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I joined the Marine Corps because I watched too many war movies as a kid. I was going to grow up to be the next Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, played by Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge. He taught me that the Marine Corps is all polish and glory. Right?
Spin a rifle. Climb a mountain. Fight a dragon. March in dress blues. Marine Corps recruiting television commercials promised me this. What American boy wouldn’t want all this? So I signed a contract and boarded a white bus on the way to boot camp.
In ten years of Marine Corps service, I never spun a rifle, never climbed a mountain, never fought a dragon, and I wore my medals and dress uniforms less times than the actors filming the commercials I watched as a kid.
What I did do in the Marines is a lot less glorious and a lot less interesting than what I saw on television. I ran. I swam. I nearly drowned. I lived in mud. I ran more. I threw up from running so much. I kept running. I walked through the jungle. I walked through the desert. I walked through snow. I ran a lot more. I got shot at. I slept in dirt. I slept in puddles. I slept in sand. I peeled bugs off my skin.
I never did anything I had ever seen in a television commercial before joining the Marine Corps. I am still looking for that dragon. I have a lot of aggression to work out on him. Our government is in the business of selling an illusion to our youth when it comes to recruiting for our military. This is because no 17 year old kid is going to sign a four year contract if s/he knows what military life is really all about.
Still, despite having been sold an unrealistic view, joining the Marine Corps was the single best decision I ever made in my life, and it has made me the man I am today. Hardship gives a kid confidence and character. He needs it. He just does not think he needs it. The business of war is all hell. The life of the infantryman is misery. No one would ever enlist if recruiting commercials showed us the real picture.
How does military advertising make you feel? Do you have experiences to share?
Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal
1. Jim Ritter |Jun. 13, 2009 @ 2:43 PM
What is above is missing the pro-military finished ending, including: "Because many years later I came to the realization that the dragon on top of the mountain is proverbial. 15 years after boot camp I realize that the dragon in the recruiting commercials was myself. The dragon was my own youthful lack of confidence, my own self doubt."