Soldiers, Sparring, and Injuries - Is It Acceptable, Asks Taxpayers Paying for the Medical Expenses
It makes sense that practice makes perfect, and we need our soldiers practicing their fighting skills in close hand-to-hand combat all the time.
Especially considering the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where often our elite soldiers were going house to house to chase down insurgents, and terrorists.
Of course, any time you do excessive training or sparring between your own team it can cause injury.
These injuries stack-up and can end up costing the taxpayer huge amounts of money due to all of the disabled veterans.
Okay so, I'd like to talk to you about this for a moment if I might.
Not long ago, I met a disabled veteran who had spent 3 tours in the Middle East, he was a U.
S.
Army Ranger, and quite skilled in all that he did.
He was the quintessential tough guy, with a great attitude, and a decent philosophical perspective about the whole thing.
He reminded me of someone who had studied martial arts, and been to the battle enough times to no longer need to project his macho image.
He was comfortable with himself, his earned ego, and that was enough said.
The kind of person you'd like to have as a neighbor, friend, and someone who leads by example without the arrogance or in your face projected ego.
Nevertheless, his injuries were quite serious and even prevent him from doing various types of strenuous work such as construction work for instance, or package delivery, and therefore it's hard for him to hold certain types of jobs.
This is unfortunate, and when I asked him about his injuries, his worst injuries came from sparring during training, and fighting for sport amongst the other tough guys in his group.
His injuries did not come from combat, or fighting the enemy.
He did have a few battle scars, and some shrapnel he took from an IED mine, but those were incidental to his other injuries which really were keeping him from working.
Now then, I'd like to switch gears here and talk about all of this from a taxpayer's perspective.
After all we are paying the medical expenses, and for his disability payments.
Therefore, I ask from a philosophical perspective if perhaps our soldiers should not be fighting amongst themselves and sparring at the upper end of their abilities.
Anyone who's ever even played high school football knows that you need to save it for the field, not go after your own team players full-tilt in practice.
Perhaps, you can understand my points of contention here, and I throw this out merely as a concept to think on, from a cost perspective.
Especially considering the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where often our elite soldiers were going house to house to chase down insurgents, and terrorists.
Of course, any time you do excessive training or sparring between your own team it can cause injury.
These injuries stack-up and can end up costing the taxpayer huge amounts of money due to all of the disabled veterans.
Okay so, I'd like to talk to you about this for a moment if I might.
Not long ago, I met a disabled veteran who had spent 3 tours in the Middle East, he was a U.
S.
Army Ranger, and quite skilled in all that he did.
He was the quintessential tough guy, with a great attitude, and a decent philosophical perspective about the whole thing.
He reminded me of someone who had studied martial arts, and been to the battle enough times to no longer need to project his macho image.
He was comfortable with himself, his earned ego, and that was enough said.
The kind of person you'd like to have as a neighbor, friend, and someone who leads by example without the arrogance or in your face projected ego.
Nevertheless, his injuries were quite serious and even prevent him from doing various types of strenuous work such as construction work for instance, or package delivery, and therefore it's hard for him to hold certain types of jobs.
This is unfortunate, and when I asked him about his injuries, his worst injuries came from sparring during training, and fighting for sport amongst the other tough guys in his group.
His injuries did not come from combat, or fighting the enemy.
He did have a few battle scars, and some shrapnel he took from an IED mine, but those were incidental to his other injuries which really were keeping him from working.
Now then, I'd like to switch gears here and talk about all of this from a taxpayer's perspective.
After all we are paying the medical expenses, and for his disability payments.
Therefore, I ask from a philosophical perspective if perhaps our soldiers should not be fighting amongst themselves and sparring at the upper end of their abilities.
Anyone who's ever even played high school football knows that you need to save it for the field, not go after your own team players full-tilt in practice.
Perhaps, you can understand my points of contention here, and I throw this out merely as a concept to think on, from a cost perspective.