I have met a bunch of new people recently because of stuff going on in my personal life. Any conversation with a civilian who doesn’t know me usually begins with a: “So I heard you are in the military. What exactly do you DO in the military?” After fumbling around trying to explain what EOD is for a while, while also not trying to mislead this individual into thinking I'm Keanu Reeves in ‘SPEED’, I finally get to the part about “diffusing bombs”. I only use those terms because how the hell else do you explain EOD to someone who doesn’t know what a CARCO or IED is? The general reaction to my half assed layman’s term-filled description of a job I would actually give my life to is: “WOW, you must have so many wild stories!” or “This dude is a badass!” I can’t begin to explain to you how much those reactions make me nauseous. Chances are if you are EOD or any other combat-related job in the military, you have probably had similar experiences.
Unless you’re Tim Kennedy, people calling you a badass or assuming you’re a modern-day Audie Murphy makes you uncomfortable for good reason. You haven’t lived up to your expectations for your career. I have definitely struggled with this for literally my entire career. Every mission I ever went on wasn’t exciting enough. An uneventful route clearance? Wish we found an IED. A firefight? Wish it were closer. An IED? Wish it was 10 IEDs. I am 90% sure that this mentality exists in all of us. I don’t care if you're a tier one dude, I bet you feel like you should've done more. Well, guess what? Get used to it. That will never go away.
Early in your career, you think: "If I could just deploy I will be cool." Once you deploy, that turns into: "If I could just get on a combat mission, then I will be cool." This keeps on going forever, trust me. You will just keep looking for the next thing to validate yourself until one day you realize you never will.
What makes this worse is when you come across dudes in your career who have done things that you could only wish you had accomplished. Hearing about the EOD guy on the Bin-Laden mission or the EOD guys who were with the ODA that called in the MOAB can really give you the “that should’ve been me” mentality.
So, how do those dudes even get those missions? Luck. Get over it. Right? Well, No.
I am a big believer in making your own luck. This only goes so far, of course. But, you definitely aren’t getting on those missions if you're the guy who doesn’t pass a PT test. You definitely aren’t going on that mission if you quit at selection because it was hard. You definitely aren’t going on that mission if you let the recruiter talk you into being a supply specialist because retaking the ASVAB to get a higher score was too much work. Whatever your lane is, learn it and learn to excel in it, and then start to learn the roles and responsibilities of the next job in your career path. If you are an EOD team member and your MK2 dearmer barrel is rusty, you have zero reason to complain about a lack of mission. You might think: “What does a rusty barrel have to do with whether or not my unit is deploying?” Well, I've got news for you, Mr. Bad Attitude, even if your unit was deploying, you aren’t at the top of the list to go on the cool missions if you suck at your job.
Man, what a perfect segue into my soapbox about attitude. We all know the E-4 with a bad attitude. Some of you might still be that person, I know I was. You can easily identify this person by remarks such as “I didn’t sign up for pulling weeds in the motor pool.” Or “The commander just needed a bullet point on his OER that’s the only reason we're doing this FTX.” I can promise you this: No leader in the entire military is looking to that person with a bad attitude for any sort of cool mission. If you want to go on cool missions or even put yourself in a position to enjoy your life in the military, fix your attitude.
The fact of the matter is, none of us will ever feel like we have done enough during our time in the military. The best thing you can do is enjoy the time you have with your buddies when you have it. Because the other thing that everyone of us will agree with is this: All of our fondest memories from our careers will be the times we had with our buddies. My favorite stories to tell include the most boring events that were made fun by my buddies. My buddy and the general’s wife? That story didn’t happen on the X during the UBL raid. Going rogue and planning an ambush on OPFOR during a tactical timeout at JRTC? One of my favorite memories. I still remember stories over coffee in the field, or during an RCP in the truck more than I remember some actual eventful missions.
If you aren’t happy with where you are in your career, Make your own luck. Work hard and change your situation. If you like the job you have but you don’t get to do it enough? Make your own luck. Fix your attitude and become an asset to your unit. On a long enough timeline every unit will do something cool at some point. If you are already doing those things and you still aren’t satisfied? Join the club and enjoy your time with your friends. Don’t be too cool to take pictures and if you happen to be wearing High Order gear, send the pics to us.
-T
0 comments