"YES SIR, STAFF SERGEANT SIR!"

So I watched this movie called Jarhead over the weekend with red hot Jakey G., who's always fun to look at of course.

I've watched lots and lots of war movies over the years, and generally most of them are very violent, gory, and disturbing. The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, and Full Metal Jacket come immediately to mind. Jarhead was different in that it focused more on boot camp and then being deployed to Saudi Arabia while awaiting to fight the first Persian Gulf War back in the early 90s. I found it most interesting to see what life is like being in the Marine Corps.

Even if you're not at war, it looks just plain miserable! MISERABLE to be enlisted! I mean, I dunno how I would feel having to get up at the buttcrack of dawn and being screamed at to follow orders. A lot of the guys enlisted are pretty low class, brutal, and cruel. It's almost as if a man's emotional side is torn to pieces and made to disappear. The behavior of these dudes closely resembles that of males in junior high who just started puberty. All these guys have left girlfriends, wives, gay lovers, parents, and others back at home and are forced to live and interact with each other. They're frustrated and sexually tense, and serving in a hot desert climate like the Middle East or the humid tropics like they did in Vietnam must not help either.

So they spend most of their days in basic training at first, then just lounging around shining their rifles, smoking, masturbating, reading, masturbating some more, probably humping each other, and all other sorts of mundane trivial diversions to pass the time. A lot of their behavior seems very very gay. Men are real weird like that. Testosterone makes them act and do really strange things, and so many of them in close quarters is not necessarily a good thing. All this seems to lead many of them to kinda lose their minds and turn into emotional wrecks. Sure, they have to hide this very well, but a lot of them seem to lose it, even while stationed out there.

So many of them come back with traumas, anxiety disorders, depression, and a general feeling of loneliness and emptiness. It's quite sad. Many who served in the first Persian Gulf War came back with strange flu-like symptoms. Others have gone on to kill family and loved ones or committed suicide. Serving in the military (as Jarhead and many other movies have shown), takes its toll on one's psyche. Coming back to live a regular life is not easy, and many are never really able to cope. They become used to holding those weapons, killing, and hanging out with their hardcore male buds.

Many come back to the monotony of the real world, to girlfriends who have perhaps cheated and moved on, or to kids and bigger responsibilities. As Jakey G.'s character pointed out however, ya never stop being a jarhead.

My respects to all serving in Iraq or those who did in the past.

It takes balls.