10 July 2007

The Army as High School

It’s funny how much army life can resemble normal life in small, amusing ways. Any number of people like to think of the Army (and I think that this applies more to “the old Army” than to the current “professional Army”) as a place for boys who never grew up. I don’t think that that is fair for any number of reasons, however that doesn’t mean it’s entirely wrong. But I think it’s more than that, a small bit of the Army’s microcosm is stuck in high school.

Both have an integral class structure; one being year, the other being rank. A great number of people, largely enlisted, enter the Army immediately out of high school. Both the Army and High School significantly limit immediate mobility. It is fairly difficult to get away from the people you’ve been assigned with, whether you like them or not. This leads to increased levels of tension – from being forced to interact with people you may not like and from a natural human inclination to form a social hierarchy. In terms of dating, long term deployments can lead to a level of promiscuity often seen in high school relationships. Additionally, the heavily skewed gender ratio in theater specifically, and in the Army in general, adds extra tension.

Obviously, there are any number of reasons why the fit isn’t perfect (age, experience, senior leaders, violence, availability of weapons, discipline, missions, etc). That said, there are parallels, and high school is one of the few experiences that almost all Americans share (and the media loves to use).

Perhaps all this is to say that while I walked by the movie theatre tonight, I saw a number of people, in pairs and trios standing around outside, just hanging out, talking, probably even flirting. It was like any summer night, anywhere, outside any movie theatre (except even darker and more private) in America. The mental throwback to high school was striking, a bit funny, but mostly, reassuring.

posted by Interested Soldier @ 15:49