As I was talking to someone close to me who is in the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) at my college, I came across the common fear of dying and being lost in oblivion. Although the fear is common, it felt extremely different in this conversation. I have never understood the fear as fully as I did in that conversation with this one member of the military.
The fear of dying is extremely real for members of the military, but I never thought the courageous people who signed up to be a part of the military feared oblivion. As a civilian, I fear oblivion because I am not a person of extreme strength and dedication like a soldier. Although I saw the perspective from this ROTC person who let me in.
During the past wars in this world, we have these things that represent the courageous soldiers who never got all of the fancy awards, or who weren't generals, or, in other words, weren't special. These things are numbers. The number of soldiers wounded. The number of soldiers who became prisoners of war. The number of soldiers who were killed. The number of soldiers who enlisted. The number of soldiers that supposedly survived. Soldiers are just numbers in an assembly line for the military. Soldiers are made to feel disposable. That just isn't right.
I mean, yes we are all numbers in the grand scheme of things, but these numbers are not for people who sacrifice everything for their job, giving up basic freedoms and putting themselves in harms way for the sake of others. All of us who feel the fear of oblivion are scared because we are numbers in history as time goes on in a natural fashion, but not because our jobs make us one.
Finding out soldiers are experiencing the fear of oblivion makes my heart break. The belief I had about soldiers my entire life was that they were ones who deserved so much respect because they changed the country for us all. I never thought they were hated for what they did in another country when they were just following orders, or that people think that if they died they would be forgotten because they died for nothing.
Soldiers impact everyone's lives. Especially those who are close to them. I know for a fact that soldiers are not just another number to their loved ones. As a person who is close with military members and veterans, I definitely know that for a fact.
One shall never be in oblivion if at least one person sees the good in you and your actions. Even if you are not a military member, you matter to someone and you shall live on in others because you've influenced a person's life at one point or another. Never fear being another number because you never will be.
