I will be starting a stint at USNA and thus figure that my occasional commentary on Service Academy Forums should come to an end. (Among other things, I need to be better about modeling working without online distractions!)
This is a great site and has a lot of shared wisdom to offer. Particular kudos go to long-time posters scoutpilot, CaptainMJ, Navy Hoops, LineintheSand, and Hurricane -- many's the time I thought about answering a post but you'd all done a better job.
In light of some recent threads, I also wanted to remind everyone that as much fun as we Old Goats (or Old Grads) may have on the site, it exists to help young people who are contemplating a career as a commissioned officer. In Afghanistan I didn't care if my Marines were Democrat or Republican, or atheist, Christian, Jewish, or Muslim -- and they knew it. As an officer, your responsibility is for every one of the men and women you lead to know down to their core that you care about them as a Marine/soldier/sailor and not about their politics or religion. And that means having a time in your life where you might not be sharing your deepest opinions about politics or religion. Posters here aren't commissioned officers, and there's a lot more freedom of speech that goes along with that, but remember that for many young people, this might be one of their first exposures to military culture. Let's not get so caught up in debates over service issues (like women in combat) or broader cultural debates that we create a picture of a military culture that picks and chooses who has the right to give their service.
This is a great site and has a lot of shared wisdom to offer. Particular kudos go to long-time posters scoutpilot, CaptainMJ, Navy Hoops, LineintheSand, and Hurricane -- many's the time I thought about answering a post but you'd all done a better job.
In light of some recent threads, I also wanted to remind everyone that as much fun as we Old Goats (or Old Grads) may have on the site, it exists to help young people who are contemplating a career as a commissioned officer. In Afghanistan I didn't care if my Marines were Democrat or Republican, or atheist, Christian, Jewish, or Muslim -- and they knew it. As an officer, your responsibility is for every one of the men and women you lead to know down to their core that you care about them as a Marine/soldier/sailor and not about their politics or religion. And that means having a time in your life where you might not be sharing your deepest opinions about politics or religion. Posters here aren't commissioned officers, and there's a lot more freedom of speech that goes along with that, but remember that for many young people, this might be one of their first exposures to military culture. Let's not get so caught up in debates over service issues (like women in combat) or broader cultural debates that we create a picture of a military culture that picks and chooses who has the right to give their service.
