Beyond the Uniform

Throughout all the interviews I’ve conducted, I’ve slowly come to notice one role which has repeatedly, yet inadvertently, found its way back to me. Whether it’s my friends sharing a contact or my mom telling me about someone I should get in touch with, I’ve constantly been recommended to interview people from different branches of the military, that their experiences would make for a unique, distinct story.

It’s only natural. When we think about war and the military, visceral images typically appear in our mind. The noble causes of war, acts of valor, medals of heroism, and fast-paced, high-action armed conflicts. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, you may think of the dark underbelly of war: corruption of the system, images of civilian massacres, and ulterior motives behind conflicts. 

On the surface, it seems like these experiences would make for an excellent, emotionally-heavy piece. But by now, I’ve conducted four interviews with people associated with the military: a pilot-in-training, a once-active marine, an ex-soldier, and even a cadet in the US Space Corps; and after every interview, I was left perplexed on the matter of what lesson I wanted to convey. Don’t get me wrong, I conversed well and got along with my interviewee. There were good questions, laughter, and personal anecdotes. 

Yet there was also a lot of correcting an oblivious high schooler’s perspective of the military.

***

Dian Qi, like many other people we’ve come to interview, didn’t have any particularly intense callings to a single profession growing up. When asked why he decided to join the military one day, he simply said “it was because of the action movies I watched as a kid.” Finding all the action and combat scenes exciting, he decided he wanted to join the military after growing up, and the Marine Corps felt like the coolest option available.

There was nothing wrong with his answer, yet I was surprised upon hearing it. I thought there had to be something deeper, and tried to ask follow-up questions, such as whether he was also driven by a duty to serve his country or inspired by tragedies such as 9/11. And, although they played some part, Dian continued to emphasize that it was a personal choice he made because, at its core, being a soldier was exciting.

Joining the military wasn’t a typical choice for Chinese-Americans, who typically emphasized education, starting a good family, and creating a good life for your family through a career in the office or another “respected” position. His choice to join the military had originally led to tensions within the family. However, as he continued to strive earnestly towards being accepted in the military, his parents came to understand and even accept his choice. And, most importantly, it became a point of pride for him.

After getting through the Marine Corps Recruit Training, Dian was put into the reserves. Dian was called from deployment and received the opportunity to serve in the Afghanistan War, thus having firsthand experience with the war. Similar to before, when we came to discuss his time spent serving in Afghanistan, I immediately jumped to asking questions about what combat was like. How he felt fighting in the Middle East. Whether he was ever concerned for his safety.

With a laugh, he told me that the role he served during his deployment was just patrolling his outpost, and every once in a while make a trip to a local village.

***

People often say that hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t believe that’s always to be the case. Looking back on the past from the present can still give people a distorted view of reality: sometimes, even more than observing the present. Unable to live through and experience firsthand the intricacies of the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of the past, humans often forget the difficulty of choices and brandish history as either “good” or “bad,” although reality hides itself somewhere in between.

Living amid the repercussions of 20th and 21st century conflicts–and being conscious of their magnitude, nature, motivations, and their historical context–has led me to fall victim to the mentality above. Every time I turn on the news and see headlines of another conflict, I can’t help but assume that it was caused by the interference of a first-world country or the aftermath of historical repression. And this isn’t without good reason; with the declassification and dissemination of information on recent military scandals such as the Iran-Contra affair, massacres during the Vietnam War, and modern-day imperialism in Latin America, it’s easy to believe that war is fundamentally a force of evil.

But this simplistic view tends to make people forget that a good majority of the people directly involved with the war–the soldiers on the frontlines, the people training to join the military from home–are people with their own lives. That they each had their unique motivations for joining the military, all stemming from different experiences that make each member of the military distinct.

***

What I’ve said doesn’t seem to be a one-off experience. Another person I’ve come to interview was a friend from my church, called Raphael, who is currently training in the Air Force while also studying in college. When asked why he had wanted to join the military and whether there were any deeper, underlying motivations behind his choice, he merely stated that he felt called to serve his country. Nothing about glory or valor, but because people should feel obligated to protect their country, and that planes are cool. And to be honest, I can’t say I disagree with him on either point. 

Of course, being in the military still comes with its share of struggles. The struggles of training and becoming a soldier in the first place is a unifying experience, and deployment still comes with its difficulties, such as being away from home and needing to be mentally alert, even if your job doesn’t require you to be in active combat. Even though Dian and his immediate team didn’t run into much trouble during their patrols of the outpost and local villages, people in his squad did. Over the year he spent in Afghanistan, there were still casualties and even some deaths caused by bombs planted in the ground. And, even though doing pilot training may even seem like a bucket-list wish for some, the act still requires heavy mental focus and dedication. One of Raphael’s colleagues even suffered from injuries that could’ve been fatal, had he fallen in a different position, while practicing parachuting. 

But the military also has its upsides. Amid the negative emotions we often associate with war, it’s easy to forget that the military is still an institution—structured, communal, and not fundamentally different from schools or workplaces. Lifelong bonds can be formed through shared experiences, and being on deployment in Afghanistan is not only a military task but also a formative experience that can develop resilience, leadership, and a deep sense of camaraderie.

We often allow people’s military experience to overshadow other aspects of their identities, assuming that being a soldier, pilot, sailor, or Marine defines their entire lives. In reality, service members have families, personal goals, and unique motivations beyond their uniforms. Raphael isn’t just a pilot, but also a national-level fencer and a student at Johns Hopkins University. Dian isn’t just a Marine but a person with a family, children, and a really nice stubble. Coming to terms with these facts reminds us that the military, while a defining part of their lives, is only one facet of who they are. Behind the missions and ranks are full, complex lives–lives shaped as much by personal passions, relationships, and everyday choices as by service to their country.