America Is Relying on a “Warrior Caste” of Military Families to Fight Its Wars. That’s a Problem....

SSgt Amanda Boyd My father served in WW II along with 4 uncles. Myself and my oldest brother served in VN. My 2 son's -One a Marine the other in the Army served respectively 10 years and 15 years,so,yes,i can see where we may be considered a "Warrior Caste".

On my dad's side, I'm 4th generation American, and 3rd generation to serve. On my Mom's side (which we aren't totally sure about how long they've been in the US) two of my cousins and I are actually the 4th generation to wear a uniform, and my youngest brother has been expressing a lot of interest in the Army. I think there is a definite "warrior caste" aspect to the service.

To the point of the article, I think some of the potential ramifications of the "caste", a few of which I hadn't thought about until reading this article, are rather frightening. Most of us are aware how much of a problem group-think can be, but I never really thought about how much of an impact it could play when senior leadership falls into a fairly narrow demographic slice. And I shudder to think about the long term ramifications of how we employ force when the public isn't involved in any of these decisions on any level.

In general, though, there seems to be a disengagement by the public from the state of our nation as a whole. People simply don't care enough about things outside of their bubble, and the lack of new blood in the military is symptomatic of this greater problem. One idea we've tossed around at work is some sort of mandatory federal service. 2 years after high school in the organization of your choice, be it national parks, Peace Corps, or the military, but mandated for every single American. By forcing people to have some skin in the game, perhaps we could get the average citizen to be a bit more engaged in the well being of the union. Maybe then, we could get away form the bind partisanship.

Thanks