War Is H(Sw)ell

Earlier in the week, I came upon a biting LA Times critique of the Army Reserve’s latest recruitment tool.  The reporter discovered the slick DVD (called "Stand Ready: Being a Soldier in the Army Reserve") in an ad on the MTV website.  (How perfect is that?")

I tried diligently to find a clip of it to pull a few images for us to study, but I was unsuccessful.  Still, the hunt led to several other somewhat glossy, if not solely promotional, military sites.  One charted the efforts and exploits of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

With war having become America’s primary export, no wonder it continues to reflect ever greater levels of glamour and production value.  Take a look at this site and check out the photo gallery.  The aesthetic quality really took me by surprise.  Dovetailing the reaction to the Army video in the LAT piece, there is only one conclusion to draw:  War is a model career.

(image 1: Chief Photographer’s Mate John S. Stadelman. TASMAN SEA. June 10, 2005. U.S. 7th Fleet. image 2: Corporal Bernard Pearson/Australian Army. Shoalwater Bay, Australia June 10, 2005. U.S. 7th Fleet. image 3: Corporal Bernard Pearson/Australian Army. Shoalwater Bay, Australia June 24, 2005. U.S. 7th Fleet.)