Irony Meter: PEGGED!

[cmdr_zoom]

The nightly news: "Government to call up more troops in Iraq. That story after this."

"This" is a commercial for the Army National Guard. Talking about how you can earn money for college, etc - the standard pitch. Oddly, it fails to mention the possibility of being activated and sent halfway around the world to get your leg blown off for the Empire.

"In the Army National Guard, you can."

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

There's been talk about the draft, draft board members 3 months ago where asked to find additional members to bring them up to the required number of people for activation of the boards...

[sinapus.livejournal.com]

...and the Air Force has commericals aired during Stargate SG-1's syndicated run.

The National Guard commercials also neglect to mention all the little maiming or lethal accidents one can get into during peacetime either. (For that matter, the regular Army recruitment commercials that show the cool Airborne ops neglect to mention all the accidents that happen during practice drops. Nor do they sing the "blood upon the risers" song.)

[ex-ilyavinar899.livejournal.com]

Many civilian male blue-collar jobs are also quite dangerous. A lumberjack, a pilot, a commercial fisherman... Yet people take them.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Far be it from me to abandon the proper lofty perch of cynicism, but I think it's just possible that the National Guard's management believes people who might join the Guard may, just conceivably, be aware already that being a soldier is a reasonably dangerous profession and factor that into their value calculations when deciding whether to join.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I knew a number of people back in the 1st Gulf war that where shocked and horrified to learn that instead of gaining valueable post-military job skills and experience, they were going to be shooting guns at people. Like just about every recruit in my brother's basic training company. Like the 6 guys how signed up to be X-ray techs and had their MOS changed to grunt.

[sinapus.livejournal.com]

...and they got through basic training how exactly?

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

by doing what the sergeant told them to do. that is generally how one gets through basic training, or so I have been led to believe.

[sinapus.livejournal.com]

...and did anything on what they were training with seem a bit lethal? You are expected to learn what the sergeants in question are trying to teach you.

These weren't MD's or RN's getting commissioned or anything, right?

(At least they weren't trying to get into the Marines.)

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

they were going in for basic, with their MOS in xray tech, they got new MOSs, just like most of the people in his battalion, his remained the same - diesel mechanic

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. It's just the timing/the juxtaposition that got me.

[wedgex.livejournal.com]

While in the Civil Air Patrol, I went to a week-long 'encampment' at a small college in Lakeland, FL.

One of the presentations was by an Air Force recuiter, the general "How cool it is to be in the Air Force" kind of thing (He had brought a 30mm dummy round from the A-10 and some other display stuff that was pretty neat).

He also presented a recruitment film, the highlight of which was lots of slo-mo footage of missiles firing, bombs dropping, Durandals digging giant holes in simulated runways, and so forth, all set to music.

The music?

Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John.

The older I get, the funnier that memory becomes.