Boots On The Ground

 

A rambunctious young soldier walked through the door, "Hi Dad, what's up?" I took a pause from selling AI inventory (What?? Yes, it's true) and said, "Here, look at this," and showed off the new CZ 20, "Let's go for a shoot." Smiles all 'round. But first things first, clean up those dusty old boots.

That's right, a pair of Ariat Heritage which have been  all over the shop, from Africa to Canada and in between. Good boots, but here's the thing, if you don't look after 'em they fall apart, not unlike guns, when you think about it. So I gave the things a good going over with mink oil. This helps waterproof the leather and keeps it supple. It's not even hard to do, just put some mink oil magic on your mink oil brush and give the boots a sturdy scrub.

Well done, boots ready to go, you're ready to go, pre-mission objective accomplished, but then disaster struck. That's right, the climate changed. It does that, you see, and it did it again today, with thunder starting to rumble like opening salvos in the battle of Kursk, followed by rain which spat against the wooden walls of this old house.

We watched the storm from the shelter of the front porch, "I guess we're not going shooting, eh?" No, we weren't, so we talked Army.

Now, all the world knows that the US Army has a grievous recruitment problem, to the tune of a 40k+ shortfall. Not good, especially when our beloved rulers are baying for moar war. Solution? My eldest told me, "What they're doing is getting all these new E5s to become recruiters. Doesn't matter if they're unfit or whatever, make Sergeant and off you go. That's what I was told."

"Huh," I replied, staring out at a tumultuous Texan sky, "That's no good," and the kid agreed. "Did you know recruiters have the highest suicide level rate in the Army?" I didn't, and he continued, "But here's the thing, if I turn down Recruiter I can put in a Drill Packet."

"Now that, old chap, makes a lot of sense in your case, you'd be good at it," and he would, his face fits. Not only that, it's a two year thing and he'd have time to finish off a degree and then move on to OCS. That's his plan, and it's a good plan. But back to the recruitment crisis.

"You know, Dad, I was talking with our First Sergeant and he told me, 'How are we going to fix recruitment, by taking on a lot of recruiters or by paying our soldiers more than three bucks an hour?' Yeah, and I said hey, you're preaching to the converted."

Like really. Maybe, just maybe, we'd get more recruits if we actually paid our soldiers more than junior burger flippers, to say nothing of all the risible rainbow garbage and the fact that patriots, young men and women who want to serve their country, aren't too keen on signing up to fight for the Demented Old Crook and associates. The very people who actively hate them and everything they stand for.

We talked about all this, there on the porch as the rain crashed down, and have rescheduled our shoot till after the boy gets back from a mission in California. I look forward to that. Semper.

Your Old Friend,

LSP