goddess writes regarding the soldier who did not quit on Voice Of Mars: Ranger School:

“sounds like he was in the right line of work…”

goddess, I agree.  There have been a lot of comments made along these lines: “Why would anyone volunteer to be a soldier?” I thought it was interesting the same day I posted that blog, this story broke:

Prince Harry Desperate to Return to Front Line in Afghanistan
Continue reading Hearing Your Calling - Share Your Experiences

We watched, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc over the weekend. Joan of Arc is the soldier’s patron saint. Apparently this was a strange choice of saint for a young machismo type boy but he said you’re supposed to pray and meditate on it which is what he did and she is who came to him.

He didn’t know anything about her at the time but has since read virtually everything ever written and when he makes a claim of this sort you can believe he’s not kidding.

We liked the movie a lot. It was tremendously moving but my favorite part was this comment he made…
Continue reading Voice Of South Node In Aries: Past Life Soldier - Joan Of Arc

The other night the soldier and I were watching Sniper. I’d never seen it and was surprised how good it is above and beyond the obvious eye-candy. The first two thirds of the movie, this is. The last third was a little much if you have Libra but anyway, the soldier has worked as a sniper…

“Yeah, I liked it but nobody likes you. Everyone hates snipers,” he said.

“Why? They seem very necessary. Aren’t they necessary?”

“Yeah, they’re good for all kinds of things. Psychological warfare…” he went on to elaborate. “You can hit a guy from almost a mile away. There’s no way they can know what’s coming.”

“I see. So why don’t they like ‘em?”

“Well, it’s considered somewhat cowardly in the military tradition,” he said.

I was fascinated to learn this, maybe you feel similar.

The soldier and I watched the war movie over the weekend, nothing like hearing the blow by blow from someone who was there. “What were you thinking here?” I could ask this kind of stuff and get an answer. Plus he’s so candid. He does not give me the pc version but the real version and by the time the movie ended I was somewhat stunned and I was very freakishly humbled.

Now this might sound like I am some sort of arrogant over-inflated freak but if it does, I don’t think you get my meaning. Of course that right there might serve as more evidence of my arrogance so some of you can see I am damned if I do, and damned if I don’t but I feel like doing… offering this, so I am going to.
Continue reading The Saturn Return Of The Soldier And P - Love And War: Humbling… Crystalline

It’s been awhile but I mentioned the soldiers love of what he calls, “martial music”. He loves fighting songs and sometimes likes to have them with breakfast. That is he will turn on something rousing to have with his coffee and he almost looks in a trance as he listens… “Get’s you blood pumping, eh P?”

He says this with his eyes wide and a grin spread across his face. His whole body seems to want to jump up and stand at attention and while it does get my blood pumping, the music is not the cause. It’s the fact I live with this much testosterone that gives the thrill and I thought I’d show you what I am talking about.

This is one of his favorite pieces of martial music. He regularly puts this on. He plugs in the movie and fast forwards to the song and I have to say when he starts his day this way he generally has a good one.

Panzerlied

Jeremy asksin regards to the soldier…

1) Why won’t he fly?

I think you are sort of new around here. The soldier was in Special Forces for many years. He has (well) over 200 jumps into combat but hates flying. He has a fear of heights actually. Being a Taurus and likes to be on the ground.

He loves to fight though. He loves battle in every way shape or form so much he willing to jump out of a plane to be in the middle of one but now that his fighting days are over he’s got no motivation to get on a plane and it is well understood by those who know and love him, if he’s traveling, it’s by car.

Continue reading Answering Questions Regarding The Soldier

Regarding the soldier and his opportunity to speak freely, I’m here with the back story.  Some months ago a friend of the soldier’s called him. A couple he was close to had a son who had decided he wanted to be a ranger and the request was that the soldier talk him out of it.

Now this put the soldier in a quandary.  Turns out this young man’s parents were precisely, exactly the type that would not want their son anywhere near the military. He was a kid with options… education and so forth.  He definitely need not choose to join the armed services and the parents knowing little about the military and being anti-war in general were flipped out to put it mildly.

Continue reading Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner: The Quintessential Soldier Meets The Anti-War Crowd

This weekend we attempted to watch Apocalypse Now. We didn’t quite get through it yet but it’s a movie we saw in the theater when it was first released. It is one of my favorite movies of all time for a variety of reasons and I was surprised when the soldier said he had not seen the movie since he saw it with me 30 years ago.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “How can that be? All you do is watch war movies. Not a week goes by you don’t watch a war movie.”

“No, I only saw it that once.”

“Did you not like it?”

Continue reading Voice Of Mars: War Tactics

Last night we were eating the plantains and regarding the little girl who survived selling plantains…

“Yeah, she was a little capitalist,” the soldier said. “She had this cast iron thing and she’d build a fire out of palm fronds and cook the plantains in it.  Then she’d sell them and then she’d take a break, get something to eat and then take the money she made and go buy some more plantains and do it again.  It was bad there. It was incredible, there were pill boxes right in the street,” he said.

I looked at him blankly. “I don’t think I know what a pill box is.”

“It’s a concrete thing, like a box you get in and then you shoot out of them. It’s like a bunker.”

Continue reading Pluto Transit To The Moon - Mine: War And Fried Plantains Redux

On the Pluto Moon front, today I fried plantains for the soldier.  The soldier has a soft spot for little girls… Girl Scout age. He was already like this when I met him when he was 19. In fact it was because of a little girl he decided to be a soldier and eventually to join Special Forces.

He told me back then how he had stood inside the fence of his privileged and protected school one day and watched a little girl be shot dead. She was shot off the fence of his school as she scrambled to climb it so she could get inside where he was and be safe and protected too.  Both kids were about 10.

Continue reading Pluto Transit To The Moon - Mine: War And Fried Plantains