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From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: SF writers in the work force JD Vance.
Date: 10 Nov 2024 19:57:47 -0000
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)
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Paul S Person  <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>
>If he was, in fact, a clerk and /claimed/ to be anything else, then
>that is a problem. Clerks are important to the overall functioning of
>a military unit. Just not as important as the sharp end which is,
>after all, the reason the unit exists.

My father was an officer in the Adjudent corps, attached to the 25th
Infantry.  I grew up on military bases with other kids who would talk
about how their fathers flew helicopters or drove tanks or shelled 
things and I felt kind of left out that my father filled out paperwork.

But, applying for colleges, I realized that my father was absolutely
brilliant at filling out paperwork.  "Don't write that," he would say,
"write this other thing that says the same thing but sounds better."
Now that I find myself overwhelmed by bureaucracy and spend more time
filling out computer security paperwork than actually fixing radios in
my job, I realize just how difficult and surprisingly important a thing
it is.

So, while I totally disagree with Vance about just about everything
and I don't have any respect for his fairly recent radical change in the
Trump direction, I have a lot of respect for his service.  He volunteered,
he wasn't drafted, and he volunteered into a service that can put one
into the worst possible situations with no notice.  He didn't get into
those situations, which seems a good thing to me since the first purpose
of the military is to act as a deterrent.
--scott


-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."