A reminder that military service is always intense

Published September 26, 2026 5:05am ET



Military recruiters say a lot of things to convince people to enlist. Sometimes, a recruiter might downplay the danger of certain military jobs. This isn’t entirely dishonest. After all, in war, the infantry is generally in greater danger than a supply or legal clerk. When I first met my friend, retired Marine Col. Rick Brown — and then discovered he’d been a logistics officer, in charge of routing sufficient food, water, ammunition, and other necessities to their correct destinations — I thought there was no way he’d seen serious stuff in war. Like many recruits who believe their jobs will keep them far from war’s danger, I thought wrong.

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