Comradery, Brotherhood, Unison, all part of U.S. military ethos. The military can be compared to the time-old analogy of the giant clock with all the smaller cogs needing to work in unison so the giant-clock can work efficiently. But what happens when all the little cogs that make up this giant military clock don’t always agree on everything?-
In the election of 2016, the major contenders for the U.S. presidency are Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee and Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. Both with very different agendas for the military
The U.S. military has approximately 660 bases around the world and 1,042,000 deployable soldiers. All who believe it is important to elect a commander in chief that is efficient and who they believe genuinely cares about them. They may not, however, all agree on who, they think genuinely recognizes the sacrifices these enlisted men and women have made and the sacrifices they may have to yet make.
“You have to pay attention to the politics, you have to vote for the right person. You can’t just vote for anyone,” says 24-year-old Specialist SPC. Kevin Guevara, a first generation Salvadorian-American, is enlisted in the Army Reserves.
Although at first glance, the last thing that comes to mind when you see him is: Soldier, he carries himself with dignity and walks erect, past a group of children in the middle of a soccer match in a basketball court. As I sit on the bench, he sits on top of the bench and I am forced to look up at him.
SPC. Guevara is now in the process of getting his degree in nursing at Saint Joseph’s College but remembers being unsure with how he was going to raise money for his college expenses and as a result he decided to enlist in the Army Reserves in August 2012. “Their help is alright. That’s why I did Reserves. I told myself ‘You know what? I’m going to train for whatever amount of time and then come back to finish school.’”
Upon enlisting he was given the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test given to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the recruit in order to help determine what jobs he/she will be proficient at. Based on his score, he landed the job of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist.
CBRN specialists are responsible for defending the country against chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare. His training consisted of 10 weeks of basic training and 11 weeks of advanced training in which he had to wear a protective suit six hours daily. “It’s tough, man. That suit is heavy, it just gets hot. A lot of people pass out from dehydration. They tell you if you pass out might not pass the course they keep count of how many times you pass out.”
SPC Guevara isn’t a stranger to hard work though. At the early age of 8 he started working in the restaurant that is below his apartment in Brooklyn peeling potatoes and onions and occasionally mopping the basement floors. He still works there now. To him that restaurant is his second home and the workers his extended family.
He learned to like the military lifestyle. “It was tough but once you get used to waking up early and working out and stuff like that, you learn to like it. I actually miss it. Now that I’m here, I feel like I don’t do enough.”
Donald Trump’s nomination for the presidency of the U.S. came as a surprise to SPC Guevara. Although he recognizes that some of Trumps policies could be beneficial to the U.S., mainly policies regarding the national debt he says ultimately it was Trump’s blunt demeanor and remarks that repelled him.
“It’s the way he put himself out to be. He has no filter in his mouth. Him talking about religion, Muslims, and Hispanics, and especially war heroes, it makes him sound like a fool,” he says referring to the Muslim soldier that died in battle whose parents came forward after Trump said the U.S. should ban Muslim immigration, ”He just makes fun of the people that actually care about this country. People that are fighting for their life and risk for this country. I’m bothered by it.”
Originally a Bernie Sanders supporter because of his ideas on helping college students with their debt. He believes that the next president should help recruits more with school stating that unless he is deployed, less than half of his tuition is covered.
For him the only option right now is Hillary Clinton. “They both have their flaws. It’s just which one isn’t that much of mistake.” He laughs and says that if given the chance he would vote for Barack Obama again. ”I think right now, at this point, they would vote for him and leave those two clowns aside.”
Data from the U.S. Census and Department of Defense compiled by the NPR, shows that 66 percent of all military personnel including active duty, reserves, National Guard and Air National Guard are white and according to a poll conducted from August 29 to September 9 by NBC and SurveyMonkey, Trump led Clinton by 19 points among voters who are currently enlisted or had previously served in the U.S. military.
When asked if he believed that race had anything to do with the support Trump was receiving from the military, SPC Guevara acknowledged that there is a racial divide as well as racism within the military. “The majority the people are white. I’m not saying all white people are all going for Trump but a lot of them follow him and defend him on everything. There is a lot of racism in the military.”
However, his superiors encouraged them to stay away from politics in an attempt to prevent future disputes. “In our unit they told to us to stay away from politics especially with everything that was going with the elections. This just started recently.”
He recalls one rare occasion where they openly discussed politics. “We did speak about it once and at least more than 50 percent of my platoon were definitely voting for Trump” “I’m not surprised, I’m not surprised. You see the racism. Even now it just feels weird it being a few Spanish people and the rest are all white. They usually hangout with themselves and talk to themselves and they leave us to the side, the Hispanics, the African-Americans.”
Still, he believes that rooming with his platoon, who at the beginning of their training were strangers with different points of views and different walks of life, became really close. “We were like brothers. We would talk about everything. We had no cellphones, no contact to the outside, all we had was ourselves.”
Today, SPC. Guevara finds himself just being Kevin Guevara, an aspiring nurse who, along with me, accidentally have been spectating a children’s soccer game. In those children he might recognize himself and his platoon; celebrating when winning and shouting words of encouragement when losing. Whatever result the election of 2016 has in store for him and his platoon, they’ll go together, even when divided. He affirms “I know what I signed up for. Everyone that signed up to be in the military knows that one day you could get called up.”
