What the hell is a solider doing going inside a mission???

[rocktivity]

My drive home from work takes me past a mission, which usually has a couple of scruffy-looking men hanging out by its door. While waiting at a red light, I saw a soldier walking towards the mission. He wore fatigues and a black beret. He had an slow, slightly bow-legged tip-toed walk, and his gaze was so straight ahead I figured his destination was much further down the street.

As he approached the mission, the men outside smiled and nodded, and the solider paused. I thought he'd exchange a few pleasantries and move on, but he seemed to be asking all the questions. THEN HE WENT INSIDE THE MISSION. What the hell is a solider doing going inside a mission??? Had he exhausted all avenues of help already???

:grr:
rocknation

[jody]

1. Was he a recruiter? n/t

[oneighty]

2. Perhaps a phony veteran

Just because they wear the clothes it do not make them a veteran.

There are phony veterans everywhere.

Even in VFW clubs.

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[rocktivity]

3. I admit his fatigues looked fairly new

but a phony vet wouldn't know to do the thousand-yard stare.

:headbang:
rocknation

[vickitulsa]

4. Do we know if the soldier was active duty or a veteran?

Seems unlikely he was a recruiter, though these are desperate times for the Army recruiting officers. I know one, and the Army forced him to become a recruiter and remain for 5 years even though he'd been promised it would only be for a couple of years. He's too close to retirement to just up and leave the Army. Besides, he loves it, loves his country, is from a family of veterans, and served in Bosnia (twice), Somalia (just after Black Hawk Down occurred, and he was not allowed to shoot back when he was shot at there), Germany, Korea, and Kosovo.

The pressure he and all other Army recruiters have been under to meet their quota, though unsuccessful, has driven many recruiters to near despair and certainly the toll is telling on them. This soldier told my friend Armymom, his mother, that he absolutely *hated* recruiting and lying to the prospective recruits. His dad is a Vietnam veteran and learned the hard way just how badly the military establishement will lie to recruits and betray them once they have served their purpose and their time. "Free comprehensive health care for life?" HAH! Tell me another joke! VA support for the asking? Yeah, right, just try to get their attention if you have service-related problems when you are a veteran.

But seriously, as desperate as recruiters are to find anyone they can to suck into service, is it possible they are branching out, expanding their methods, reaching even into missions in search of the gullible, innocent, devout, patriot souls they could use?

OTOH, maybe he was investigating a tip about a terrorist cell that wised up and meets in a mission instead of a mosque....

:shrug:

[rocktivity]

5. If he's undercover, I doubt he would have been in fairly new fatigues

More likely he would have resisted bathing and shaving for a few days to look like a fellow down-and-outer. And he did not have the purposeful stride and demeanor of someone about to make a sales pitch. His properly-groomed appearance could not disguise his blank stare and needful aura.

:headbang:
rocknation

[oneighty]

6. Even our tiny village

has an 'Army-Navy' store where uniforms of many sorts are available. The 1000 yard stare can be learned while sitting staring at the bar room walls telling phony war stories. (or by watching FMJ)

Beware the phony veteran.

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