LTC (USAF, RET.) ROB LEVINSON: What the US Military Owes Stan Lee.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, but in my heart of hearts I knew, if I could be anything, I wanted to be Spiderman, one of the X-Men, or the Hulk. Sure, it would be cool to have superpowers, but only if I could use them to help other people. While figuring out how to get bitten by a radioactive spider was pretty difficult, when I decided to join the U.S. military, it was because in the back of my mind I knew that it was the closest I could come to being a superhero. I would get training to fight noble battles defending the weak and the innocent, always on the side of righteousness. Of course, the world is more complicated than a comic book. Still, I can’t help but think that, deep down, so many of the guys I served with, and the kids serving today, are wannabe X-Men hoping that someday they’ll get uniforms as cool as theirs.

When I went off to the Air Force Academy, part of the attraction was all the exciting things I could learn to do there — skydiving, flying planes and gliders, scuba diving. The academy even had opportunities to go train with Navy SEALs and green berets in the summer. And Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape sounded awesome. If that wasn’t a school for superheroes, I don’t know what is.

Once I went out into the force, being an intelligence officer didn’t quite fit the superhero image on most days. But there were some moments. As a 2nd Lt. in 1988, I volunteered to stand watch in Panama, overseeing all U.S. base security forces e.g. MPs, in the country as tensions were running high with the dictator General Noriega. On the second or third night I was on duty, we got a radio call that a Special Forces team deployed in the jungle to document hostile activity was taking enemy fire. A green beret chief warrant officer much older than me, who was working the radios looked at me and asked “What do we do Sir?” At first, I thought he was talking to someone behind me. Then I asked, “Well Chief, what do you recommend?” He told me I could deploy our quick reaction force, known as the “Heavy Team.” I asked if I was allowed to do that, and he said “Sir, right now you are Joint Task Force Panama.” I honestly had no idea if I had the authority to deploy the Heavy Team. I was a 2nd Lt. Air Force intelligence officer and as far as I knew I might be starting a war. But I had American soldiers under fire, and they were asking me for help. I didn’t know what the rules of engagement were, and we couldn’t get ahold of anyone more senior than me to ask.

I didn’t know what I should do, but I sure as hell knew what Captain America or Spiderman would do when people were in danger.

You’ll want to read the whole thing.