Because They Take. That’s What They Do.

If you are unaware, Department of Defense is changing the names of a number of bases across the country.  These bases are named for officers that served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  I’d have to go back and get the number, but many of these also served in the United States Army before the Civil War and even graduated from the United States Military Academy.  Keep in mind, none of these men were ever tried for treason.  Not one.

The estimated cost to change the names of the nine Army bases is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $39 Million in taxpayer dollars.  The intent behind this is not “glorify” those officers who served the Confederacy.

Here is the catch.  There is not a single American still alive that remembers the Civil War.  There is not a single American alive that remembers slavery.  99.9% of Americans cannot tell you who these Generals are, or were, or what their military careers consisted of.  There is not a single American alive who even remembers them on a personal level.  Not one.

These name changes are being done to save people’s feelings.  People who really have no personal basis or experience directly related to these men, that war, or slavery.  NO ONE.  Their feelings are being hurt over something they have conjured up in their own minds.

Do you know what is being ignored?  Do you know who is really being hurt in this?

People who have ACTUAL memories of these bases.  You know, the generation of warriors that were asked over and over to deploy to places like VietNam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, and a list of others.  Why do those names matter to us?  I’ll tell you why.

We were married at Fort Benning.  Our children were born at Fort Bragg.  We buried friends at Fort Hood.  We deployed from and returned to places like Fort Lee.  The names of these bases are part of OUR LIVES.  Our REAL lives.  Not some shit that someone is upset about that they never experienced.

Soldiers connect with Fort Bragg, not General Bragg or Fort Hood and not General Hood.  The names of the bases MATTER to us, not the people they were named for.  Those were our HOMES.  People don’t understand there is so much more to service than wearing a uniform.  They just don’t get that these places are where we lived.  They were our lives.  Period.

This is what we have come to expect from the Department of Defense.  They asked us, over and over, for years and years to sacrifice.  They kept asking with little regard for us or our families.  If we didn’t like it, tough shit.  Get out.  We will get someone to replace you.  They just kept taking and taking.  And we kept giving and giving.  “All gave some.  Some gave all,” as the saying goes.

Now they are taking again.  It may seem trivial to some, even some in the military.  Many of us are just used to it.  People will say, “they are your memories, they can’t take those away.”  I call bullshit on that, too.  If they are just memories for us, then they are just names for people who really have no legitimate connection to them anyway.

So why do we have to be the ones to sacrifice?  Again?

Because they take.  That’s what they do.