536

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons...

-- Wilfred Owen

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[-] joe@lemmy.world 176 points 1 year ago

What's wrong with writing poetry on an aircraft carrier? I can't speak to being on an aircraft carrier, but on a submarine you are not in war mode 24/7; there's time to do ordinary things. (usually).

Let me guess: Tommy here hasn't ever served in the military, right? All he knows about it is from movies?

[-] Arbiter@lemmy.world 104 points 1 year ago

Fascists fear free expression

[-] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 22 points 1 year ago

dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

[-] jad@discuss.online 2 points 1 year ago

Stop Patrick you're scaring him!!

[-] at_an_angle@lemmy.one 40 points 1 year ago

Talked to quite a few vets. My understanding is that outside of training, the military is like 90% waiting.... I'm sorry, "assuming a holding pattern"

[-] Uniquitous@lemmy.one 26 points 1 year ago

As the old joke has it, 99% is killing time. The rest is killing time.

[-] dublet@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Unless you're the vessel's chef, then you're killing thyme.

[-] JustAnotherRando@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't say 90% but it is significant. "Hurry up and wait" is a common phrase in the military - you don't exactly have much "free time" (where you could do as you please) but you do have a lot of time wasted because you have to be at this location at 5:30 so you can wait for an evolution at 6 that doesn't actually involve you doing anything until 7:30. So you just sit around waiting to do shit but can't go anywhere else. Poetry sounds like a better way to pass the time than what I did in those situations, which was usually nap or BS with the others waiting around.

[-] kittyjynx@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Don't forget rock toss!

[-] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Free time? On a sub? There's got to be something you're dinq on, so get hot.

[-] joe@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Well, maybe free time doesn't happen in the first year, but I was a nuke; quals weren't all that bad from what I remember.

[-] NOPper@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The chief's quarters really need you to push out those Dive quals so they can go to a 15 section rotation.

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
536 points (95.7% liked)

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