[Buffalobob]

WD covered things very well. I will add in a couple of points which may or may not be applicable to you. The source and quality of the clay is important when one begins to work and affects the end result. So your personality and reasons may be different from mine.

With that said, what one learns is the value of principle and the value of other men’s lives and the value of one’s own life. If what you believe in is not worth more than your life then you believe in very weak principles or you do not possess the basic fundamental courage needed. The thing that may sound corny or Hollywood is that I truly believed that the little silver bar on my collar was important and that what I had promised to do in return for that officers symbol was a commitment more important than my own blood. Once you have lived a life of principle and have offered your life for that principle, you may find years later that you have had a lot of trouble with getting along with bosses who change direction every time the wind blows from a different quadrant.

As a team member you must look around you and decide what your teammates are worth to you in comparison to what you are worth to yourself. If the team is not worth more than you then you should consider going into politics or some similar field where you trample on people daily. I suspect that loyalty and sacrifice and only partially learned attributes and that the original clay is important. One thing that you will find post SF is that the ability to expect that each person will perform their duties will be the first thing to crash and burn. In civilian life, the team you will be with has a high percentage of slackers no matter what profession you enter. This will always cause you grief and sorrow.

A lecture I gave my son after he signed his 18X contract and before he left home. It is a simple sentence that means a lot of things. “Don’t dishonor the Beret”. Remember what it means and the price you paid for it and do not kill civilians women nor children. You are a warrior and behave like a warrior, not as a murderer. A man’s worth is measured by the greatness of his enemies, not by how many children he has killed. You must be able to look in the mirror every day of your life and respect the person you see. Life is long and the memory of poor decisions and actions lives with you forever.

In summary, post SF, you will know who and what you are and you will understand the meaning of principles and the value of those principles versus your next promotion. You will be disillusioned with the rest of the world to an extent, but you will understand the benefits of hard work. If you are a wise person you may come to admire your enemies and even regret the ones you killed. You may understand that the opposing soldiers were men like you and just wished to have their five acres of rice paddies, grow old and have some grandkids to play with.