Excellent. I didn't join up in order to fight, I was a 16 yr old Junior Soldier and I joined up because since I was a kid it was always what I wanted to do. I served overseas and I left to join the Police Service and regretted it.
When I rejoined it was with the express intention of doing a tour.
Most of my customers are annual visits, and they knew that I was going, when I returned that question was relatively common, but only amongst men and predominantly those of my own age group.
Almost all kids play Army, all kids pretend to shoot people when they are playing, all kids pretend to be shot when playing.
Those guys who were kids of my generation watched cartoons and kids shows that portray heroic characters and they try to emulate them. In short, I feel that there is a part of most guys that that wished they had joined the military, because the whole thing was so exciting as children.
Now whilst they are aware as they grow older of the realities of war, I believe that there is still a morbid fascination with combat, everyone on this game is fascinated with combat of a certain form, whether it be in aeroplanes or tanks or shooting a guy with your .45.
We can pass it off as an interest in aviation, or of aircraft dynamics, air combat manouvers, but at the end of the day they are here trying to emulate the kind of fighting that they would have secretly liked to have been involved in.
Throughout the world there is a burgeoning market in computer games and role playing games, paintball, airsoft, all of which try to emulate combat in some fashion, all predominated by males, the majority of which are of my generation.
I quite honestly do not mind the guy asking the question, usually accompanied by a sheepish grin, but I feel a palpable and genuine embarrasment and choose to answer in some flippant, self effacing way and just bat it off.
