By M. JUNAID ALAM
http://www.counterpunch.org/junaid11072005.html
>...Alam: Turning personal for a moment: you've been very active in
the anti-war movement as a member of Military Families Speak Out, you
spent about 30 years in the Special Forces before you became a
socialist, and you have a son who served in the military Iraq. The
question sort of presents itself: how did the son of a Master
Sergeant-turned-Marxist end up joining the military?
Goff: My son grew up on a military installation. That was a good life, from his standpoint. Military installations are socialist societies. Everything on them is held in common, and almost every facility and support activity is available universally to all members of the armed forces. Good schools, health care, housing allowance or free housing, recreation facilities, and for inter-racial kids like my son, a whole population of kids like him. Inter-racial marriage is far more common in the Army than in US society generally. He saw me get a check twice a month, and I never had to worry about being fired.
His own child had just been born, and he was working at McDonalds. So he went to what he knew. Fort Bragg is where my kids have their most enduring sense of place. And Fort Bragg is a nice place. It is well kept, and it is not cluttered up with commercial billboards. There are all sorts of things to do--fishing, swimming, craft shops, gyms, theaters, libraries, walking trails, and so on.
I won't speak for him on the question of the war, because I do not have his permission to do that. But if he never had to go back to Iraq, I doubt he'd be calling for an appointment with mental health to deal with his disappointment. He's 22. He likes to fish and dance and play video games and hang out with his pizos. My kids are aggressively apolitical it's a separation thing, I suspect.