A few months ago I shared that my nephew Luke had joined the Army National Guard. On June 7th, he graduated from Basic Training and is now, as stated a few times during the ceremony, a soldier. By the time this posts Family weekend will be over and he will be back on base starting AIT training to become a scout. He will graduate from that program in late August.
Obviously when you join the military you are a soldier. But it scares the everloving shit out of me to think if Luke that way.
Luke’s troop has a Facebook page, and they frequently post photo dumps showcasing all the different types of training they have been doing. Hand to hand fighting, marksmanship, obstacle courses, tactical maneuvers, the list goes on. Obviously these are skills for combat situations. You don’t need to know how to safely use a hand grenade if you are a radiology technician. There’s no need to know how to assemble a gun in 57 seconds if you are a claims adjuster. Only soldiers need these skills.
When you read about National Guard troops assisting in flood relief efforts they aren’t usually called soldiers. When Guard members go off for their monthly/ yearly training we call them “weekend warriors”. We don’t call them soldiers.
Soldiers go to war. And I can’t bear to think of Luke doing that.