Socializing with the Soldiers

It depends on your rank, I suppose. As a young officer, you’re not that much older than your soldiers. You’re twenty and your soldiers are seventeen and eighteen so you tend to be interested in the same things and that sort of thing as you go up a bit and you don’t have the same interests so there isn’t the same connection. There is a camaraderie but it’s very controlled in a disciplined unit. It’s one thing to go and have a beer with the boys, sort of thing, but it’s always necessary to know when to stop and when not to be there because they may look as though they enjoy your presence, they probably don’t.