Party Party! Bomb Bomb!

Let me paint a picture for you : A father sits on the sofa, one evening when his son comes up to and asks him – Hey Dad, how was it in the Squadron in your days? The father reminisces and talk in length about the good ol’ days. The late night parties and winding up in rooms that you don’t recognize next morning stinking of alcohol; yet waking up, getting clean and reporting to work. Not very pretty huh ? No, it was one of the best times…

The armed forces are known for a very close knit fraternity like lifestyle where everyone lives like a family. You go to work every day thinking you are serving your nation. The prestige and pride sat on your uniform crisp as a cracker. You curse your wits out if you get a bombing wrong or you screw up a sortie. If a pilot died, your cry your heart out, because its family. If you get the feeling you are leafing through an old tattered book with yellow pages around 30 years old, well you are right. This happened then. 30 years ago. Today, a party is a party and a bomb is bomb.

However the armed forces boast of tradition, charm and “the real deal”. What you saw in Top Gun. Maverick upside down giving the birdie and flying by the tower faster than the speed of sound. So when a person today has to decide if he wants to join the forces and experience a once in a lifetime lifestyle or get a corporate job with a good pay and go through mid life crisis 10 years early, why do you think he should chose the prior to the latter? The guy is well justified in going the corporate way because the chances that you’ll be experiencing whats in your mind are pretty slim.

So the M.O.D decides that if its money that people want then we’ll give them money. But that’s not why a person joins the armed forces. Don’t get me wrong, the armed forces have to keep up with the growing economy and increase the pay scale so that a bright young officer doesn’t have to feel shy in front of his school buddies who are driving the fancy cars. Its the honor, and charm which I feel matters more. Its the charm which is losing its mark today and I doubt any increase in pay scale can restore that. The close knit family is slowly disintegrating and its every man for himself today. The only thing that a young recruit is bothered about is his next pay day and impressing his boss at all costs (and of course the free stuff! no one forget the free stuff ! ). The defense forces is just another organization and serving the being an defense personnel is just another job.

I guess I am like the villager complaining about industrialization/globalization destroying his farms and the village life. Some people like to stick to traditions and the old way. Its really not a debate I guess. Or who knows, maybe 10 years down the line we discover that ignoring the development in its nascent stage has cost us our planet…