Millennial Men Are Going Weak on the USA – A Country in Decline?

Our Nation Can Compensate,
By Major Van Harl

Millennial Men Are Going Weak on Use-A Country in Decline?
Millennial Men Are Going Weak on Use-A Country in Decline?
Major Van Harl USAF Ret
Major Van Harl USAF Ret

United States -(AmmoLand.com)- Every generation is perceived as weaker than the one that bore them.

There is some truth to that, but there are acceptable reasons for the decline in physical strength.  First off I do not and most likely never will work as hard as my father did and I know I never came close to how hard my grandfather worked.

The truth is I never wanted to physically work as hard as my Grandpa Edgar did.  He was a dirt poor share cropper in north Missouri who lost his entire crop in 1934 and 1936.

There were no tractors to do the heavy farm work with.  He expended hours each day dealing with the horses before and after a hard day of work in the fields. There was no electricity so what labor saving devices that might have been on the market in 1935 were something Edgar could not use anyway.  He could not have afforded to buy any of these devices.  It was not Grapes of Wrath bad, but it was darn close for the grandparents.

Depression Era refugees on a New Mexico highway in 1936
It was not Grapes of Wrath bad, but it was darn close for the grandparents.

When my grandparents moved to Iowa before WWII Edgar stopped farming, but my dad hired himself out as a day laborer all through his teenage years on local farms.  $2 a day for a ten hour work day was good money for my dad.  I know I never wanted to work that hard.

In 1949 my father Basil, the now retired US Navy Master Chief, rode the train to Chicago from Iowa to attend basic training at Great lakes Naval base forty miles north of Chicago.  This was twelve weeks of easy work for the future Master Chief.  He got to sleep late and only had to get out of bed at 6:00 a.m.  They had electricity and running water in his barracks and indoor plumbing.  He had never had that until the US Navy came into his life.  For him the physical work of Navy training was a lot easier than farming.

He still laughs about the big city boys in his training battalion who complained all through basic training about how hard it was.  So were the big city boys of 1949 their generation’s weak men?  I will bet you they did not think so.

The Master Chief did his last assignment in the Navy back at Great Lakes Naval base and for the first time in my life I lived close to Iowa and my extended family.  There were lots of male cousins who for the most part thought I was odd.  I had lived the first 16 years of my life traveling around the nation and living outside the US.  Going across the Mississippi river to Illinois was a big deal in their life. I was well traveled but I did not have the strength of my farm kid cousins and they let me know about it.

One cousin talked me into baling hay with him.  I had helped on his farm before but those were sixty pound hay bales.    He did not bother to tell me we would be slinging one hundred pound bales all day.  I brought no gloves, no hat and no water and I did not know any better.  When I could not hack the job and my cousin had to pick up my slack he was mad and he never let me forget my weakness.

Now I went on to go to college, became an Air Force officer, got a masters degree and taught high school and worked in indoor heated and air conditioned offices most of my life.  My cousin sort of finished high school and to this day still depends on his physical strength (he is over 60 now) to make a living.  We do not talk much except at family funerals and I do not envy his life. Of course he never joined the military either.

When I joined the Air Force all we did at Officer Training School for physical training was running.  We did no other physical training.  I spent six months at the Army, Infantry Officer Basic Course and I more than made up for the less physically active Air Force training.

Infantry school was hard (real hard), but if you wanted to graduate you worked harder than you did in your last civilian or military job.  You adapted, you improvised you overcame.  Weaker people can rise to the occasion if they want to, or need to, or they get run over.

My cousins and the guys I went to high school with were sweating bullets about getting drafted and sent to Vietnam.  When the draft ended in 1973 and there was no longer a threat of mandatory conscription they simply put thoughts of the Army out of their heads for three generations.  So my generation did not volunteer to join the military and neither did their sons or grandsons. Oh, a few went into the service, but the draw of the G.I. Bill to go to college on, or just having a job was more of a factor than getting in great physical shape to serve and defend the nation.

Always remember, we still have a draft and it can be activated anytime the nation is in dire peril.  Your 18 year old relative even if he is a weak, fifty pounds over-weight, and an out of shape video gamer, can be drafted.

Do not worry, we had motivational training platoons back during Vietnam to deal with the weak ones.  The weak ones would show up to basic training and two months later they still had not started their first class of actual instruction.  However they would be up everyday a 5:00 am doing physical training for 12 hours a day.

The weak were not let off, to slink home to mamma because they could not meet minimum standards.  In today’s volunteer military recruiting world only approximately one out of four young Americans can meet the minimums.  Remember those standards that excluded three out of four will fall by the wayside when bombs start exploding inside US soil. We always drop our standards and basic requirements in time of war.  The weak and less capable of our society who plan to stay out of the game due to their inferior qualifications, the Department of Defense will get you anyway.  You would be surprised how low the standards can drop in time of all out war.

Don’t Forget the Girls

At Camp Lejeune, female Marines are undergoing the same training as their male counterparts for combat arms. IMG Travis Dove for NPR
At Camp Lejeune, female Marines are undergoing the same training as their male counterparts for combat arms. IMG Travis Dove for NPR

They will not reactivate the draft without including our young women and that is only fair.  So if you are fat and out of shape, and you want to talk about your feelings as to why this should keep you out of the Army, get over yourself young lady. Uncle Sam will want you also and you too can attend a motivational platoon to bring you in line with your fellow male future combatants. If we are going to make your fat brother march to the front line in the next war, there is no reason why we cannot make his fat sister pull her weight out onto the battlefield also.  The quickest solution is to get in shape.

I am not trying to sound mean, but if we get nuked and millions of Americans die no one will care if you are a plus-size soldier.  We had troops in uniform and on ships to France in WWI and when they arrived with less than six total weeks in the Army they went right to the front.  If the Army cannot get you in shape they will simply issue you larger battle dress uniforms, and point you to the sounds of gunfire.  Those who volunteered will have no time and little respect for the weak ones who waited to be drafted in hopes of being sent home for physical deficiencies and thereby avoiding the horrors of combat.

Yes we have weak people in our society, we always have.  The latest crop of weak young Americans will in fact figure it out if they want to come home from war to mom and their video games.

Weakness can be overcome. Death because of weakness is something you can do something about.  You choose and choose wisely.

Major Van Harl UASF Ret. / [email protected]

About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:

Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” [email protected].

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Glenn

Some commenters are equating our government using the military for “nation building ” for the benefit of the elite, and a truly desperate situation where the foreign invader is standing on our soil. In the latter case it is normal and needed for women to take up arms. And children too. It has happened before —Manassas Virginia 1861 was the start of an enemy invasion . But to subject anyone to the draft , women especially, is immoral . If you guys aren’t smart enough to know that it’s the same government running the military and at the same time… Read more »

ahhiyawa

Had the opinions of Rex and enslaved citizen been the universal mindset of the ‘GI Generation’ of Americans after 7 December 1941, America would have lost the war and history would have followed a vastly different course.

Rex

Of course the people that do the enslaving with the draft would want you to believe things would be worse but I doubt it.

ahhiyawa

As I understand the Major, he is not advocating for activation of the draft as he is reminding that the draft exists as a ready instrument of law should we need it. That women would be subject to the draft is not an arguable point, as women today serve not only in the Armed Forces, but also in support and direct combat roles. Its an accomplished fact. The focus of the article is about the soft, flabby, effeminate masculinity and chocolate mousse manhood of men in modern American life, as compared to previous generations of American men before the boomers… Read more »

Rex

The amount of volunteers would be enough after a nuclear attack. There is no point is making slaves of the rest.

Oldshooter

I am reminded of the Heinlein novel “Starship Troopers” in which full citizenship (which conferred the right to vote and to hold public office) required a period (I think it was 2 years) of government, usually, but not necessarily, military service. The rationale was that no one who had not given something of himself to the country in terms of personal service, should be able to enjoy the fruits of the labor of others who had. I think the principle is an excellent one. It would likely go a long way toward fixing what is wrong with so much of… Read more »

Rex

The draft is slavery

enslaved citizen

I will never support slavery and involuntary servitude. You cannot fight for freedom and at the same time be forced with a draft to fight. Volunteerism is the only acceptable path and anyone that tries to take my freedom can pry it from my cold dead hands. Molon labe.

Clark Kent

Women in combat? Fugggitttttabooudit!

Glenn

Yes, i was enjoying the article until you started about women in combat. it is immoral, and militarily impractical and suicidal. Those who would weaken our military are the same ones who would send women into combat.

ahhiyawa

Should terrorists successfully acquire, smuggle and detonate nuclear devices in America slaughtering millions of our citizens, would put far more than just woman at risk of being conscripted into the armed forces. If necessary, in the hell of an existential struggle not even the seed-corn (children) of the nation would be exempt.

Lou

Amen! If/when a Red Dawn scenario takes place, I don’t mind woman and girls shooting commies here on our turf but women in the military is immoral, emasculating, and wrong from a Christian point of view especially in combat roles.

Gryyphyn

How very bigoted of you. Women in the military is immoral and un-Christian? Glad I’m not one of those I guess. There is nothing immoral or emasculating about having women in the military. If your manhood and morality can’t handle another sentient being fighting beside you get off my rock. Anyone who is willing to fight or die is welcome to join the ranks and pull their weight in the real world. Your statements and those above you lend credence to my point that Christians don’t believe in equal rights. Is it any wonder there are so many liberals with… Read more »