An Army of One

There once was a young man who wanted to serve his country. When he was of legal age, he joined the army and went off to boot camp. After finishing all of his training he was stationed at an army base in Germany. There he went about his day doing all of the things a soldier does, obeying the commands of the officers above him.

The young soldier, however, did not agree with the way the base was being run and with some of the things that they were required to do. He thought that he knew a better way and made suggestions to his superiors on how they should be doing things. He was reminded that he was in the army and that the army had a particular way it did things. Unable to be obedient to the oath he took when he enlisted, the young man decided to leave the army.

But the young man still wanted to serve the country he dearly loved, so he started his own militia. He modeled his militia after the army. It looked like the army. It did army things. It even used the army manual which the young man modified, removing the sections he did not agree with, and changing others to align with his personal opinion on how an army should work.

His militia attracted many people to it who wanted to serve as he did but believed that the army had gone astray and no longer served the purpose for which it was created. They believed themselves to be the true army.

And then, one day it happened. One of the men who had enlisted into the militia and was trained by the militia thought he knew a better way to run the militia. When he was told that this was the militia and that the militia had a particular way of doing things, he too, decided to set out on his own and start his own militia and run it according to his own option on what was right and true. This quickly became a trend as more and more people broke off to start their own militias based upon their own opinions on how best to serve the country. What started off as a few became hundreds, then thousands, and eventually tens of thousands.

The only thing that all of the militias can agree upon is that the army is wrong. Many believe the army to be the true enemy. Some have pulled so far away that their militia no longer resembles the army at all. On occasion, someone reads the actual army manual, the one without sections removed or pages changed, and begins to question why it is thought that the army is wrong. Seeking understanding of the truth, many leave their respective militias and join the army.

Disclaimer - This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Or is it?