Non-fiction / Understanding the Fight (Analysis)

Specialist Allen, the MOS-T in her platoon, had it right. “What do you need civilian friends for? They don’t know what we go through here, they don’t understand what it’s like.” The more she thought about it, the more she realized how true his words were. Every phone call home she made to her best friend Ali, it was the same thing. Some cute boy she met at a party, how she wanted a new pair of shoes, the new cell phone she bought for $500, or how she thought she was gaining weight. Every phone call Ashley thought about how mediocre those worries were compared to hers. The four hours of sleep she had the night before would have to last her all day with no break to recuperate. She was glad to be using the phone for even ten minutes that week. She had to run more to improve her run time and drank more water in a day than she cared to just to stay hydrated. Her combat boots were her new feet and she laced them up tightly every morning.

It was amazing to her how much the Army had actually changed her in just nine short weeks. Now, instead of sleeping until one in the afternoon, she was awake and dressed by 0400 every morning, ready for the day ahead of her. The right uniform, the right time, the right place, and the right attitude was all she had known and had to worry about since she began her career in the Army. She didn’t have to worry about color coordinating her outfit everyday because she knew exactly what she had to wear, her digi-tech camo ACU’s and her combat boots. It was simple and practical, just the way she liked it. She didn’t even know if she knew how to dress herself in civilian clothes anymore. Instead of singing the new hot list songs from the radio, marching cadences ran through her head. She didn’t wear jewelry anymore, she had no use for fancy gold earrings or necklaces, her dog tags and a watch were all she need to accessorize with.

The first time she saw her best friend, she tried to conduct herself as normal as possible, but normal for her wasn’t the normal that she use to be. After a few hours all Ali could say was, “You know I don’t know what it is, but you seem different to me.” Ashley didn’t have a response for her either, she simply shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. Ashley’s battle buddy had tagged along that day and again Ali had a complaint, “You just seem like you get along better with her than with me, we’re not as close as we use to be.” What could she say to that? Her and her battle buddy had been through a lot together. They slept together, ate together, ran together, fired and cleaned weapons together, trained together. Every waking moment of the past nine weeks of her life had been spent with her battle buddies. They leaned on each other and depended on each other, even when they didn’t exactly get along. Maybe she was closer to her battle buddies than her best friend, and maybe Specialist Allen was right, civilian friends just don’t understand like a battle buddy does. They aren’t up before the sun every morning ready for another day of working in the blistering heat with sweat rolling down their backs. They aren’t doubling up on socks just to prevent blisters from developing on their feet from long marches in combat boots. They’re muscles don’t hurt day in and day out from constant exertion. And if they were going through any of it, they’d be complaining the whole way through instead of bearing it all with true faith and honor.

Civilian friends can’t do what we do, they might be strong, but they aren’t Army Strong.

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