What are your thoughts on mos's that don't deploy to "combat areas" without choice? What about referring to soldiers as "pogs"?

Through all the bluster, it is funny (to me) that Infantry Soldiers tend to complain the most about everything having to do with their MOS.  For example, they have to sleep outside in the elements, get shot at, hump ridiculous amounts of gear, don't get to shower often, don't sleep in beds, etc.  I simply smile and ask them if someone held a gun to their heads at MEPS when they chose their MOS.

They also make fun of everyone else who has access to a PX, yet (on deployments) when the Infantry guys roll into a major base, they beeline for the PX and clean it out like a plague of locusts.

I also ask them if Aviation Soldiers are POGs as well, when they come to extract their butts from a hot LZ.  You can almost hear the crickets.

Airborne types:  Yeah they call non-Airborne Soldiers "Legs."  The truth is, most Soldiers with Airborne wings on their uniforms have likely not jumped since Airborne School and have a whopping 5 jumps to their credit.  Whenever I hear the "Leg" moniker being used, I ask the Airborne trooper what he does once he hits the ground.  Yeah, they walk just like the rest of us.  Having known quite a few Airborne qualified people who actually have more than 5 jumps, I have been told that it is not IF you get injured, it is WHEN and how badly.  Eventually the jumping will catch up with you in the form of lower extremity and back problems.  So who comes out ahead in that respect?

I don't care who calls whom what.  I was a Corrections Officer prior to the Army, and have been called everything that there is out there, and those names were a lot worse than POG or LEG.  So bring it on.  I don't care.

I do what I do, and no one calling me names is going to change that.

Sticks & Stones...

Never heard the term POG until my kids went in the military. We were REMFs when I was in. I was good with that. In the rear with the gear, they used to say. I considered myself a dirty nasty leg grease monkey REMF. When those infantry boys needed their four deuce generators fixed I was all to happy to do it or the Mech Inf needed those engine packs in the 113s fixed we were johnny on the spot. Actually we fixed everything from coffee pots to wheel and track vehicles because we were a rolling shop.
As far as being deployed, the grunts were happy to see us coming. We were a contact team and usually carried extra cartons of cigs, candy, razors, and reading material from the px van. But then again that was a different time. We didn't have the wire or FOBs.

I have seen people get defensive about being called POGs but I think that's speaks to a deeper insecurity on their part. I am proud of my service. I pushed my kids to do more in the military and go farther. I do the same thing to my grandson. He wants to be a Ranger in the worst way. Because my Pop is Navy, my son and oldest daughter are Air Force and my baby daughter and I are Army, Holidays and family suppers can get pretty interesting.

Honestly I never viewed any hazing (if you could call it that) that I got in the military as anything other than team building.

As I read your post the only thing that jumps out at me is Hazing. Calling me a POG may or may not be right but it is not close to hazing. This is one of the issues I feel we have with the military. If someone says or does anything slightly offensive or hurtful it is considered hazing.

Now I am no infantry Soldiers so you can call me POG all day long. I am great at my job and without me you cant kick in doors. Call me anything you want. It is about being proud of who you are. The Combat arms guys call us POGs because they are proud of what they do and not all people can do it.

Would it be hazing if I stood around with a bunch of Soldiers talking about how civilians don't know how hard it is to be a Soldiers. Those civilians got it easy cause I fight for their freedom. If I use the word civilians in the same context as POGs am I hazing the civilian population. We as a military really need to get away from using words like 'hazing" and "toxic leader" as a catch all.