# The aspiring warrior



## Avor (12 Sep 2018)

The Aspiring Warrior

In this world the most honourable thing that can be done is done in death. That when we stand alone, look
 back and prepare for judgemet, we find satifaction. To know that the world has been bettered by your efforts and in the end you did not weep nor beg for what you sacrificed. From this to the warrior's path is found.


 I sougt to make this path mine, one of dedication and virture. a devotion to make the world a better and safer place. I lived it out as far as I could,  but in the end I was denied by fate. Now in this text I seek to share all that I haved learned, from when you first hear the call, to the final sacrifice.

The Call

To help you understand the call you can identify it in three components; truth, duty and valour. Each to flow from one into the next to form a complete revelation. First you have to come to realize the the truth of the world, become aware of the the suffering and injustice. Once you have the knowledge you have but one moral choice, to heed the call to duty. If he who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, all men that fight for freedom and liberty are brothers, and no brother of mine shall stand alone. Once you've come to this, the scaale of what this means to your life will set in. That you must reply with valour, put in all you have and willingly accept the sacrifices requitred. To learn  that not failing is more important than not dieing.

The Deviances

Once you have chosen the path you will find conflict as you strive to further youself. The templation, misguidance and things that chance your heart. There will aways be vices and cardinal sins that will tempt you, but the danger lies in love. Of all the things in the world that sway us there is nothing more powerful than love.

The natural bonds of love you feel for a woman is the most common danger to the path. I've seen it, good soldiers turn in their uniform to be with his love, how they were pained and unfocused without her. It is brave to take on love and war, but you must beware that one you may be forced to choose one over the other.

The path of the warrior can be a loney one and we will seek out comadre. To seek those that share your values and objective to protect those you love. For this most find what they need is found in  the army. It offers instruction in the disciplines of war and allows to build the bonds of brotherhood. You may feel you have what you desire, but a warrior fallows his heart while soldier fallows orders. Consider the objectives of thr military, the places they go and the reason why. Find solice and remember that rhere no glory in battle, but glory in the reason for it. You can love brother, and it is good, but you and him  as soldier don't get to pick the fight.

In the love of victory you will find danger. You must be aware and careful, that after a battle you may lose your way and only find yourself in battle once again. When the dust settles you will come to feel an exuberance,  adrenaline, you will want seek it out again and again. As you do the rest of the world will begin to seems dull and gray. This love lessens the love you have for the love you expressed in the call, but then the danger is even greater as your disciplines are eroded. To give into the rage and hate will misslead and corrupt. It our desire to see justice done as any lasting peace requires it, the tainted will drive you seek revenge and provoke in others as you stop seeing them as people, with heart and soul, but only see them as your dehumanized enemy and revell in the bloodlust. 

The Sacrifice

Even though you heed the call and make preparations but nothing can save you for what you will have to give. For ease I reference a nameless poem I wrote when I thinking how soldiers are viewed by otherk kinds of people.

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To much I see, artians, craftmen, mocking soldiers, for being unable to find beauty in world.

Writers and scholars insulting soldiers for not taking the time to read the lititure of our time.

Protesters and politicians harasing soldiers for answering the nobal call with out hessitation.

Perhaps what they say is true, that soldiers cannot properly love art, understand the great works of lititure, and they may even lose a great deal of personal freedom and identity, but that's what makes a soldeir a soldier. He knows that he sacrifices such things, in order that they are ultimently preserved and allowed.

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This is vital to your understanding of the way. You need to maintain your own humanity and empathy. But as you fallow your pather you will be called to make greater sacrifices requires more than maintenance, The damage to the mind and bodt can weil end your path, you will face pain and hardships but at the end you have to remember what we wanted in peeace, what would find worth liveing for. Always keep it, it will save your life when you are ready to end it.


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## daftandbarmy (12 Sep 2018)

Soldiers and Warriors
By Robert Bateman

GAAAA-RYYY OWEN, GARRYOWEN, GARRYOWEN,
IN THE LITTLE BIGHORN VALLEY ALL ALONE,
THERE'LL BE BETTER DAYS TO BE,
FOR THE SEVENTH CAVALRY,
WHEN WE RIDE AGAIN FOR DEAR OLD GARRYOWEN!
~ To the tune of the 7th Cavalry tune "Sergeant Flynn"

I am a Seventh Cavalry officer. I commanded in that most famous of American units, and my regimental affiliation and affections will always be with the men who wear the upturned horseshoe crest of that regiment. As a historian, and as perhaps the de facto regimental historian (since there is no such thing as a de jure position for this function), I am also very well acquainted with our legacy. The Seventh Cavalry was created to man the outposts of the frontiers in the wake of the Civil War, and to fight against the warrior cultures of the Native American tribes as need be. But in doing so they were not then, and are not now, warriors themselves. The men of the 7th Cavalry were and are soldiers. There is a significant difference between the two.

Unfortunately, and I cannot nail down when this started, a trend started to take hold in the Army and the Marine Corps which blurred that distinction. Sometime in the mid-90s we started to hear senior officers (defined in my head as "Colonels and Up") calling us "warriors." 

At first the appellation was rare enough. Now and then you might hear it creep into a speech at a Change of Command ceremony, or perhaps at a Dining In (a formal dinner for the officers of a battalion or brigade). But slowly the term began to come into more common usage, even as it leaked into print in professional journals and in speeches coming from Air Force officers. This is a bad sign, and it does not seems to be stopping. I wish it would, because calling us warriors is not only inaccurate, it displays an ignorance about what a warrior is all about. The bottom line is that a real "warrior" is really just about himself.

Indeed, the key difference between a Soldier (or a Marine, or an Airman) and a "warrior" is almost that simple. A serviceman does his job as a part of a complex human system, he does so with discipline and selflessness as his hallmarks. Courage also matters, of course, but it is but one of several values that are needed. The serviceman is the product of a Western society which, while it values individualism intrinsically, values subordination in pursuit of a collective objective as well. A warrior, on the other hand, is the product of a culture or subculture which is essentially purely honor-driven. That is not a good thing. 

We have not had a real honor culture here in the United States for about 140 years or so. Somewhat ironically one could make a fairly solid historical case for the assertion that the first real commander of the 7th Cavalry, Major General George Armstrong Custer, was one of the last real "warriors" in the United States Army. In many ways this was so because Custer was a bit of a throw-back even in his own day and age. He was sort of a transitional character, one of the last members of an American honor culture that was slowly dying away. 
In an honor culture, you see, the behaviors of individuals are driven almost exclusively by the need to gain and then to protect, their personal honor. Honor is seen as not necessarily being the product of living a decent life, as it is here in the West. Instead, in an honor culture honor is seen as a commodity. Honor is an almost material thing which must be accumulated. It can only be won by action. And because it is a commodity, it can also be taken away. In both cases this is an individual's responsibility, he must gather honor as he can, and he must defend both his own honor and the honor of his family. 

Thus, in an honor culture if your daughter or your sister have "brought dishonor" to your family, you could see it as a taking away of some of that commodity. In several honor-based cultures it is then up to the males in the family (those charged with defending that family honor) to collect the honor back, quite often by killing those who took the honor away. Similarly, if you are a male in such a society and an individual has done something which seems to slight your honor, you have to try to kill him to defend that honor. This also means that, in a military context, discipline, organization and coordination and cooperation are much less valued than is, say, personal courage shown in the face of danger. (Think of the Native American warrior practice known as "counting coup.") This is because there is no honor to be collected from doing good maintenance or performing well as a team. Only individual feats and acts can bring honor, and those must be witnessed, and this is what motivates the "warrior." That is the difference between "warriors" and "soldiers," and I am damned glad that I am one of the latter. Now if somebody would just tell the generals. 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inteldump/2008/09/soldiers_and_warriors.html


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## Avor (14 Sep 2018)

An interesting article, but I think I'm missing what you want me to learn from it. I should mention that I believe that the difference between a soldier and a warrior is that solders fallows orders while a warrior fallows his heart.


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## daftandbarmy (14 Sep 2018)

Avor said:
			
		

> An interesting article, but I think I'm missing what you want me to learn from it. I should mention that I believe that the difference between a soldier and a warrior is that solders fallows orders while a warrior fallows his heart raging, selfish, overweening ego.



There, FTFY


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## Remius (14 Sep 2018)

Put simply a warrior is bound to his own code of honour.

A soldier is bound to duty.  

A warrior will seek glory and to accomplish heroic deeds to feed his sense of honour.  

A soldier will do heroic deeds as well but mostly by accident and by necessity.


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## Avor (15 Sep 2018)

> raging, selfish, overweening ego.



When I say "warrior fallow thier hearts", I'm not talking about ego trips, I talking you personal judgement and morality. Why are you so dismissive the warrior in this regaurd? To have that sense saves us from unlawful commands.





> Put simply a warrior is bound to his own code of honour.
> 
> A soldier is bound to duty.



Then what happens when that code of honour means being bond to duty? To find glory in you duty and honour doing what is nessisary?


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