A Tight Outfit

Not all military guys stick together. When there is a unit that does stick together, it's called a "tight outfit", or at least that's what we called it back in my day. Our outfit in Berlin wasn't very tight as a whole, but there were small cliques that tended to be tight, some more than others. Now that I think of it, the paper mill guys were the same way.

I think that many of those regiments in the Civil War were state militias that had been called up to national sevice, which is why they frequently had the name of a state in their title. There were also the "regulars", which were guys who joined or were drafted directly into the federal army. When the war was over, some of these units were disbanded, while others were reassigned. The militias, which were called the "National Guard" by then, played a lesser role in the two world wars, Korea, and Vietnam. Usually it was the regulars that went overseas, while the National Guard took care of things back on the home front. I'm not sure when I first noticed that they were sending NG units to the Middle East, but they probably were doing that before I noticed it.

During World War I or II, I forget which, seven Sullivan brothers were lost with the sinking of a single ship. One of them was injured and couldn't be moved, and the other six went down with the ship rather than abandoning their injured brother. Some time after that, it became military policy that brothers could not be assigned to the same unit. Other than that, guys were assigned in a more or less random fashion to various outfits. If two guys from the same neighborhood enlisted on the same day, they would probably go through basic training together. After that, they may or may not be sent to the same place, I don't think there was any kind of pattern  to it.

During World War II, new recruits were assembled into units in basic training, with experienced leadership assigned to each unit. After training, the whole unit shipped out together, including the leaders, and usually stayed together for the duration of the war. By the time of the Vietnam War, they weren't doing it that way anymore. Individuals were assigned to Vietnam for a "tour" of 13 months. When their tour was over, they were rotated out of there, usually back to the States. If they had some time left on their enlistment, they were reassigned. If not, they were discharged shortly after they got home. If a guy didn't have at least 13 months left on his enlistment, or his brother was already over there, he couldn't be sent to Vietnam.

I think I better understand your "pleasure cruisers" now. I agree that my "workers" would fit into that category. We usually think of work and pleasure as two different things, but it's certainly possible to derive pleasure from your work, whether it's a paying job or not. I disagree, however, that my workers don't think very deeply, well, some of them anyway. It's not necessary to sit cross legged on the ground contemplating your navel in order to have deep thoughts. As long as your job or other activity doesn't command your full attention, you can think about anything you want while you're doing it. Hunting, fishing, gardening, and driving a car on the open road are like that. Working in the woods with a chain saw, not so much.