Serving in the military, people earn the respect of others

Almost alone among American institutions, I have tremendous respect for the military.

I certainly have little use for American business; there's far too much greed and selfishness and far too little ethics. It's pretty much the same with politics, with a few exceptions, and there are plenty of people who call themselves religious when what they really mean is that they're holier than thou.

The military certainly isn't perfect. There are places -- like the Air Force Academy, for one -- where religious Dominionists try to force their own brand of Christianity on others. For the most part, though, the military is the closest thing we have to a meritocracy in our country.

Middle class or poor, black or white, male or female. Work hard and follow orders and you can get ahead in the military. Back in the '50s and '60s, a lot of kids were able to straighten out their lives when judges offered them a choice of sentences for a minor crime -- time in jail or enlist in the Army.

There really isn't any doubt that the period mentioned and the one directly before it -- World War II -- was perhaps the most egalitarian our country has ever seen.

Soldiers serving in the 3rd Armored Division in Freidberg, Germany, in the late '50s served with maybe the most famous man in America at the time -- Elvis Presley.

In WWII and Korea, many of the richest and most powerful families in America had sons serving in combat. Pretty much the only reason John F. Kennedy became president was that his older brother -- Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. -- died when his plane went down. He was the Kennedy son who had been slated for politics.

In the postwar era, service in the military mattered, both in business careers and in politics. If someone didn't service, it raised eyebrows and questions. Ronald Reagan was the first president who didn't serve overseas, and Bill Clinton was the first president with no military record at all. Several Republicans avoided service with cushy appointments to the National Guard, and Dick Cheney pretty well sneered at those who served by saying he had "other priorities."

The 2012 election was the first in which none of the four candidates -- Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Joe Biden or Paul Ryan -- had any military service. The draft had ended, and none of them chose to serve.

I didn't serve in the military, and neither did any of my close friends. Two of them had fathers who were career officers, one in the Navy and the other in the Air Force.

I wish I could have served. From age 18 to about 25, I was lost and stumbling through my life. Learning some discipline and personal responsibility might have made my life very different, but when I turned 18, most of the recruits were going from basic training to Vietnam. I wasn't know for my survival skills at the time, and I'd say the odds of me surviving a month in Vietnam -- let alone a year -- were not in my favor.

But I do admire people who served, either then or later, especially when the draft was no longer in force. In this era of greed and selfishness, it's nice to see people who understand that being part of a society is giving of yourself as much as taking from others.

When I meet some who served, it tells me something good about them. When I meet people who pulled every string they could to avoid serving. I admire George H.W. Bush for his service as the youngest fighter pilot in the Navy in World War II, but I have no use for his son, who avoided Vietnam by using family connections to serve in the Alabama National Guard.

I honestly don't recall Gee Dubya ever living in Alabama.

Maybe another great American Gee Dubya -- George Wallace -- helped him out.

Neither one of them could carry Colin Powell's jockstrap.

And the greatest Republican president of the last 100 years? Not the guy who sold war bonds, but the guy who ran the Normandy invasion.

Yes, I like Ike -- a lot more than I liked Ronnie.