The New York Times Magazine, published Jackie Munn’s article “As a Woman Serving Alongside Green Berets, I Had No Problem Keeping Up. It Wasn't Enough” on February 5, 2019.
The military is never lacking topics for discussion and debate. In the case of Jackie Munn’s article, I found myself asking the question, “when will people accept one another for the talents they possess vs the physical makeup of their flesh”? While this article is only one side of the story, there are most certainly personnel within the armed forces and throughout the world for that matter that judge people because of how they appear, or because of an initial interaction/first contact. More complex though are those beliefs and attitudes that are formed culturally within organizations or tight knit groups where an outsider is viewed as subordinate or inferior simply because of their lack of association. For examples of this look to unit affiliations, combat deployments, deployment locations, specific months and or years of service. This is by no means a call to let any and all join whichever group one “feels” they should be allowed unfettered access simply for being, rather a look internally at how many organizations, grades of Soldiers, graduates of institutions, branches of service, etc, view those around them and how they employ all the assets at their disposal.
I believe there is a misconception abounding that service should be return to some level of unknown normalcy. However, what our nations history has taught us is, there is no normal. Today represents the pace and direction for the next several years and in this next several years we will discover what new demands our nation may ask of us. If we are truly going to grow and rise above the churn, the bureaucracy, the friction, we will need to employ all assets within reach to the extent of their effectiveness.
Infantry soldiers, Green Berets, Afghan Special Forces and the Cultural Support Team members walking back from a mission on Combat Outpost Herrera in Afghanistan in 2012.