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So here it is 2 weeks after my first Participation in a Massachusetts State Guard Drill.
From a little before 8 that AM till about 4: 30 PM ( sorry, 1630....ah hell, I'm not in uniform or on duty--it's 4:30, Dammit) I was introduced by osmosis(read: thrown straight the hell into it) in how to march and do my left, right, and about faces and my column left and column right( my friend and I had gone over basic formation, drill and ceremony stuff the night before in prep, so it wasn't *too* jarring and I was pretty much in step, if not polished). Had a short lesson on cold weather training( which will be next drill, overnight, outdoors), a bit on where certain equipment is/should be stowed in one's harness( "your knife should not be carried near your sidearm, in the event you need to draw your sidearm and you come up with your knife going "time out" like an idiot").And was trained up in how to do a field strip, function check, and failure-to-fire drill on the M4A1 Carbine.
Those of you who know of my firearms instructor qualifications will perhaps better understand why I was left somewhat unhappified at this point that the weapons segment did not begin with the Big Four.( which my friend and I conferred upon and he then corrected, explaining them all to the class since I wasn't technically even a recruit yet, and won't be till i'm sworn in, and so it was better he should bring it up, he being an actuing Sergeant). I'm gonna ask him if i'd be out of line making printouts of the Big Four for all members( well, if you're gonna be part of a team, be PART of the TEAM, I say ) because that's vital procedure around firearms, period.
Well, obviously I must not have flunked my interviews with the commanding officers or pissed anyone off, because pending one last piece of paperwork they're lookin' to swear me in next drill, apparently.
So I should be psyched, right?
Well...........................Yes and no.
That's why it took me two weeks to post about it, because I had to think very hard about what decision to make.
See--By swearing in, I'd be under oath not only to the US Constitution but to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I'd be bound to any orders the governor gave in much the same fashion as the federalized National Guard would be.
Not a problem in and of itself, but you see, over the past few years I've experienced a growing disillusionment with the MA legislature and culture in general due largely to ideological differences as they pertain to the state's treatment of the 2A but also other factors as well.
Could I follow the orders of a leader for whom I had no respect( and in the case of our newly elected governor that is emphatically the case, more than that I won't get into as the rules don't permit and that is not the focus of this entry)? Could I swear an oath to defend the Constitution under a governor, attorney general, and legislature who won't do it themselves?
I realize to some people oath swearing is just a formality, but I guess I'm one of those old fashioned people to whom an oath remains an *oath*, and that's why i had to think about this.
If yes, I could proceed as normal.
If not, no point in even swearing in.
It's true, this being a volunteer force you can put in for discharge at any time( barring orders in hand, then you're in till they're carried out), but seriously, why swear in only to quit? How you leave is in large part how people remember you. If you want to be part of something which , at least on paper, still embodies things like courage, honor, loyalty and so on, and you leave in a manner which does not embody any of those principles, you've wasted pretty much everything. *shrug* Maybe i'm cuckoo and talkin' too much, but I don't think so.
These things are what have weighed on me these last few weeks.
In the end, I decided that since this was the last foot in the door for any military service I was likely to see, and such skills are useful in or out of the service, the experience, and the chance I might get someone out of wreckage in time to recieve treatment and survive, or play the opposing force for one of our National Guard units before they deploy to the sandbox and the training helped them to stay alive and come home safe, or even just teach a friend or family member how to stay out of danger in bad weather conditions, so they are safe, that my chance to do any of these things was enough to balance out having to serve temporarily under such "leadership" as we have for the short time I'll continue to be a MA resident( 2 years max, hopefully shorter or as long as I can friggin' stand it).
That and the fact that The Massachusetts State Guard is not just like any OTHER State Guard in that they are basically what the colonial Minutemen literally evolved into. I'd basically be a direct living descendant of their tradition. If those of you who know me can think of a more fitting spiritual cousin than them, please PM me, i'd love to hear about it.
So it looks like it's "Forward, March". We'll see.
From a little before 8 that AM till about 4: 30 PM ( sorry, 1630....ah hell, I'm not in uniform or on duty--it's 4:30, Dammit) I was introduced by osmosis(read: thrown straight the hell into it) in how to march and do my left, right, and about faces and my column left and column right( my friend and I had gone over basic formation, drill and ceremony stuff the night before in prep, so it wasn't *too* jarring and I was pretty much in step, if not polished). Had a short lesson on cold weather training( which will be next drill, overnight, outdoors), a bit on where certain equipment is/should be stowed in one's harness( "your knife should not be carried near your sidearm, in the event you need to draw your sidearm and you come up with your knife going "time out" like an idiot").And was trained up in how to do a field strip, function check, and failure-to-fire drill on the M4A1 Carbine.
Those of you who know of my firearms instructor qualifications will perhaps better understand why I was left somewhat unhappified at this point that the weapons segment did not begin with the Big Four.( which my friend and I conferred upon and he then corrected, explaining them all to the class since I wasn't technically even a recruit yet, and won't be till i'm sworn in, and so it was better he should bring it up, he being an actuing Sergeant). I'm gonna ask him if i'd be out of line making printouts of the Big Four for all members( well, if you're gonna be part of a team, be PART of the TEAM, I say ) because that's vital procedure around firearms, period.
Well, obviously I must not have flunked my interviews with the commanding officers or pissed anyone off, because pending one last piece of paperwork they're lookin' to swear me in next drill, apparently.
So I should be psyched, right?
Well...........................Yes and no.
That's why it took me two weeks to post about it, because I had to think very hard about what decision to make.
See--By swearing in, I'd be under oath not only to the US Constitution but to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I'd be bound to any orders the governor gave in much the same fashion as the federalized National Guard would be.
Not a problem in and of itself, but you see, over the past few years I've experienced a growing disillusionment with the MA legislature and culture in general due largely to ideological differences as they pertain to the state's treatment of the 2A but also other factors as well.
Could I follow the orders of a leader for whom I had no respect( and in the case of our newly elected governor that is emphatically the case, more than that I won't get into as the rules don't permit and that is not the focus of this entry)? Could I swear an oath to defend the Constitution under a governor, attorney general, and legislature who won't do it themselves?
I realize to some people oath swearing is just a formality, but I guess I'm one of those old fashioned people to whom an oath remains an *oath*, and that's why i had to think about this.
If yes, I could proceed as normal.
If not, no point in even swearing in.
It's true, this being a volunteer force you can put in for discharge at any time( barring orders in hand, then you're in till they're carried out), but seriously, why swear in only to quit? How you leave is in large part how people remember you. If you want to be part of something which , at least on paper, still embodies things like courage, honor, loyalty and so on, and you leave in a manner which does not embody any of those principles, you've wasted pretty much everything. *shrug* Maybe i'm cuckoo and talkin' too much, but I don't think so.
These things are what have weighed on me these last few weeks.
In the end, I decided that since this was the last foot in the door for any military service I was likely to see, and such skills are useful in or out of the service, the experience, and the chance I might get someone out of wreckage in time to recieve treatment and survive, or play the opposing force for one of our National Guard units before they deploy to the sandbox and the training helped them to stay alive and come home safe, or even just teach a friend or family member how to stay out of danger in bad weather conditions, so they are safe, that my chance to do any of these things was enough to balance out having to serve temporarily under such "leadership" as we have for the short time I'll continue to be a MA resident( 2 years max, hopefully shorter or as long as I can friggin' stand it).
That and the fact that The Massachusetts State Guard is not just like any OTHER State Guard in that they are basically what the colonial Minutemen literally evolved into. I'd basically be a direct living descendant of their tradition. If those of you who know me can think of a more fitting spiritual cousin than them, please PM me, i'd love to hear about it.
So it looks like it's "Forward, March". We'll see.
