Audio Recording Here
Full Transcript Here
Highlights and Excerpts from the Interview:
Why he Joined the Army:
Audio Section: Here
MA: “Yeah, so what made you change your mind? Or was it when your brother went into the military that you realized that that was something you wanted to do or had you always been interested in it, I mean, kind of seems like, living in Fairfax that you wouldn’t really get into that, but…”
Chaison: “Yeah, yeah, right, so, I think despite being a real anti-war, and you don’t need to be pro-war to be pro-military, you shouldn’t confuse that, but despite the anti-against this war, I had always been fascinated with the military, I always had military army toys when I was a kid. I’ve always loved guns and playing army, so um I think despite that I was still very interested in the military and just interested in the brotherhood, and on top of that I was interested in getting out of Marin and seeing more of the world and traveling, which is one of the great gifts that the army gave me, was the chance to travel and get paid for it. So I ended up being stationed in Germany, so I spent two years roughly in Germany, um, then I got to travel around Europe when I was there, [00:16:00] and partner with our NATO allies doing training, and after Germany I spent about a year in Afghanistan, um, and after Afghanistan I came back to Germany for about six months or so before I got out. But that ability to join the army and have this career and training and be getting paid and traveling was really rewarding for me, and on top of that, I mentioned brotherhood… you really get exposure to those different walks of life that people are coming from, who you’re working with that you just don’t get anywhere else. The army is such a melting pot, it’s a cross-section of America, so you have every kind of person that you’re working with, and it’s good for you, it’s good to interact with people from different backgrounds and different upbringings and different points of views, because if you spend all your time surrounded by someone else in Marin, you would be blind as a bat. It’s a big world out there.”
In this section of the interview, Dan is talking about why he chose to go into the military coming from Marin. He talks about how pro-war and pro-military are different things, and that he went to anti-war protest when he was a kid, but was always interesting in the military. Dan was interested in the brotherhood and the travel that comes with the Army, leading him to be able to experience “different walks of life” that he could not get in Marin. This clip is important because it explains why Dan went into the military and it also talks about the “Marin Bubble”. Dan wanted to experience new perspectives and he felt that the Army, which he described as a “melting pot”, allowed him to see these news ideas. This section of the interview captures Dan’s personality really well, showing how much he thought about his decision to join the Army and why he wanted to experience such a different environment from Marin county. This section is really important to the History of Marin, not only because Afghanistan veterans from Marin are not very common, but because it shows a perspective in Marin that understands that he lives in a “Bubble” and wants to learn about other cultures. Dan knows that only being exposed to one point of view can be really damaging. He wants to show that he felt that he had an opportunity to do what he wanted to do, which was travel and seek new perspectives, which in my opinion is very valuable in understanding why Dan joined the Army coming from Fairfax, a liberal and anti-war town. Overall, this section of the interview was extremely interesting to listen to because I had never thought about his reasons to join the military. I thought that people joined the military solely for patriotism, but Dan gave other reasons like travel and new perspectives. This interview helped me understand Dan as a person and was the reason why it is a featured clip on this website.
_________________________________________________________________________
Experience in Afghanistan:
Audio Section: Here
MA: When you guys were on the ground walking around, how were you generally received by the native Afghani people who weren’t the Taliban?
Chaison: Yeah, so that was actually my favorite part of being there, was just engaging the locals. Sometimes we would do what are called KLEs, key leader engagements, so that’s when you go to a village and you meet with the tribal leader or the village elder, usually someone of status who you can meet with and you can often just tell who they are, so you meet with these folks and sometimes they are very receptive, usually they act like whether it’s sincere or not like they were happy we were there, the ones that were unhappy with us were the ones who, maybe one of our strykers went through their farmland and messed up their crops. But typically they’d be, we would be received fairly well, and the Afghan people, they live a very simple life so we were in the Maiwand district of Kandahar, so this is place that is untouched by time, this is a place where people live in mud huts, they don’t have electricity, they get their water from wells, um, so this lifestyle they live today is no different from the lifestyle that their ancestors lived. These are very simple people. We met a guy who told us he was the happiest man in the world and we said “Why, what are you talking about?” And he said “Well, I have my home, and I have my family, and I have my farm, so what more could I possibly need?” It’s really powerful because it makes you think why do I need everything else if this is all he needs? It makes you, for me it made me appreciate where I came from – Marin – uh, because of all the luxuries that I had but also made me feel like, umm, our lives are too complicated, and you know, you could be just like that guy and be happy, you know. But, essentially I think we were well received by the people on the ground. I think that our work there was good in the short term, I don’t think the invasion or our presence there is good in the long term, but at the local level I think that we did good. I just think that the war in Afghanistan was poorly planned and it was planned without a political victory in the end. You can win a war militarily but if you don’t win it politically then you’ve lost because the political implications are long terms, the military implications are short term.”
In this section of the interview, Dan talks about how the Army was received by the native Afghani people. He says that his favorite part about being in Afghanistan was communicating with the native people there. Dan said that generally the Army was very well received and that the people were happy to see them. In middle of this section of the interview, Dan talks about a man that they met who said that he was the “happiest man in the world”, because he had a home, family and a farm. Dan then goes on to explain how that man made him really appreciate all the luxuries that he had and how fortunate he felt coming from Marin. At the end of the interview, Dan explains his thoughts on the war, and how he thought it was poorly planned because a war is only won with a political victory along with a physical victory. We chose this clip because it talked about Dan’s time in the Army in Afghanistan and gave a really personal story from his service. He also talks a lot about his political beliefs of the war that he was fighting in, which were very thoughtful. Dan believed that the army was helpful in the short term, but the motives for going in were rushed. It’s interesting to see that point of view from someone who was actually there and experiencing the war, because it makes his point of view very reputable and reliable. Overall, this section captured Dan’s time in Afghanistan, a personal story and his political beliefs, making it a perfect clip to include on the website. I think that this clip does a great job in showing Dan’s personality, because his beliefs are thoughtful and well argued, showing his high intellect.
_________________________________________________________________________
Thoughts on the “Marin Bubble”:
Audio Section: Here
MA: So in our class we’ve been exploring the idea of the Marin bubble, what does that mean to you and do you think it’s true?
Chaison: Yes, I think it’s true. Absolutely it’s true. Marin is a bubble in that you can’t sling a dead cat without hitting another liberal. Everyone there is very like-minded, which is great, you know I agree with those folks on a lot of things, but I think the issue is a lack of exposure to different ideas and different lifestyles. Traveling from Fairfax to Corte Madera, you’re not going to see much difference in the type of people you encounter, which is why I think traveling is really important. I think everyone should travel and I think every parent should take their kid to travel, and every kid should ask their parents if they can travel. I think traveling is the antidote to ignorance. But, yeah, like I said, Marin is a bubble and it’s a good bubble but it’s a bubble. At the end of the day, it’s still a bubble.
In this section of the interview, Dan discusses something that our Hidden Histories class has been talking about throughout the semester. Marin County is an incredible place full of success and wealth. However, as Dan explains, one must be able to recognize that it is a “bubble” – a bubble bursting full of liberals, wealth, and like-mindedness. Although the bubble is a generalization, it is based on the majority. While not everyone in Marin fits the characteristics of the bubble, the vast majority do. However, acknowledgement of the bubble’s existence is key. As Chaison describes, if you’ve only ever lived in Marin your whole life and don’t know what else is out in the world, you’ll think Marin is the norm, when in reality, Marin and places like it are unique and rare. Traveling allows one to gain perspective and learn that while Marin County is a great bubble to grow up in, at some point you have to leave in order to gain perspective. One cannot fight ignorance and gain perspective from inside a bubble. For some people such as Dan, joining the military can provide opportunities to see other places of the world that they never would have been able to see otherwise and get paid for it. All in all, Dan agrees with the statement that the Marin bubble exists and although has a generally positive tone when discussing his upbringing in Marin, he is firm to say that this bubble can be dangerous if not acknowledged.
History of Marin County Veterans of Iraq and Afganistan 