219: Other People’s Battles: American Volunteer Soldiers

BackStory

History, Education

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

An estimated 200 American volunteer soldiers have joined the fight against the Islamic State. They’re part of a much longer tradition of freelance fighters, like early 19th century American privateers who fought in Latin America’s wars of independence and those who participated in the Spanish Civil War. On this episode, Ed, Brian and Joanne explore when and why Americans signed up to fight for other countries’ causes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Major funding for Backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
0:05.0	the University of Virginia, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,
0:09.0	and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
0:15.0	From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, this is Backstory.
0:24.0	Welcome to Backstory, the show that explains the history behind the headlines.
0:28.0	I'm Joanne Freeman.
0:29.0	I'm Brian Ballot, and I'm Ed Ayers.
0:31.0	I'd like to start the show today by introducing you to a former US Army combat engineer.
0:37.0	I'm Buck Clay and I'm 35.
0:40.0	Buck Clay spent 11 years in the Army.
0:42.0	He did tours of duty in Kosovo and Iraq.
0:45.0	After he left the military in 2011, Clay went to college.
0:49.0	Then he got a job helping customers and filling out orders at an electrical supply store in Ohio.
0:56.0	That wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he left the military and went back to school.
1:01.0	Yes, well, a four-year degree gets you these days.
1:04.0	Clay was bored and dissatisfied with civilian life in general.
1:09.0	Well, I think I saw those in the Army, but they were happy.
1:11.0	They were like, their whole dream was to go back home and get their house and work their boring job and do that type of stuff.
1:18.0	And the mean is just the most boring thing in the world.
1:22.0	It's almost like how long I was there to meet.
1:24.0	The thing about being stuck in a mortgage of a job that I hate acting like, that's the big pride.
1:29.0	That's the big achievement in life.
	...

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