Volatile Environments of Men

By TJW

Tue, 14 Oct 2025
  • 434 reads
8 comments
 

A couple of klicks away from the FOB

    hot shower time

        time for reveille 

 

She’ll be standing there

    all five-foot-three

        standing under the

            rubber tree

 

Ficus elastica to be exact

    glossy and white and milky

        maybe her rapist felt

guilty

            for raping her

                under there

 

So close in approach

    the distance

         a cunt hair

                where 

 

She would salute with field manual care

but what did I see there?

    sagging tips of lips and eye

        lids low

 

Scuttle butt had it she was raped and I was

    not surprised because a female is fodder

        in a male soldier’s eyes

 

Call me a chauvinist a mysogynist

    Heaven forfend!

        Females in combat I will never defend

            in volatile environments

                of men

 

Certificate 18
Non-fiction

Comments

Submitted by GlosKat on

Hi JJ.  As this is tagged as 'Non-Fiction' I guess this is based on your real army experience.

I'm struggling a bit with the meaning of the last verse.  Are you saying that you think a female soldier in a combat zone is fair game to be raped - by her own side ?  And if that happened you wouldn't defend her ?

Please tell me I'm wrong.

 

Submitted by TJW on

or what?

Did you just give me an ultimatum?

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Not at all.

I just wanted to know if I had interpretted it correctly.

I could have worded it better, sorry,

 

Submitted by TJW on

You're not completely wrong.  Female soldiers are considered fair game, not by the whole battalion, but the consideration is there.  And that's why I will never defend females in combat.  It isn't safe for them.  I guarantee you that every female soldier raped in Afghanistan and Iraq was raped by an American male soldier.  She was considered fair game.  Would I stand by and let it happen?  No.  Are the rapists punished?  No.  Because the victims don't report it because they know nothing will be done.  Is it right?  No.  It is how it is.  I'm not saying they deserved being raped or asked for it.  But when females die of dehydration because they refuse to drink water because they're afraid of being ambushed at the latrines and they've been told of the risk . . . I just don't like females in combat. And I don't know if I've explained myself correctly or come off as a chauvinist prick.  I just won't defend females in combat.  

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

You don't come across as chauvinist, you come across as chivalrous. 

Thank you for explaining it so eloquently.  I understand what you're saying and I agree with you.

 

Submitted by TJW on

On behalf of the 2nd Armored BCT, 1st Cav Div,, US Army, I thank you for you.

 

Submitted by TJW on

I owe you an apology, KitKat.  Sometimes some words trigger me.  But that's not your fault and I had no right to take it out on you.  You simply asked for an explanation to a post.  

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Appreciate that JJ.  We're all good now.