behind enemy lines
i guess you can say i've wasted almost the entire day and that my productivity is at an all time low! :P watching behind enemy lines on tv now. and i don't regret taking this break because it set me to thinking about military life and if i'd really join the rsaf..
when we consider a career in the military, or any other careers, we consider the pay, lifespan of the career, and what you would do in the job - does it interest you? but when considering combat duty, there is the added dimension of actuality, of life and death, of survival.
in the show, an f-18 hornet got shot down in a supposed de-militarised zone, the pilot was injured but his navigator, the main character was unharmed. the crux of this is that the pilot got killed by renegade serbian militants who weren't supposed to even be there (this was the bosnian war). and the navigator has to get himself to safety. so the issues that i started thinking about was firstly on the individual scale - i.e. what if the pilot was me? , and subsequently on the issues of organisational, national, international politics which can be summed up in the phrase "wth?!" lol. but how true.
even though the focus is on deterrence and diplomacy, what happens when there is a freak incident and you get caught in the cross-fire? will you be able to make it out alive? there's no doubt that you will emerge from the situation with a different perspective, perhaps even scarred.. mentally, emotionally, even if not physically. it's frightening to even have to place yourself in the hypothetical situation where enemy troops are approaching you, and you're all alone, injured and lying on the ground. you have a gun, will you use it? and who will you use it on? how many of them can you take down before it's your turn.. what would i do.. and do i even want to be at the risk of being placed in such a situation.. it's true that you can die any time, and it's true that if it were up to me, at this stage in my life, i'd choose to die in a glorious explosion of fighter plane and me while carrying out a mission or a dogfight. the heroism, idealism and immortality of youth! don't you just love it :P dying peacefully seems such a boring idea and at this age, who wants boring!
but for a career, for the rest of your life, would i want such a possibility hanging over my head? when it comes to it, could i step up? hard choices to make, for the price of having a shot at flying a fighter plane! which is, doubtless, one of the experiences of a lifetime.. and why we have to have good eyesight, good physical abilities - all these equate to survival! i mean if you crashed and (a) lost your contacts or have no time to put them in, (b) smashed your specs, how can you be alert to danger! like the slightest shift or movement that give away enemy locations, or the briefest glint of a mine tripwire.. "movie-esque", but applicable.
and politics. ahh, i shan't even begin to go into that! because now i've got to hit the books again!
when we consider a career in the military, or any other careers, we consider the pay, lifespan of the career, and what you would do in the job - does it interest you? but when considering combat duty, there is the added dimension of actuality, of life and death, of survival.
in the show, an f-18 hornet got shot down in a supposed de-militarised zone, the pilot was injured but his navigator, the main character was unharmed. the crux of this is that the pilot got killed by renegade serbian militants who weren't supposed to even be there (this was the bosnian war). and the navigator has to get himself to safety. so the issues that i started thinking about was firstly on the individual scale - i.e. what if the pilot was me? , and subsequently on the issues of organisational, national, international politics which can be summed up in the phrase "wth?!" lol. but how true.
even though the focus is on deterrence and diplomacy, what happens when there is a freak incident and you get caught in the cross-fire? will you be able to make it out alive? there's no doubt that you will emerge from the situation with a different perspective, perhaps even scarred.. mentally, emotionally, even if not physically. it's frightening to even have to place yourself in the hypothetical situation where enemy troops are approaching you, and you're all alone, injured and lying on the ground. you have a gun, will you use it? and who will you use it on? how many of them can you take down before it's your turn.. what would i do.. and do i even want to be at the risk of being placed in such a situation.. it's true that you can die any time, and it's true that if it were up to me, at this stage in my life, i'd choose to die in a glorious explosion of fighter plane and me while carrying out a mission or a dogfight. the heroism, idealism and immortality of youth! don't you just love it :P dying peacefully seems such a boring idea and at this age, who wants boring!
but for a career, for the rest of your life, would i want such a possibility hanging over my head? when it comes to it, could i step up? hard choices to make, for the price of having a shot at flying a fighter plane! which is, doubtless, one of the experiences of a lifetime.. and why we have to have good eyesight, good physical abilities - all these equate to survival! i mean if you crashed and (a) lost your contacts or have no time to put them in, (b) smashed your specs, how can you be alert to danger! like the slightest shift or movement that give away enemy locations, or the briefest glint of a mine tripwire.. "movie-esque", but applicable.
and politics. ahh, i shan't even begin to go into that! because now i've got to hit the books again!
posted by sneakytrixie at
10/20/2007 11:00:00 PM
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