Doesn't paint a nice picture of military school life

By my 13+ years in service, now a DisAbled Vet, I can tell you that locals NOT liking a military presence isn't all that uncommon. I was permanently stationed at 9 different posts in 5 states & 2 foreign countries. And as a weapons instructor for 3 years, I visited around 3 dozen other posts all around the world for 3 weeks at a time. I developed a pretty decent feel for how the locals felt about us.

At least 50% of the locations were either neutral, accepting us as long as what we did never bothered any part of their life, or would have rather we not be there, but tolerated the military presence. About 25% of the places, almost always outside the U.S., simply didn't care for us at all, sometimes VERY strongly. And of the remaining 25% who truly didn't mind our presence, only a very few actually LIKED us. And surprisingly, there were a larger number of these last group in countries OUTSIDE the U.S.

True patriotism has become VERY rare in the U.S., which can easily be seen in any on-line discussion of the situation in Iraq & Afghanistan, the way many citizens constantly degrade the President (ANY President), & the griping to all get-out about our government ... yet won't go vote. Many of the countless CON-Theories invented about 911 show an extreme disrespect for the U.S. (not all of them though). ANY situation similar to things like the Jessica Lynch deal, the capture of Hussein (NOT our President Hussein :):) ), or an expensive new aircraft designed to make war safer for our personnel & more efficient against the enemy will automatically trigger tons of complaints & such. The pride of being a part of one of the world's better nations to live in just isn't out there nearly as much as it was several decades ago.

A good example of this is 911. If that same thing had happened many years ago, you would have seen 90% of Americans come together as one very united & determined people, ready to do whatever it took to bring those responsible to justice, & assure it would never happen again. That actually HAS happened before .... it was called Pearl Harbor. Almost immediately there were thousands upon thousands of U.S. citizens extremely pissed off & signing up, some as young as 15 or 16 & so patriotic they lied about their age simply to avenge our loss. The ONLY thing on their mind was to go take care of business, which is exactly what we did. Compare this to the aftermath of 911. Rather than wanting to HELP, a significant percentage of Americans went to work immediately to place any & all blame on OUR government, or even going the way of Holocaust Deniers determined to prove that what most all of us SAW happen .... didn't.

So it doesn't surprise me one tiny bit that the movie showed the very people these guys would one day be fighting for, as a group which the public almost wished didn't even exist. Hollywood didn't have to exagerrate much about this part. Sad, but true. But you know what ... those boys at Bunker Hill, if ever called upon to defend American ideals, interests, & freedoms after becoming ACTUAL soldiers ... would have done it without a single complaint, just as REAL soldiers of the U.S. do, no matter how the people they are fighting for think about them. The military, even a civilian academy such as this one, does a VERY good job of teaching it's people that type of pride, commitment, & duty. But once again, there are a great many people out there who will even counter THAT fact with the claim that the guys are just easily manipulated robots & "blindly patriotic". Such an insult. That kind of attitude would shame me tremendously if I were ever guilty of it. But everybody isn't like me.

I'm very glad I am an optimist however. Even with these sad displays from some of our fellow citizens, I still make myself believe that SOMEDAY most all Americans will again take pride in our nation, our military, our freedoms, and all those other good things we have here which simply do not exist in a large part of the world. The U.S. is FAR from perfect, just as ever single other country in the world. But our 300 million people have a paradise compared to a couple BILLION of the worlds people. I've been there & I've saw it with my own 2 eyes, as have most every other U.S. citizen wearing the uniform.

I'm not sure what it will take to make us all come together again. Usually it takes a VERY huge tragedy for that, like maybe a full-blown invasion of California, New York, Texas, Florida, & North Carolina, all at once by 5 million foreign soldiers. I seriously doubt if that will ever happen. But I hope something DOES happen which makes us take pride in our nation again, and anyone who doesn't decides to seek citizenship elsewhere. I just hope it's NOT something tremendously disasterous however, just a change in attitude which makes most all of us Americans appreciate America again.