Jonathon Logan
Science & Environment Editor
“These things we do, that others may live.” U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs — short for ParaJumpers) are perhaps the best search and rescue medics in the world. In fact, they are — when the Navy SEALs call 911, PJs pick up at the other end. However, the majority of PJs often find themselves performing search and rescue operations in humanitarian crises and pulling hurricane or earthquake victims from rooftops or rubble all over the world. In 2005, a squadron of PJs based in Georgia rescued over 3,000 people from the throes of Hurricane Katrina, not to mention the scores of PJs who flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2010 to rescue Haitians trapped in the rubble caused by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
I feel that the U.S. military has strayed too far from the example set by its very own PJs. A Navy SEAL from my very own hometown participated in the capitol riots on Jan. 6. I had a real existential crisis over this. How is it that a Navy SEAL, the personification of American service and sacrifice, found themselves storming the sanctum sanctorum of U.S. democracy? It was truly hilarious to the point of being sickening to see full-grown men dressed in tactical gear doing what? Playing Army? Let me grab the Nerf guns real quick.
These people are ripe for recruiting by far-right extremist groups. Somewhere along the way, they began to wrongly identify their ideology with militarism; they began to politicize their very existence and purpose in life! Putting on military fatigues with the American flag and storming the capitol makes an absolute mockery of the good men and women who gave their last full measure ensuring you and I could even read this!
Current and former members of the military took part in the riots, according to multiple news sources. A survey conducted by The Military Times found that a third of former and active-duty personnel experienced extremism or racism first-hand in the military. Instead of the outrage news outlets like to induce, I’ve really tried to grapple with extremism and its nonsensical identification with the military — and how it could break the military’s recruitment efforts, our foreign relations and the image we present to the world. Just last week, Lloyd Austin, the first Black secretary of defense, ordered every branch of the military to “pause and discuss the threat posed by extremism.” The Joint Chiefs unanimously supported this pause and agreed that there is a real problem. A step in the right direction! The Pentagon’s press secretary, John Kirby, added that the military may have to take a deep dive into cultural issues to confront extremism. The U.S. military is not to be paraded down the streets; it is not political and it must remain that way.
The U.S. military is not a rootin’, tootin’, shootin’, gung-ho force. Our officers in uniform must understand, and our leaders must understand, that the armed forces are a diplomatic, deterrent force. We the people, no matter how much misinformation shapes our worldview or how mad you get at the government, must understand that the military is not the place for political extremism. There are clear lines between patriotism and nationalism; clear lines between good friends who put their 18-year old life on hold and a full-grown man storming D.C. wearing the same fatigues my grandpas wore in Korea.
I will make my peace with this final account of the humanity I saw in a former Navy officer named Christopher David. Shortly after the BLM protests in Portland this summer, a video emerged that should make you question whatever bias you have as a result of this viewpoint. Christopher David was shown standing before a wall of riot police in this video — looking like he could eat one of them for breakfast — when one of the police began beating him. He stood there. He took it. They beat his hands to a pulp. All David had to say afterwards was that he wanted to shift the focus away from him and onto the intention of the protests.