The song lyrics hit home. My father was a green beret, and now I have a brother who is a combat controller and another brother who is 101st airborne and training to become a ranger. I also started down that path but I have diminished lung capacity due to a bout with tuberculosis, so I never could join.
There's a million things wrong with the lifestyle. Even if you don't die, you still do in a sociocultural sense. Divorce rates are near 100%. Nearly all of your job is classified or top secret, so you can't discuss it with anybody. Even your psychiatrists have to have top secret clearance just to talk to you. It's nearly impossible to have any commitments (social, financial, educational, etc.), because you can be pulled away at any moment, and you can't even tell people when you expect to return. Bankruptcy is extremely common, and nobody has good credit. It's nearly impossible to leave and do any other occupation successfully.
And yet, even though he left the green berets to become a mostly unsuccessful but still boring CPA, and even though I basically have no relationship with him anymore, I still have this undeniable urge to be a part of it. I read the books, seek out the stories, devour any news of operations, etc. And while my dad paid lip service to how bad it was, he's secretly proud of his two special operations sons and he clings on to their lives, trying to relive his own.
There's a million things wrong with the lifestyle. Even if you don't die, you still do in a sociocultural sense. Divorce rates are near 100%. Nearly all of your job is classified or top secret, so you can't discuss it with anybody. Even your psychiatrists have to have top secret clearance just to talk to you. It's nearly impossible to have any commitments (social, financial, educational, etc.), because you can be pulled away at any moment, and you can't even tell people when you expect to return. Bankruptcy is extremely common, and nobody has good credit. It's nearly impossible to leave and do any other occupation successfully.
And yet, even though he left the green berets to become a mostly unsuccessful but still boring CPA, and even though I basically have no relationship with him anymore, I still have this undeniable urge to be a part of it. I read the books, seek out the stories, devour any news of operations, etc. And while my dad paid lip service to how bad it was, he's secretly proud of his two special operations sons and he clings on to their lives, trying to relive his own.