That's not MY Army.

In my Army, we slept outside in any kind of weather, and learned to build bunkers so that we could keep the snow out as much as possible. We surveyed land for as long as daylight lasted, in subzero temperatures despite the fact that nobody felt the need to issue us cold weather gear. We ruck marched for as much as 25 miles, down icy Ozark foothills, with cold, and frostbite, and broken bones. We did it because we knew we enlisted in the Army, not cheerleading camp, and we knew that if we wanted the privilege of calling ourselves soldiers, this was part of it. We did it because we knew that someday our country might need us to do something 100 times harder than that. And ok, if I'm truly honest, a lot of times, we did it because some scary Drill Sergeant, First Sergeant, or Colonel told us to. The fact is, though, we always did it, and we didn't complain.

Today and yesterday were very cold days here. We have a lot of snow on the ground, and single digit temperatures. It's not going to let up for at least 24 more hours. We have several thousand soldiers in the field. The reaction to this has been surprising to me. Post and Garrison command has delegated these decisions to the unit level commanders out there on the ground, and so far, they've all elected to stay in the field. Post is closed, most of the city is shut down, and the Army is still training. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Yet, I really don't envy those commanders, and not because of the cold weather they're operating in. No, I feel bad for them because they will be lucky not to be met by a massive lynchmob of wives when they finally do come back out of the field. These women have been pitching a huge fit about the fact that their husbands still have to be out there despite the cold. There are rumors swirling about who has what accommodations, how the commanders were hoarding all the heaters for themselves, that people didn't have food.... all total BS. Anyone who's ever been to the field knows it's BS, too.

I just don't know.... it never occurred to me to flip out over people having to train in bad weather. I didn't flip out when I had to do it. I always thought it was part of being a soldier. I wasn't even allowed to call myself a soldier until I had concluded my final day of training, which consisted of the culmination of 3 days out in the field in the Ozarks with no tents, with an ice storm that lasted the entire time, a 25 mile road march in said ice storm, and oh yeah, nobody issued us any cold weather gear. All 240 of us did it without so much as a jacket or a scarf, and you know what? 120 of us made it and became soldiers at the end. The half of us who didn't, didn't die. Most of them just went home and get to live with the rationalization that they did their best and it just wasn't quite enough for the US Army. I firmly believe nobody felt sorry for us when we were out there. We didn't feel sorry for us. We just did the damned thing.

That wasn't the only time I've done extreme cold weather field time either. I just thought it was part of being a soldier. You do hard things in the worst weather imaginable. You work with people you never would have met if you hadn't enlisted. You live in places you never even would have consented to visit. You take orders from dumbasses who have only risen to their positions because they've been there long enough to get enough rank to boss around people like you. You eat shitty food. It's not all bad, of course, but the bad is the price of admission for the good, like the fact that for the rest of your life, you will always know that when 99% of the country cowered in fear, you stood up and said, "Send me. Let me try."

I love my Army. I do not love what it has become. It is very disconcerting to see how it is these days. How can one expect to win a war with an Army that is scared of a few inches of snow?