Hello Everyone! I'm about to demobilize from being on active duty at Fort Jackson for a year. If you notice, I haven't posted anything in over a year. Aside from working extremely long hours as a drill sergeant, the Army is a vacuum for any kind of creative thought. "Vacuum" is actually an understatement; I think the term "black hole" is more appropriate. I've managed to keep my brain cells intact by doing a strange activity called "reading books." On the rare occasions I did have free time, I made a mental escape by going to places where no other soldiers go, mostly book stores and cafes.
In the Army, many make the assumption that one's rank corresponds directly to how intelligent or sensible that soldier is. In other words, the less rank you have, the less people want to hear your ideas. When I reported in to Fort Jackson a year ago, I was a published author with a master's degree. Soon it became apparent that those things mean nothing in the Army and I was quickly reminded of why I went off active duty a few years ago. Being a mere E5, my opinions meant very little. For an entire year, I bit my tongue and listened to complete idiots with a lot of rank talk down to me. Very soon, all of that will end and James Morrison the author/historian will be resurrected.
