Is it offensive to call service members brother and sister?

Look, this is ridiculous...We are a select few that volunteer to do our countries dirty work. We put on the uniform, go play in Afghanistan or Iraq knowing that we may not come home and the only people I can count on are the Soldiers on my left and right...yea, we are brothers and sisters and if it offensive to you, then you probably never deployed so you don't understand, but you are still my brother or sister.

I am absolutely fine with MAJ Michael Scharff calling me brother! lol

I've never been comfortable with calling anyone my brother or sister... but I've never taken offense by it since I understand the meaning behind it.. basically it's we're all in this together and we cannot chose our parents.

At some point the politically correct police will end the debate anyway... since its bound to be offensive to somebody.

hell freakin no when you were in iraq and afghanistan and someone got hit and the smoke cleared we were as close as brothers...our first casualty was a young lieutenant he actually got out of his guntruck and walked up to the ied and kicked it the Sfc told him to get back in the humvee he told him again sir get the fuck back in the humvee but the 22 year old had to do it and he lost his leg...our second casualty was our first on our wall of honor he lost his head when that happened most of our battalion just cried like they were in a shellshocked state
so we older and more experienced n.c.o talked with them and there was alot of manly brotherly hugging going around ................remember people............so now that we are back in our own comfort zones we forgot all that and now your challenging your inner feeling .................if you were in country or just in the uniform your my freakin brother and sister to me maurice scott pownall...........oohrah and hooah

I don't in anyway see referring to a fellow service member as a brother or sister as offensive. 1) It is a tradition. 2) The military as a whole is a "Family". We all work together to achieve a common goal. 3) There is, was, and probably always will be inter service rivalries. We knock each other, all in good fun. That is a fact, but heaven forbid a non-military member speak bad about any service. We all then stick up for each other, in the exact same way you would for a brother or sister. Just like brothers and sisters fight between each other, but when confronted by anyone else, you face them as a whole. So in that sense we ARE brothers and sisters and would die for each other just the same.

I saw a comment made earlier about those events at Ft Hood and how they were not our brothers. I believe that until they crossed that line they were still a family member. They stopped being part of our family when they became criminals and murdered our brothers and sisters. When referring to "Brothers and Sisters", it is obvious that we are not referring those who have intentionally harmed us. We are referring to those who we would proudly stand next to and those who would do the same for us.

I am so over the politically correct stuff. But I am old Army, when we wore black boots. I use Brother and/or Sister for those I served with. I do have several Brothers from another Mother.

Here you go

Is this really something you have encountered ( someone thinking it disrespectful?) or is it just a topic you came up with after seeing the other "is it offensive" posts?

I ask because if you have legitimately seen this mentality, it really makes me sad for our current military, that such a thing is even worth considering.