God, Guns, Family, Country
By: Butch Smith
Tags: Army, Military, Politics, Political, Guns

Me with the 101st

I was asked, in regards to the Constitution, “How do we protect and defend what we once promised to uphold?”

I immediately thought of “God, Guns, Family, Country”. This wasn’t an ideal I grew up with. My first recollection of this type of sentiment was Lance Corporal Dawson in a Few Good Men saying “Unit, Corps, God, Country” as his defense for giving Private Santiago a Code Red. I don’t think Arron Sorkin intended to make me feel patriotic when hearing it, but I did. I wanted that level of patriotism.

I watched the movie a few weeks before getting on a bus, a plane, another bus, and finally ending up at Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery (Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for those that haven’t been there). I was expecting a Full Metal Jacket basic training experience. I was ready to come out the other side believing in “Unit, Corps, God, Country” as fervently as Lance Corporal Dawson.

Reality was different. Basic was more like Harold Ramis wrote a sequel to Stripes where the cast became platoon sergeants. Directed by Stanley Kubrick but without cursing.

Reality was better. Basic was hard and easy, both mentally and physically. I lost 55 pounds, learned how to field strip an M16-A1, throw a grenade, tie a tourniquet, perform CPR, and most importantly, pull the NO-GO Pin when firing an AT4. But, I didn’t feel “Unit, Army, God, Country”.

Some did. We had a guy show up with a fresh US Flag tattoo on his arm and wanted to get our training unit insignia tattooed on his chest. But we also had a guy decide he couldn’t shoot another human after going to the range and taking aim at a human-shaped silhouette. I lived between them.

I did what was asked, got smoked with my unit, sang Tiny Bubbles 7000 times, and stood in line. I kept looking for the “Unit, Army, God, Country” moment, but it never came. Maybe I was looking too hard. It was a constant in my mind for all 9 weeks. Much like “Life’s A Dance” by John Michael Montgomery. That was the last song playing on the bus radio as we drove on base. We would sing it, getting the lyrics all wrong, in the showers, almost nightly.

The closest I came to that feeling was graduation. My Mom and Grandma drove up from Texas. I was able to stay in their room. I had Waffle House for the first time and was proud to have made it through. We finished Pass and Review, the speakers had extolled their platitudes, and we were finally released to our families as the perennial Army favorite began blaring from the speakers. For those few moments, as I hugged my mom and she told me how proud my grandpa was, with “I’m proud to be an American, Where at least I know I’m free” echoing through my soul, I felt what it could be like.

Fort Leonard Wood Graduation Video — 1993

After saying goodbye, getting on a bus, a plane, a bus, a cab, and finally arriving at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California, that rush of “Unit, Army, God, Country” had passed. I had gone from Full Metal Stripes to Animal House in about 12 hours. DLI is its own special place, with its own story.

“God, Guns, Family, Country” didn’t factor into the rest of my training nor time in Korea. It did peak back into my life when I got to Kentucky. After Korea, I drove from California to Fort Campbell, “Home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).” I was ecstatic to be a Screaming Eagle.

Just north of Nashville, straddling the Kentucky/Tennessee border, Fort Campbell is definitely in the bible belt. Giant Crosses, American Flags, and billboards with some variation of “God, Guns, Family, Country” were a constant roadside feature from Texas to the front gate. Variation really only means Guns and Family were reversed or one was left out, but God was always first and Country always last.

I loved serving there. It was finally the Army experience I had enlisted for. Weeks in the field, Jumping out of helicopters, and just knowing you were in the best unit, in the best Army, in the best country in the world.

Most of my free time at Fort Campbell was not spent at Fort Campbell. I was in the South! I was where the Civil War happened! I would spend hours driving around to actual civil war battlefields. We don’t have those where I grew up. I saw real confederate flags flying in people’s yards. It wasn’t just a Lynyrd Skynyrd album cover or the roof of the General Lee, these were people celebrating history. I was an oblivious tourist, a typical American of the time.

Fort Campbell is so close to Music Row! I went down there regularly, hoping to see my favorite country singers. And I did! I went to the Ryman, met Alan Jackson backstage at a fancy fundraiser, and ran into David Lee Murphy in a grocery store. I was living where my music came from.

I went to church.

I was doing everything in my power to find “Unit, Army, God, Country” or even “God, Family, Country”, but I never found it.

After I got out, I moved back to Northern California, met a girl, got baptized, got married, and went to work on the cleanup crew at a sawmill. She got pregnant, I got laid off, we moved to Washington State, I GI BIlled through school and became a computer programmer in Tacoma. It wasn’t easy, but we survived together.

I didn’t give much thought to “God, Family, Country” between getting out and September 11th. After September 11th, all I thought was country. I wanted to re-enlist. I wanted to go kill terrorists. I wanted to be there. But I also wanted to be there for my wife and three kids. I finally started to understand the order “…Family, Country.” I stayed a civilian.

In 2004 our IT department was transferred to Florence, Alabama. My wife and I are adventurous by nature and agreed to be there in something like 6 or 8 weeks. The South was not how I remembered it. I had given up on religion by this time and seeing the South through the eyes of a non-believer is scary enough, but raising two daughters in a place that believes a girl goes to college to get a Mrs. degree is downright terrifying.

It was in Alabama where “God, Guns, Family, Country” lost all appeal. Seeing it on a sign and living where they mean it, is not the same thing. My daughter was told at school she can’t be a paleontologist because she is a girl. I worked with a guy who kept a picture of his son, at a Klan rally 20 miles away, on his desk. He shared an office with a wonderful Jewish woman who is still a dear friend today. The man who installed our cable had a confederate flag tattoo, with a noose, and the words “Bring it Back” on his arm.

I am embarrassed at how many things I let slide when we moved there. I thought of the south as just another region with its own quirks and customs. Kinda like if you moved from France to Germany, it would be different. The incident that fundamentally changed me and forced our eventual move was a racist middle manager.

He was looking for a new store manager and told me he wouldn’t hire the current assistant manager because “N****** do better in the warehouse being told what to do.” I reported him to HR. They Investigated and forced an apology. “I am sorry if anything I said can be construed as offensive.” “Construed as offensive” is not an apology. HR closed the case. I had to work with him again.

In our first meeting back together, we were discussing one of our stores. He quoted a black store supervisor, using his best sambo voice, “Yessa Sir, Massa *********, I’sa treat my cusmers real good.” I walked out and emailed HR. They responded that I should let him know when he is being racist, so he can learn when not to be. My response back was a two weeks notice and a note that “It is not my responsibility to retrain a racist.”

We moved to Raleigh. I wasn’t sure it was the south as a whole, maybe just Florence, Alabama was the problem. A year later we moved again. It was the South. This was life in “God, Guns, Family, Country.”

“God, Guns, Family, Country” became another one of those slogans I associated with a racist south. “Unit, Corps, God, Country” was certainly not meant to instill patriotic thoughts. It was meant to show how blind adherence to this type of mentality is harmful and can cost people’s lives.

I didn’t fully realize how toxic this ideal can be until last year. I voted for Trump in 2016. I never owned a MAGA hat. I never attended a rally. I didn’t like the guy even a little. But, in my view, the Democrats cheated the primary. The Democrats forgot “governments are instituted among people, deriving their just power from the governed.” To me, they were trying to steal the power. I wasn’t going to reward them.

The Republican Party didn’t love Trump and tried to unite against him. But, in the end, they supported the will of the people. I respected that. Besides, our Constitution had safeguards in place. How much harm could he actually do? I believed our Constitution was strong enough to withstand any single person. I believed he would push all the boundaries, and get away with some crazy stuff. I also had complete faith in our system to ultimately keep us safe. He would expose some weaknesses and vulnerabilities, sure, but in the end, we would correct those and he would fade into history.

I was wrong. Our system broke completely with the joyful encouragement of the “God, Guns, Family, Country” crowd. I watched in horror as they became the “Trump, Guns, Fascism, Republican” cult. I am still mourning the loss of our Constitution.

But, as to the question at hand: “How do we protect and defend what we once promised to uphold?”

As I said, I immediately thought of “God, Guns, Family, Country”. Not specifically as the solution, but as a reason why we lost the Constitution and what we need to do if we are to have any hope going forward.

“God, Guns, Family, Country” is not just a motto, it is a series of trials and tribulations that the believer, and the decisions, have to pass before deciding. It is clear, concise, and easy to work through quickly. So quickly, most don’t even consciously know they are doing it.

God always comes first. Not the bible, not their church, but the version they have created in their mind. The version they want God to be. If it sends glory to their God, then they support it and the rest of the questions aren’t generally considered. If they think it offends God, then they oppose it and the rest of the questions aren’t considered. If it isn’t technically a God “thing”, move to the next question.

Guns and Family are interchangeable in their order and have basically the same question. Does this threaten my Guns or my Family? These don’t necessarily mean physical threats. Inconvenience as a threat. Any wait is a threat. Contradiction to their beliefs is a threat. Something that doesn’t benefit them directly is a threat. Simply put, if they don’t like or understand it, they feel threatened and oppose it. If they believe it will alleviate a threat they support it.

Country is always last. It is less of a test and more of an “Other” category that is used to justify their decisions on the previous questions. It is the footnotes at the bottom of a Wiki page. The more little [X] number notations the article has, the more reasoned and factual it is. Having 30 flags, support the troops bumper stickers, and 2nd Amendment shirts provide the appearance of reason and fact like those little [X] links. The reality is, none of them know, nor care, where the links actually go. All they know is, the more they have, the more patriotic they look. And looking patriotic is all that matters.

This is why they are not concerned with the destruction of the Constitution. It is nothing more than decoration.

As I prepare for whatever comes this November, I think about “Unit, Corps, God, Country” and the feelings those words invoked in a 19-year-old kid. I still want that feeling. I want a guiding framework I can use when those difficult decisions arise and hard choices need to be made.

It was surprisingly easy and simple.

Humanity, Country, Family

Is this good for Humanity?

If it is not good for Humanity, it cannot be good for the Country nor Family.

Is this good for our Country?

Nothing can be both good for Humanity and bad for our Country. When humanity prospers, our country prospers.

Are this person’s actions actively harming my Country or Humanity?

If yes, they are an actual threat to all of us. I cannot let that go simply because we share a bloodline. Actions matter more than bloodlines. Caring about bloodlines is the root cause of the worst atrocities against humanity we have ever perpetrated.