Let’s not forget, Soldiers are just like everyone else in America

By David W. Kuhns Sr., Northwest Guardian

The Army has a pretty clear image of what it is — but we don’t do so well at understanding who we are.

Recently a news clipping came across my desk about a study done by the Heritage Foundation. It seems the “think tank” decided to examine who was enlisting in the military.

Recent charges had been made that recruiters were targeting the rural poor and that the burdens of war were falling unfairly on a narrow segment of society.

To test the accuracy of these charges, the foundation compared the zip codes from which recruits came with Census Bureau statistics about average household income in the same areas. The results of the study might be surprising to some. The average household income for the nation as a whole is a bit over $41,000 per year. The study found that the average family income for the zip codes that provided enlistees was ... a bit over $41,000 per year.

In other words, when it comes to the economic backgrounds of members of the armed forces, we are pretty much average — not poor, not from an under class, just Americans.

I think that is important to remember.

The Army is a voluntary service, but it is not a developing military caste drawing its members from those who have no where else to turn. In fact, I think, Soldiers are motivated to join for all the various reasons they always were — for training, for adventure, for a job, out of curiosity and out of simple patriotism.

The civilian population the Army serves needs to understand that Soldiers are just like them.

Soldiers need to understand that, too.

A few years ago when I was attending the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy a group of educators visited from Chicago. They were trying to learn about the Army and what it had to offer their students. About a dozen of us volunteered to meet and talk about the organization we had spent much of our adult lives in.

I was dismayed by the comments of my peers. One after another, they told stories about individuals who had been at the point of desperation, only to be resurrected by enlisting in the Army. Stories of dropouts who learned, the impoverished who prospered, the borderline criminals who gained honest self respect — that was all I heard.

These wonderful senior NCOs, out of a desire to show how much the Army had to offer, were painting a picture that met all the stereotypes the teachers already held. The Army, these old Soldiers were saying, was an option of last resort; a place for those who were failing in life to grasp a last hope at success.

I interrupted one of these tales finally and said I thought an inaccurate picture was being painted. I asked the other master sergeants and sergeants major where they came from. They were all pretty much like me — from middle-class America.

Some came from the South, some from the West, some from small towns, some from larger cities. A couple of us were college graduates; most had some college.

My point then was that the Army — and all the other services — has been the savior of many lost individuals over the decades, but those people are not who fills the ranks. The Army offers options for everyone.

Indeed, far more of those who join the Army come from young success stories than from those with a background of failure.

Enlisting and serving the nation as a Soldier is a positive step in a life of learning, growth and success — not just a life preserver for those drowning in failure.

Soldiers are just like everyone else — that’s who the Army is. And everyone — including Soldiers — needs to remember it.

David W. Kuhns Sr.: david-kuhns@us.army.mil