The .45% - Page 1

I remember the day I found out I got into West Point.

My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn’t crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I’d worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.

That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: “Nick, you’re a smart guy. You don’t have to join the military. You should go to college, instead.”

I could easily write a tome defending West Pont and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won’t.

What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.

In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics.

Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.

The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You.

You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You’ve lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you’ll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don’t understand. And you come home to a nation that doesn’t understand. They don’t understand suffering. They don’t understand sacrifice. They don’t understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you’re a machine – like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one – not them. When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can’t understand the “macro” issues they gathered from books with your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.

But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you’ve given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.

Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.

You are the 0.45%.

Source: http://www.rangerup.com/the45.html

I thought it was some kind of gun or beer... maybe both?

Not to be polemic, but I am uncertain what your post is intending to say/mean. 

That is because you have an agenda and no cultural sense of humor in the land I live.

Seriously...PEACE.  My agenda was to share an interesting point (I would say the much more political posts in the OT have agendas).  Aside, how is a story about the small number of volunteer US servicemembers (.45%) serving in the GWOT and agenda I would want to push on a dog site!?!


What is cultural sense of humor?  What land do you live?

Argghhh.... what is this ... Sarah Connors?   .......?  

thank God there are a few that understand and will defend the rest of us.

the reward is personal, its not in the accolades.....

i am forever in your debt.

Hey ranger congrats on being one of the few appointed into a military academy!  My son received a nomination and appointment to the US Air Force Academy in 2007.  He was being heavily recruited by Air Force, West Point, Annapolis, and the Coast Guard Academy for his high test scores and GPA along with his athleticism (he was an elite soccer player).  He was so excited and wanted more than anything to go into the Air Force and become a pilot (he received a pilot slot after extensive testing).  Sadly, his dreams were dashed before he went to college.  He became very ill just after all of hi s paperwork, interviews, physicals, etc.  At first we thought he had a bad stomach virus, but he did not get better, so after 3 or 4 trips to our family doctor, we were sent to a gastroenterologist.  After many tests, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (uc).  The first thing he asked his doctors was, "Can I still serve my country in the Air Force?"  Of course, the answer was no since uc is a life long auto immune disease.  He is now attending a large university majoring in computer science and minoring in busisness.  He is almost 23 and has one more year of college after this one due to his illness.  One semester he could not attend because he was too sick.  Other semesters he took really light loads (doctor's orders).  It was heart breaking to watch my strong healthy son suffer and lose so much weight.  He is now in remission and doing pretty well.  But, he is still upset that he could not serve like his father and grandfathers did.

Most people don't realize how difficult it is to get into a military academy.  They are the most selective schools in the entire country.  My niece's husband (talked about in the other thread that is currently in the Army) did not go to an academy, but graduated from the Citadel.  My brother also graduated from the Citadel.   Military academies and colleges like the Citadel and VMI serve a vital role in our country training future officers to lead our military.

I don't think Ranger said he went to West Point. This is a copied story off a page selling t-shirts on some site.

ggturner,

Sorry to hear your son couldn't live his dream.

Did not click on ranger's link at the botton of OP till now.  Either way, the military academies, military colleges, and ROTC are so important.

GSD, thanks.  My son still feels so much frustration over his condition, but hopes to put his computer skills to good use in the near future.  He had a job interview yesterday at a large power company who contacted him for a summer intern job as an IT analyst.  It would be a great opportunity for him (he has interned for another company throughout college in their IT dept).  To top it off, this job location is at the beach (his girlfriend isn't crazy about that though).   Below is the pic my husband took of him after his interview when they stopped to feel the sand between their toes before they headed home.