort for its own people for a lightning-quick response to environmental events such as Katrina, Iowa, Flint and many others across the world as well as other missions. I mean that we should be able to answer environmental issues… air, land and sea. You and I know the weather is getting rougher every waking day and it is high time that the US Military should consider the hypothetical threat to be a real ugly one. That would mean we must train the enlisted to be nurturers and NOT warmongers, working side by side with the local officials.

I dare anyone who can make something happen to merge similar parts of various organizations like AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, US Coast Guard, Red Cross, among others to get trained and certified to perform in and out of the fold. And required to maintain their certifications for future careers outside the military (there are vets who fail to get any job/career that would logically mirror to their military service just because of their certifications).

                  The military should highlight and offer their “LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM” to all enlisted personnel as well as the GI Bill, it’s only fair. And all newly discharged veterans should have a required yearlong veteran-run job as counselors (instead of National Guard) to put aside all the stigma of the military life, to fully integrate them into their chosen community, to be monitored for negative behavior, therapy guidance and to prevent veterans from isolating themselves and becoming depressed. This would be a good time for job training, picking up a trade or considering college applications and testing for college entrance exams.  By year’s end the veterans would, I hope, be confidently integrated into their communities.

                  I also believe that an American-born college student that enlisted into the US Military who comes from an illegal immigrant family, that their family should become citizens immediately. They have made an ultimate sacrifice for our country. It’s only fair. Americans are from a first world country, and we all take for granted the privileges from the women and men who lay down their lives for our nation regardless the situation, cause and issues. It’s a thankless job. Nationally, the citizens do not understand the true nature of the enlisted military; we all come humble parts, dark corners and unknown pockets of our society to hope for a better situation when we complete our time with the fold. This could be an incentive for all college graduates and soon to be college students should consider. These candidates should not only pay off their entire college education but also earn money for furthering their education (GI Bill)! No American should be denied this right. I would suggest to anyone who would get hired in such a position that they appoint staff that would work specifically for this cause for a speedy application process. This should be a bold new American way of life, just think of all the possibilities!