9th
Military Bases
We just got back from a show at a NATO air base, and the Airwoman who drove us back asked me if we were playing for the military for the whole tour or if we were going to be playing for “Real People.”
I have had a lot of unfortunate preconceptions torpedoed while I have been on this tour, and I am grateful for that. The vibe on these bases is just….different. That vague word just sums it up perfectly.
When the base is out in the boonies we end up staying there, as there are no real hotels within a practical distance. We always end up staying at what are called “Air Force Inns,” which are Best Western style hotels that are kept on most bases for soldiers, airmen and their families to stay in while they get settled into apartments once they get there.
The television programming is handled by the Armed Forces Network, and they just basically snag programming from the major networks (The Office, CSI, etc.) and the not so major networks (Stargate Atlantis, etc.) They also have lots of sports programming, which is good.
But what they don’t have is commercials. Instead they have public service announcements that apply to military life. So instead of selling you pop tarts and Miller Lite during the break, they try to convince you to apply to become a warrant officer, or they run a thirty second spot telling you how hard the logistics guys are working for you.
But these PSA’s also address the darker aspects of things. There were quite a few spots about how rape and sexual harassment would not be tolerated. And there have been a hell of a lot of PSA’s warning soldiers of the signs of depressed and suicidal friends, as well as encouragement to report it if you think somebody you know is going to off himself. Considering that in January there were more suicides than combat deaths among military personnel, I guess that makes sense.
The daily newspaper is called Stars and Stripes, and Im sorry to say that I initially thought it would be a propaganda rag on the level of Soviet era Pravda, but it certainly is not. It’s actually a pretty thorough paper. There have been articles on the problems that some troops are having with new body armor, as well as articles on the above mentioned suicide rates. A propaganda rag would not be running stories like that.
In terms of opinions and editorials, they play it pretty smart and just syndicate columns from other newspapers. In three days of reading the paper, I read editorials from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, USA Today and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. That way any critiques come from outside sources, and nobody has to worry about getting their ass handed to them from someone higher up the food chain.
The Air Force is a different sort of branch of service in that it is the only one that exclusively puts its officers in combat. Airmen, cooks, sergeants and mechanics don’t get shot at as they aren’t the ones flying planes. So there is a different mindset between the officers and the enlisted men. With the Army and Marines, the words “command” or “officers” are usually preceded by the word “fucking.” Not so in the Air Force. There is a level of respect there that seems earned and authentic rather than mandatory.
Unfortunately, many of us view soldiers as victims, zealots or dullards, and I learned very quickly that that isn’t the case. There are varying motivations for joining the military. Some of the people that I talked to were motivated by a very altruistic desire to serve, while some had more practical and down to earth reasons. Practicality seemed very familiar to me, as my old man joined the Army Air Corps because he wanted to fly, but one of his primary desires was to get the hell out of Michigan. You can’t fault someone for that.
