Back when I was on active duty reporters would come out to the aircraft carrier and ride with us for several days at a time. Some were ok but most had an anti military chip on their shoulders as big as Texas. If they treated us well we would show them the ship and aircraft and tell them as much as we could about the missions and capabilities of the various units and try to help them understand the culture of the military. If they were jerks we would lead them astray and fill them with so much BS that by the time they left they knew less than when they arrived. Now, whenever I hear some laughably outrageous comment from a reporter about the military I assume some mischievous junior officers have been having fun at their expense.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.