There were several times while I was in the Army that my ability to give a fuck dropped drastically. But one incident killed all my give-a-damn that was left in one blow.
About four months before getting out of the Army I'm stationed with a non-deploying, non-combat unit. We are instructed to drive eight hours, not in our own cars, but in a government van with bench seats, 15 of us, to go pick up three big ass boxes of combat gear each. Completely unnecessary. The kicker is that I will have to be returning it all in four months on top of all the shit the Army already gave me over the years. This is such a colossal waste of time that I'm already pissed.
On the way back we are talking about where to eat and there is a Waffle House nearby. Waffle House is my favorite place to eat in the world and this is actually on of the closest ones to where I live. I get everyone onboard to go to Waffle House exept one person. She bitches about not wanting roaches in her food. This girl has never been to the South and would later admit she's never even been in a Waffle House. She was basing that whine on prejudice and ended up convincing everyone to abandon the Waffle House idea. Where does she want to go instead? Bo-fucking-jangles.
So I'm super pissed at this point, particularly because she was literally the only one complaining and Bojangles is fucking gross. I've also got a pinched nerve in my back, the seat is started to get to me, and moving those big ass boxes hurt.
We get back home and I transfer my boxes to my car, then home, then upstairs to my apartment. The next day my back pain is getting worse and worse. Until eventually, at about 3pm the day after the trip I literally cannot walk. A few minutes later I can't stand. My entire body below the waste is paralyzed with sheer pain.
I ended up having to go to the civilian hospital where, for the first time in my life despite almost 8 years in the Army at that point and several serious injuries, I am finally prescribed a narcotic painkiller.
It was at that moment, after the pointlessness of that trip, me being robbed of the one thing that day I might have enjoyed, and then being paralyzed with some of the worst pain I could describe, my desire to contribute to the overall Army mission or ever do anything for those people was completely and utterly dead.