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Originally Posted by Walking Dead
Sir, in light of your comments. I wonder why they are drawing a parallel between the political officers and our chaplains? Could this be because of the state's inacceptance of religion (denial of the usefulness of spiritual and moral counseling), or maybe they just did not understand the chaplains' role in the US military?
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More because that they're Chinese. Religion as a Divine Law was never part of the Chinese culture. The best that could be thought of is that the Heavens might give you permission to do something but you're on your own as doing the thing right as opposed to it is the right thing to do.
2ndly, these are also soldiers with a soldier's view of the battlefield. They cry just as much as we do when we lose people. I've got photos of PLA soldiers just breaking down in tears over the graves of his comrades years and decades after the war. You would not be able to tell the difference when compared to those who goes to the Vietnam Memorial everyday.
So, who do you turn to in those times of need and comfort. In our armies, it is the Chaplin. In theirs, it is the Political Officer.
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Originally Posted by Bluesman
One's a free-born patriot that is there because he wants to be; the other's probably a draftee.
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The PLAAF is a volunteer force but for most airmen, it is a job more than a career. Most are still supporting airplanes designed before they were borned. There is more than enough sense of pride in their top units, the late Commander Wang Wei is testament to that but when you're working on a MiG-21/J-7 that stayed on the ground more often than not and when they are in the air, they just circle the airfield, it's hard to be proud of that when you can do better on JANE's Flight Simulators.