The Military Calls My Name

As a young girl, I was inspired by my Air Force Barbie. She had a short 'do and a cool uniform. I wanted so desperately to joining the military, too. As I got older, I shifted back and forth between the Marines and the Air Force, even thinking long and hard about the military academy. I took a few steps in the direction of the Air Force Academy, but by the time I was a junior in high school, I had wavered so much that I was unable to get my stuff together in time to actually apply.

Fast forward four years. I was a junior in college. I was on a fast track to graduating as a computer engineer. All of a sudden, the military bug bit me again. I started looking into the ROTC program. In fact, I had even contacted the head of the Navy program. We talked for a bit. Since I hadn't started when I was a freshman, it would have been a little harder, but all I really needed to do was bulk up on a few military science courses and attend officer training camp (OTC as they called it) after I graduated, instead of the summer after sophomore year when most people do it. I was very close to signing those papers (and get a good bit of money from it as well), but I was deterred by the fact I was planning on going to engineering graduate school, and the Navy didn't fit well into that plan.

Little was I to know that a year later I would be pursuing the law school tract. Had I signed up with the Navy, I would be a lieutenant with law school paid for right now, but yet again, I was a little to late in deciding what I was going to do. Had I joined ROTC, I would be on my way to the Navy JAG corps in two more years, but I figured it was too late in college because I was about to graduate and there was no time to take the required courses.

Then I had to go and watch the wonderful HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers. OH MY GOD. This was one of the best things I have every seen in my life. EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS. I cannot watch good military movies right now, though, because all of a sudden, I feel the urge to join the military again. I know at this point it's not exactly what I want to do, but since it's been something I've wanted to do for such a long period of my life, a movie as romantic as Band of Brothers is enough to get me to want to join again.

I know the military is nothing like the military of WWII anymore, but that's the idea I keep of military in my head now. I know I would be working with people who are in the military for the wrong reasons, and now there are a bunch of mindless people who have nothing to do anymore.

But I can't help but think about what if I had gone to the military academy. Would I have been one of those girls who were raped and left anyway? What if I had joined ROTC? Would I still have gone to my current law school and met my current boyfriend? What if one of the suits in my closet was a dress uniform? But I know these questions can't be answered.

I know there are few if any Maj. Winters or Capt. Nixons. I know there are few enlisted men who fought like Lipton or Guarnere. I have to keep that in mind every time the military bug calls my name. I didn't join, and there must have been some reason. I'll just have to keep that in mind.