Quote:
|
Originally Posted by gekko
You had a choice, you no longer have a choice. And with the horrible way things are being run, there is every reason to complain. When your life is at a greater risk because of the incompetency of the leadership, why keep a positive attitude and pretend to like it? I prefer to be honest.
But then again, no one in my battalion has a positive attitude. 0.5% re-enlistment baby! w00t!
|
I doubt you guys are going to read all of this, I even think it’s a little long. But here I go:
Come on now gekko, you aren’t giving me enough credit. You should know that I’ve heard just about every excuse how why they should have a bad attitude. You know, things like “It isn’t fair, Not my fault, Not my problem, I’m only a (insert rank)… yada, yada, yada” Being in the Military, the first thing that they should have taught you in Drill, Basic, Boot, is false motivation. It’s better to pretend to have a positive attitude, then having a Negative one. It won’t matter if you are putting off a good one or bad one, your attitude will reflect on others. It’s that simple. One person with a bitchy attitude can bring down the whole platoon. Yet, instead of trying to improve your own attitude, people tend to point the problems on others and blame them. I always hear things like, I would have a better attitude if they fix this thing, or treat people better, or if we got a new leader. Yeah, now that’s a joke. You are in the Military. Life in the armed forces isn’t all fun and games. Plain and Simple. I don’t care if you’re a solider/marine/airman/seaman to the bone, if it’s in your blood, you’re a born killer. From Ranger, Special Forces, Delta Force, Seal, Recon, Paratrooper. The Military is going to abuse you. There is no pretty way of looking around that. Switch Leadership, switch platoons, switch services, or switch your MOS. Just excuses on why people don’t want to improve their attitude. The grass is never greener on the other side. No matter how much you look. You can’t control a lot in the military, but you can control something, be it as simple as your motivation.
I’m not trying make it sound as simple as a magic trick, have a good attitude *poof* everything is candy and ocean waves. Nope. All I was trying to say is that I have experienced similar situations, and I did my best to have a good attitude. Look at the good things that we had. This might sound kind of sad, but the day we got a metal garbage can dedicated to doing our laundry… man that was an exciting day. Or when we found out that we had a toilet (no running water), that was like gold. Or when the military gave us a mini fridge so we could have cold water, I can’t even explain how excited I was. It even had a mini freezer in it so we could have ice cubes. Did I have the idiots in my leadership? Heck yeah, I did. Was I put through some pretty screwed up situations? Oh yeah, that one too. Was there tension on the FOB? You could cut it with a knife. Did I see things that could be considered evil? I should be put through court as a witness. Could I have sat around a complained about how horrible things where for me and my platoon? Sure could have, but I didn’t (most of the time). I got excited about the little things we got, a deck of cards, books, electricity, and the first platoon to have AC in our Battalion. Mourned when I had the time. And like I’ve said before, I’ve complained about the situations that I’ve been in, but I tried not to let it get me too far down.
There are people in the Military that don’t know how to do the whole “false motivation” thing, and they look to other people for a helping hand. Do you really want to be the one who nobody talks too because they know that you have a bad attitude? (Had this kind of guy in my platoon also. I will tell you from experience that this guy had one of the hardest times. He was having a hard time with a certain situation, but nobody wanted to listen to him because all he did was complain. Not going to go any deeper into the story.) And all you are going to do is bring them down. This is the type of thing that you cannot do alone. No matter how tough you think you are. These “idiots” around you are the only ones you have. It’s not like you can really talk with anybody back home about the things that you have seen or what you have done. Not that simple. Your guys have seen what you have, done what you have, going through the same thing you are. Truthfully, they are the only ones that understand. And I know that sucks. There are still some people I won’t talk to in my platoon because I really learned what kind of person they where.
So the question you really have to ask yourself. If you didn’t want to do this, why did you sign up? It’s not like America has been at peace with the world since… well, ever. Something is bound to happen if you join the military. If you are really that miserable, go ahead put your weapon down, go through your chain of command, and tell them that you will not fight for this country with a gun. That you do not believe in taking another human life. You have to stick to your wits here. It’s going to be hard, but it will be more worth it then putting up with something that you are truly miserable with. You always have choices, they won’t be easy, won’t be fun. But the Military cannot take away your freedom of choice. Punishment will be followed, but it’s something people have to weigh when they make the choices in their life.
If you do nothing (except complain), you have nobody to blame except yourself for the bad attitude that you have.
Just to clear it up, I’m not pointing my finger at ace or gekko. No insults were intended, just some friendly advice.